Ted Lasso

Thank you for coming. How have you been?

Good. Happy to be here.

- Lovely. Ready to roll? - Yes.

You're listening to Through the Laces with Trent Crimm

presented by our friends at Grady Locks: Hair care for the silver fox.

Use code "Trenty-twenty" to get 20% off your first order.

Yes, yes, yes. I'm here with Dr. Sharon Fieldstone,

professor of sports psychology at Loughborough University.

And she's here to talk about her new book,

Unlocking the I in Team: The Psychology Behind Team Building.

- Dr. Fieldstone. - Mr. Crimm.

Sharon, it's good to have you here.

I'd like to start with a phrase that you return to several times in your book,

"Lose the dressing room, lose the team."

I actually invoke that same phrase in my book, The Richmond Way ,

out now in paperback.

- I haven't read your book. - Okay.

I'll send you home with a signed copy.

Anyway, "Lose the dressing room, lose the team."

Could you expand on that for us, please?

Successful teams are happy teams, and happy teams have coaches

that establish a culture of communication and trust.

The majority of that work happens in the dressing room.

What do you think's going on in there?

They're probably showering and getting dressed.

Uh-huh. Yeah. No, that's true.

I gotta say, Coach,

I don't like not being able to walk into a ladies' locker room

whenever I feel like it.

And that's something you should never say out loud again.

Yeah, I felt that the second after

I heard the word "ladies" come spitting out my mouth.

Yikes. That sounded worse than the last one.

- Yeah, man. - I just mean,

I used to be able to walk into any part of this building.

And I don't love being made to feel like I'm now violating the lady parts.

What the heck is going on with me?

- You okay, Coach? - I don't know.

Oh, thank God.

Sorry, Boots wanted to shower right away to wash the blood off her hands,

and then she took forever to air dry.

Hey, hey, hey, congrats on the win, y'all!

All right. Now this means that we are still undefeated after four matches.

- With only two wins. - And two draws against lesser teams.

Yeah, but undefeated is undefeated.

But I appreciate that aspect of y'all's personality.

But great defense today.

Let's give it up for Lizzie and the twins helping Boots

get her first clean sheet of the season.

And, hey, what about Gemma and that killer header for the win, huh?

Go, Gemma. Go, Gemma. Go, Gemma.

Sorry, I'm a little hard of hearing ever since I went to the Eras Tour

and sat next to a group of overzealous girl dads.

Come on. Give it up for Gemma.

Yeah, let's make their heads even bigger.

And how about our midfielders

giving their all out there, yeah.

Okay, hey, thank you all for your effort.

And we'll see each and every one of you on Monday fun day.

Great.

Why does it keep doing that?

Okay. Look, I don't know what's going on in there,

- but it's a problem. - It's a big problem.

It's cliques.

- You never had cliques in the men's team? - Not really.

- No, we had factions. - You know, posses, maybe.

Yeah, that's the same thing. Those are cliques.

Oh, okay. All right.

How do you think these cliques are divided though?

Well, it looks to me like it's currently by attackers, defenders,

and midfielders, but that can change out of nowhere.

Makes sense. Attackers think defenders are cautious and lack creativity.

And defenders think attackers are opportunistic and lack discipline.

Meanwhile midfielders are the people-pleasers caught in the middle.

- Exactly. - Okay, wait, slow down.

Just explain that to me again, please.

Let me break it down in one of your little stories you love so much.

So the three cliques

are like the three main characters in Harry Potter .

- Ouch. - Coach already knows this,

but Harry Potter is one of my blind spots.

Mate, you don't know Harry Potter ?

My little boy got into Percy Jackson , and we never looked back.

It's okay. I'll translate. Carry on with your wizarding jag.

So the attackers are like the character Harry Potter.

Who's like Ferris Bueller.

'Cause they create exciting moments, but can be a little selfish at times?

- Boom. - Your defenders are like Ron Weasley.

Who's a total Cameron Frye.

'Cause they're protective and loyal, but they also skew anxious and risk-avoidant.

And then the midfielders are like Hermione Granger.

The great Sloane Peterson.

'Cause they are logical and seek balance and despite their quiet leadership

can feel underserved by the narrative at times.

