By Angus Crombie

Marc is Sir Alex

On the first day of collage when Marc was speaking in town hall introducing us to the course I noticed a a piece  psychology that reminded me of a technique I had read about used by Man Utd’s former manager, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Famously at the beginning of the 1993/94 season Ferguson showed his squad a small envelope, with seemingly five names enclosed inside and told his players that he has five names written down of possible big time Charlie’s, who will get complacent, only to be opened if the success of the previous season was not repeated.

A masterstroke of sports psychology, resulting in them winning the double.

Similarly Marc announced to the class on September 8th that 5% of us wouldn’t do all the things needed to be successful, he then pointed a five pound note which is mounted on the wall (a motivating reminder) and pronounced that it was there for the bet he makes with his fellow mentors on which students would achieve the most and which would achieve the least this year a bet he placed every year and that he “always won”’ as I looked around at a class full of people I barely even knew the names of I could instantly read from their expression that it had triggered a mental response, it had challenged all of us not to be that 5% and to prove him wrong if we were the ones he had placed his stakes upon.

As history has told, the contents of Sir Alex’s envelop were irrelevant as they were never seen, I suspect that they never existed and that if united hadn’t won the double Sir Alex would of simply written down the names of the under performers there and then, they were only ever needed on that first day of the season like the five pound note on the first day of term as the motivation for us to prove him wrong which is one of the biggest desire for anyone, helped by a little extra ‘Hair dyring’ along the way.

tbc.