The morning starts with George jumping into bed with us and grabbing my phone to check the BBC Sports website. We doze until Grace comes in about 45 minutes later, then it’s downstairs for breakfast. On the weekends, we let them have a chocolate brioche but there’s a smoothie and some bran flakes too so they’re set up for their activities. We’re lucky the kids are happy to have a good, healthy start to the day.
I coach George’s under-10s football team, so we jump in the car for a 30-minute drive together. We put on his Alex Warren playlist and I’ll bore him with some coaching chat even though he doesn’t need it. We train for an hour on Tuesdays and two hours every Saturday morning. It adds a lot of time to my week, but I don’t mind – as George gets older, it’s another way for me to have time with him. Rather than being 30 metres away in the stands watching him play, I’m there, getting to experience it with him. George plays a lot of football and I’ve seen how some coaches make it pressurised – at grassroots level, you see loads of shouting. I’m really focused on it being enjoyable because I want George to be a 40-year-old bloke still loving his football one day. I’ve always wanted to do the teaching thing and I like being around the lads, having fun and seeing them grow as a little team. I’ve always had a rule that all the kids have the same amount of game time, even when it’s lost us matches.
