10 bizarre motivational techniques managers have used: From car factory adventures to pizza nights and letters

Football managers are often coming up with weird and wonderful ways in an attempt to motivate their squads and improve performances from certain individuals.

But as details emerged during pre-season ahead of the 2024/25 campaign that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had hired professional pickpockets to steathily steal phones and wallets from his players during dinner, in an attempt to teach them about staying alert and prepared at all times, it got FourFourTwo thinking.

What other bizarre methods and techniques have managers used to try and motivate their team? We take a look at 10 of the weirdest below...

1. David Moyes

After picking up just two points in the club’s first 10 matches in 2016, David Moyes took his Sunderland charges to the local Nissan factory to try and reconnect with the fanbase.

“It is important that players see what success looks like, in a work sense,” insisted the Scot whose team had made the worst start to any Premier League season.

“I tell you what, some of us might be looking for a job in that Nissan factory soon,” joked Moyes. He wasn’t wrong, you know. Moyes resigned at the end of the season as the Black Cats were relegated with four matches remaining. No car wow there.

2. Brendan Rodgers

In the ill-advised documentary of his first year in charge at Anfield, Brendan Rodgers challenged the squad by suggesting that he had written the names of three players who would let the side down in 2012/13.

Yes, it’s an old trick and ‘Being Liverpool’s’ version was delivered with all the elan of a dubious second-hand car salesman. Rodgers later revealed that there was nothing in the three envelopes.

Glen Johnson already knew though. He had seen Rodger’s former superior Jose Mourinho deliver a similar stunt at Chelsea. 'Keeper Brad Jones claimed he could see the light hit through the letters and it was obvious the inside was blank.

3. Sam Allardyce

Big Sam had already let us know he could win the league and the double every time if he was manager of Real Madrid. A couple of months later – in the absence of a phone call from the Bernabeu - he prepared his worthy Blackburn warriors for the visit to Old Trafford.

As the visitors dusted themselves down for a likely mauling, Allardyce got into the spirit by putting on a reel of highlights from Russell Crowe’s epic “Gladiator” and “300” starring the equally well-stocked Scottish six-pack Gerard Butler. The team lost 7-1 and Big Sam apologised to the fans. 

At least his mate Sir Alex was there for a pint of wine afterwards. Maybe.

4. Claudio Ranieri

After they started the 2015/16 season by conceding 17 goals in nine matches, Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri promised his team that they would be rewarded for clean sheets by offering a pizza night.

Leicester duly picked up their first of the season in a 1-0 win over the Eagles, but Ranieri didn’t deliver the Italian crusts. It was the metaphor that was important as he took them out to make their own in the local. The message was that they had to earn their crust. Literally.

It was the “Dilly Ding, Dilly Dong” wake-up call needed. Fourteen more shutouts followed as the Foxes stormed to the Premier League title.

5. Rene Meulensteen

Former Manchester United and Fulham coach Rene Meulensteen delivered a literally roaring speech before a UEFA Cup first-leg match against Eintracht Frankfurt in 2006 when he was at Brondby. 

The Dutchman told captain, Per Nielsen: "OK, Per, what animal are you today?" Nielsen suggested a snake. There then followed a team talk about the need for giraffes, tigers and foxes to take the opposition down in the jungle out there. 

Unfortunately, Brondby lost 4-0 and ended the match with nine men. Or animals.

6. Glenn Hoddle

Glenn Hoddle asked his backroom team to walk around the pitch anti-clockwise during the dramatic World Cup '98 knockout match against Argentina to create positive energy.

Gary Neville explained: "Before the game, Glenn did his usual pre-match routine of moving around the players, shaking their hands and touching them just over the heart. We'll never know if the methods had any positive effect.”

Unfortunately, this energy didn’t extend to penalty shootouts where England lost yet again. Where was Gareth? He’s good at these things now.

7. Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer’s appearance in non-League Blyth Spartans’ dressing room before their 2014 Second Round FA Cup tie against League Two Hartlepool caused rival pundit Jeff Stelling to fall off his one-eyed perch. 

Sky front man and ‘Pool fan Stelling stormed that “it was completely unacceptable to have Alan Shearer in the Blyth Spartans dressing room” before the game predicting that one of them will be the hero.

Shearer, who had a mighty eight games of managerial “experience under his belt joked: “Are you sure you want me? We all know what happened at Newcastle”. The England legend must have done something right though as the Green Army won 2-1

8. Antonio Conte

Antonio Conte had a dream start to his Chelsea tenure in 2016/17, claiming the title with 30 wins. He went on to explain how he liked to create the tension in the team at just the right pressure in “sometimes a good way. Sometimes a bad way.”

It all went bad the following season as Conte’s infectious debut turned to infection. Tension was everywhere. He pinged an ‘arrivederci and out’ message to Diego Costa, who had scored 20 goals the previous campaign, and the Godfather sulked himself and the club out of the Champions League places. 

Even that very nice man Willian had nothing nice to say. “I hope (Sarri) is not like Conte,” mused the Brazilian...

9. Maurizio Sarri

Willian needn’t have worried. The Italian chain smoker didn’t even bother trying to whip up the players. After a 2-0 defeat by Arsenal in 2019, the former Napoli boss moaned: “The fact of the matter is it appears this group of players are extremely difficult to motivate. When you see this kind of game, when one team is quite obviously more determined than the other, you can’t really talk about tactics.” 

After another 4-0 shellacking by Bournemouth, Sarri admitted he wasn’t able to move the dial. “The team is very strong, it is also able to win without the coach.” 

Oh yes. Those were the days when silverware landed at Stamford Bridge while the revolving doors were on full power.

10. Sir Alex Ferguson

For a man who used to send Aberdeen players into the North Sea if they fell out with him, Fergie mellowed somewhat over the years. “You were too scared to be injured”, Gordon Strachan said in one interview, otherwise it would be in with the oil rigs. That’s a motivation of sorts.

The hairdryer treatment blew hard over some but didn’t cause a spark over the protected who were central to the art of winning. Eric Cantona was one of them. At one film premiere, the team were specifically told to wear black ties. 

“Eric turned up in a cream lemon suit and Nike trainers. The manager told him he looked fantastic,” Andy Cole recalled.