Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Raise Your Game: How do you motivate the players when it's cold and wet?

Terry Burton: You've got to make sure that the activity you put on is fun to make them want to do it. If you went out there and tried to keep them standing around just talking to them you might have a chance of losing them and their motivation. When it is cold and wet, the session needs to be one that inspires them. And within that, you try to cajole them to do their best.

RYG: Are setting goals and having targets really important?

TB: I think it is. They come in all different disguises. I mean we set ourselves goals when we get up in the morning - many people do, some people just drift around. I think you have to have an aim in life and you have to work towards that aim. And along the way, if you can break it down into little bits of success I think it keeps you going.

If you've never played football and you think 'By next week I want to be captain of England,' well, you're going to be bitterly disappointed! But if you think to yourself that you'll go to a football club and find somewhere to train and practise regularly, you'll enjoy the process along the way to hopefully reaching your goal.

RYG: What are your goals for Cardiff City?

TB: Our aims are to win as many matches as we possibly can, to make sure the performances are of a standard we expect. If that happens then we won't be too far short and there won't be too many disappointed people.

RYG: Can you think of any players in particular who stand out as having raised their game?

TB: There have certainly been players along the way who have come from nothing to be top players. Stuart Pearce (manager of Manchester City) is an example.

Stuart didn't start off with the normal route to a football club - which is going to their academy and being a scholar, or as it probably was in his day, an apprentice. He went non-league, he had a job, and has worked very hard at his game. He got picked up at Wealdstone, went to a pro club, and obviously the story goes on from there.

There are others who go into a football club at the age of 12, become David Beckham at the end of it and come out the other end. So it happens both ways.

It certainly shouldn't quell anyone's enthusiasm if they haven't made it yet at the age of 16/17. There are lots of players who come through another route into top class football.

RYG: Have you got any advice for people who want to get into professional football?

TB: First of all they've got to be playing, in as high a standard as they possibly can. We often get letters in from young people saying that they're a very good player but they're not playing for a football club! They need to be playing. Keep practising, keep believing. More times than not, if you are good enough then the opportunity arises, but you've got to be out there playing for that to happen.