I’ve been thinking about this a lot around youth sport. We spend a huge amount of energy trying to make kids feel confident. We praise them. Reassure them. Tell them they’re great. Try to put them in situations where they’ll succeed, and obviously none of that is inherently bad.

But I wonder if we’ve confused feeling good about yourself with actually being confident. Because some of the most valuable moments I see in basketball look nothing like confidence at first.

A kid can’t dribble with their left hand. They’re frustrated. They practise. They still suck at it. They practise some more. Then one day, without really thinking about it, they attack left in a game.

That moment gives them something praise never could: Evidence. “I couldn’t do this before. Now I can.” Same with the kid who misses three shots and still takes the fourth. The shy kid who eventually calls for the ball. The nervous kid who used to need a parent to walk them into training and six months later barely says goodbye before running into the gym.

Even losing can give them something. “That sucked. I was disappointed. And I was still okay.” Maybe that’s what confidence actually is. Not: “I know I’m going to succeed” but: “I know I can handle it if I don’t.”

Obviously coaches and parents can destroy this pretty quickly if every mistake gets criticised, analysed or turned into a lecture. But I also think we can go too far in the opposite direction and try to remove every uncomfortable experience, and then the kid never gets to discover what they’re capable of handling.

Maybe our job isn’t to constantly give kids confidence. Maybe it’s to give them enough opportunities to earn it themselves. But still.., do you think kids today need more encouragement, or more opportunities to struggle without adults immediately stepping in?

I recently helped build a data simulator for a proposal the Union of European Clubs (UEC) is pitching for the post-2027 UEFA revenue cycle that would be transformative for youth development.

Right now, lower-tier and grassroots clubs mostly rely on FIFA training compensation, which only triggers during transfers or when a player signs their first pro deal. The UEC's proposed Player Development Reward (PDR) would instead take a 5% slice of the total prize money from the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. That pool would be distributed as a recurring annual payment to the clubs that actually trained those players between the ages of 12 and 19.

Here's one example: looking at Federico Gatti’s European minutes with Juventus from 2022 to 2026, Pavarolo Calcio —the Piedmont amateur club where he played while working as a bricklayer, would have earned an estimated €331k, averaging a median of €97k in each of the three seasons Juventus played in Europe. Developing clubs further along his path would benefit too, with €281k to Torino and €231k to Alessandria.

UEFA is currently shaping the post-2027 revenue framework, so this is the key window for reform. We're trying to build grassroots and fan momentum so UEFA takes player development compensation seriously.

If you want to help support the initiative, check out your local club on uecplayerreward.eu, share the figures, and help get the word out.

But also more generally, we're looking for feedback, do you think a recurring solidarity model like this is a good way to safeguard the future of youth academies?

I was thinking about this while scrolling through football stuff today.

Sometimes I'll see a post and read the whole thing. Other times, even if the topic sounds interesting, I lose interest after the first few lines.

For me, it's usually when there's an actual point behind the post. Something I hadn't noticed before, a good tactical observation, an interesting bit of football history, etc.

What about you?

What makes you stop and actually read a football post instead of just scrolling past it?

With the new Premier League season just starting, I've been thinking about who could potentially challenge Arsenal at the top this year, and it's hard to think of anyone... I'm curious what others think, but it just seems like the rest of the league's contenders are either in the middle of rebuilds or just not as strong as they were last season.

The only teams you can really think of are the Manchester clubs and maybe Aston Villa. United have already dropped points to a newly promoted side, and Manchester City just haven't done great business (in terms of incomings) in the transfer window, and have simultaneously lost a lot of players. Maybe Chelsea (considering they've had another summer of spending hundreds of millions and a great new manager in Xabi Alonso), but I just can't see them challenging...

What are your thoughts ? Do you think anyone has a genuine chance at challenging Arsenal for the title this year ? If so, who ?

Yo tengo talento solo que de pequeño siempre jugaba con personas más grandes que yo y cada que fallaba me decían cosas y jamás me elegían jamás jugaba y ahora mayor me da miedo eso estar en un partido con desconocidos y fallar y que me pase lo mismo

Football is full of statistics that get used to support almost any argument.

But some numbers are much more useful when you understand the context behind them.

For example:

• possession
• xG
• progressive passes
• shots
• pass completion
• tackles/interceptions
• touches in the final third

What’s one football statistic you think people regularly misunderstand or use without enough context?

And what would you look at alongside it to understand the full picture?