Chelsea have hired the mental skills coach behind the All Blacks’ rugby union team’s “no-d—heads” policy to help create the one thing Todd Boehly’s money can’t buy: a winning culture.
Gilbert Enoka, who has been the All Blacks manager for leadership for the past seven years after spending 15 years as the team’s mental skills coach, is due to start what is described as being a short-term consultancy role with Chelsea.
Enoka is regarded as a highly significant influence on the All Blacks over more than two decades, particularly as New Zealand’s dominance of Test rugby union reached its peak with back-to-back World Cup victories in 2011 and 2015.
Helping players to deal with suffocating expectation, notably at a home World Cup in 2011, was among his chief responsibilities in the former position. New Zealand triumphed in that tournament four years after being knocked out by France in the 2007 quarter-final, a game that was seen to epitomise their tendency to “choke” under pressure given their performances in the 2005 British and Irish Lions series.
Rugby is not the only sport Enoka has worked in, as the former PE teacher also spent six years as a mental skills coach with the New Zealand cricket team and three years with the Silver Ferns netball team.
But working with Chelsea will be Enoka’s first foray into football, with the remit to help the club develop a new, world-class culture under the Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership.
Boehly and his Clearlake co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali have spent over £600 million on new signings across two transfer windows and hired a new recruitment team.
Head coach Graham Potter’s bloated squad is bursting with different personalities and egos, and there is an acknowledgement that Chelsea’s expensive new signings could flop under the weight of expectation if the right culture is not created.
That is the area Enoka has been hired to help with, and the 57-year-old will stress the importance of the team over the individual at a time when Potter has been left with the unenviable task of trying to help all of his new players settle in, while trying to make sure existing squad members do not become disillusioned.
Successive managers and head coaches have questioned the mental fortitude of the Chelsea squad since the club last won the Premier League title in 2017.
‘A d—head makes everything about them’
Enoka developed a culture of each member of the squad taking responsibility for their actions with the All Blacks and players taking turns in sweeping the changing rooms clean after games. When aberrations occurred, such as Aaron Cruden’s missed flight, a player is answerable to his team-mates rather than the coaches.
The coach himself can also get pulled up by the players, as outlined by Enoka when describing the the definition of d—heads as “people putting themselves ahead of the team, people who think they’re entitled to things or expect the rules to be different for them, people operating deceitfully in the dark, or being unnecessarily loud about their work.”
He added: “The management might not spot these counterproductive behaviours. The players and leaders themselves should call others out for their inflated egos.
“Our coach Steve Hansen, a brilliant man, once came into a team meeting a few minutes late. As he walked in, one of the senior players stood up and said, ‘Coach, you can’t be late. Not again, please.’ So it’s actually the team monitoring this behaviour.
“A d—head makes everything about them. Often teams put up with it because a player has so much talent. We look for early warning signs and wean the big egos out pretty quickly. Our motto is, if you can’t change the people, change the people.”
Potter made his first big squad call last week by dropping Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Chelsea’s Champions League squad and choosing Enzo Fernandez, Mykhaylo Mudryk and on-loan Joao Felix as the three January signings to add to it, meaning Benoit Badiashile and Noni Madueke missed out.
Reports have claimed that MLS club Los Angeles FC are interested in signing Aubameyang immediately, while it is believed Barcelona, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid are considering summer moves.
Chelsea have previously worked with performance coach Owen Eastwood, a New Zealander who was hired as a consultant to the England football team and has worked with Gareth Southgate’s side since 2017.
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