Okay, got it. Wonderful.

Hey, just out of curiosity,

amongst the three of us who do y'all think is the attacker?

And who's the defender?

And who's a midfielder?

Interesting. Okay. All right. So this is good.

We don't have a problem. We just got cliques.

- Yes, but... - Cliques are a huge problem.

I'm so glad we're here.

It's really quite inspiring, isn't it?

- Yes, a mere £2,000 a head... - Yeah.

...to have lunch with the same people

you'd never voluntarily choose to spend time with.

Good afternoon.

It is my sincere pleasure to introduce our keynote speaker.

She is managing partner at Scorpio Sports,

which is one of the first major funds to invest exclusively

in women's professional athletics.

She is also my dear friend.

Ladies and gentlemen, Zelda Southport.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Hugo. Thank you.

You know, it's a shame that the repercussions of the patriarchy

stopped men from wearing bronzer.

Wow. You all look like ghosts in this light.

Not you, Hugo. You just look dead.

Hello, you very important people.

Your money keeps women's football in England afloat. Bravo.

Bravo. Bravo. But...

I wonder what would happen if you actually cared about women's football,

beyond the great press and the occasional reputation-laundering, you know?

Hugo, Hugo, by the way, how's the corruption case going?

Huh?

Yeah, I hope that those prats at Interpol

come down from their high horses, don't you?

But back to you pale, chinless wonders.

I'm just wondering what it would be like if you actually went to the women's games?

If you knew their names,

and yeah, not just the cute little blonde ones,

but if you put your fucking hearts where your fake allyship currently is.

Well, if you're interested in what I have to say, I will be at the bar.

But if you're not interested, then could you just order your drinks at the table,

because I just hate waiting in lines.

See ya.

Yes!

We'll break early for lunch.

- Come on. - Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing?

We have to talk to her. The whole point in us being here

is to talk to people who have done what we're trying to do.

Right. I've spent far too much time with rich, angry women.

- I mean, I used to be one. - Rebecca, please.

Please, please, please, please.

- Fine. Yeah. Okay. - Come on.

Excuse us.

- Now. - Yes.

Ms. Southport, hi. This is Rebecca Welton.

- She owns AFC Richmond Women's. - Hello.

And I'm Keeley Jones, CMO.

We really loved your speech.

- Oh, thank you. - Yeah.

Yeah, I remember reading about your divorce and thinking,

"That woman's ex is nearly as fucked-up as mine."

Well...

we don't need to be defined by our exes.

I don't mind being defined by mine, 'cause I invented the banana clip.

And my back-then much more business-savvy ex,

he patented it in his own name,

divorces me,

and then he made millions.

And that really pissed me off, so I invented the claw clip.

Yeah. Have you got a claw?

- I do. Right here. - She's got a claw.

- Yeah. - Everyone's got a claw.

And now nobody gives a shit about the banana clip, do they?

- No. - Nope.

So never underestimate the power of anger as fuel.

Right?

So I assume you want my advice

- about your women's football team, yeah? - Yeah.

Let me know if you want to set up a meeting.

Absolutely. What are you doing right after this?

Easy, tiger. I'll have my office call you.

- Yeah. - All right, that sounds good.

Okay.

Hugo, you really do look terrible.

- Do you think she'd sign my clip? - Possibly.

Now, when I think of cliques,

I think of teenage girls and not professional athletes.

Well, in my experience, professional athletes and teenage girls

can act, at times, quite similar,

but cliques are just a way to find a community in a stressful environment.

Would you look at that.

They're all playing together pretty well, if you ask me.

All right, y'all, five-minute water break. Let's go.

See, sometimes you got to let these things heal themselves on their own.

To quote Rachel Carson,

"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature."

Exactly. Nature should be healing itself.

Like, when a worm loses its tail it'll just grow another one.

That's right.

- But isn't a worm all tail? - That's a good question.

Yeah, footballers are not worms.

And we met this badass woman, Zelda Southport.

She bankrolls all these women's teams across the world.

She has two football teams in Europe,

a WNBA, a professional ice hockey team, rugby.

And she is financing the West End run of all-female Glengarry Glen Ross .