Coach Kicks: Paul Brownlie

Paul Brownlie, high performance football manager at the Scottish FA’s Girls and Women’s National Performance Centre, describes running a programme of seventeen players who train four times a week in ninety-minute technical sessions starting at 7am, each tailored to the individual, with a sports scientist, goalkeeping coach and physiotherapist on staff. He picks out Chloe Arthur, whom he signed for Celtic at twelve and who needed to believe in herself before progressing through the Scotland age groups to the senior squad and full-time football in England, as the player who made the biggest impression. He recalls travelling to sessions by bus around Glasgow with the equipment before he could drive, and preaches attention to detail.