Paul McVeigh does not talk like a man who has left football behind. He talks like someone who has been quietly dissecting it for three decades.
Long before mindset became a buzzword in dressing rooms, McVeigh was reading psychology books as a teenager and wondering why so few footballers did the same. “It was the single biggest driving force in my own career,” he says. “Whenever I realised that it wasn’t just about the technical or physicality of being an athlete, that kind of saw me through my entire career.”
McVeigh Enjoyed a Successful Playing Career
Paul McVeigh in action for Norwich City
McVeigh went on to play for Tottenham, Norwich City, Burnley & Luton. He also became one of, if not the first, to go and get a master’s in psychology while still playing in the Premier League. That curiosity now underpins his second career as a performance psychologist and speaker, and his new book, It’s Not About You: The Psychology of Leadership.
The title is not accidental. McVeigh interviewed 20 elite performers from sport, business and the military, including a US Navy SEAL from Team 6, Olympic champions and senior executives. What struck him was how little ego featured in their answers. “Every single person that we spoke to, the thread that came through every single time was always about how can they help their team that they’re working in,” he says. “It never seemed about the individual who was leading the team.”
Football, he believes, has traditionally lagged behind that thinking. McVeigh grew up in an era shaped by discipline and hierarchy. “One of my former managers was George Graham,” he says. “There wasn’t a lot of leeway or tolerance, it was do it like his way or you’re out.”
Things have shifted, he acknowledges. “Once you get the modern managers like the Eddie Howes and the Graham Potters, it definitely felt like it was more of a collaboration and utilising the strengths of the team,” he says. “I definitely feel like it has progressed but I feel like there’s a lot further to go.”
Paul McVeigh's book
For McVeigh, the reason is simple. Football still underestimates psychology. He describes elite performance as four interlinked elements technical, physical, social and psychological. At the highest level, three of those are essentially equal. “Once you realise at that level of performance they’re all technically excellent, they’re all physically amazing,” he says. “What is then the differential on a game by game or week by week basis, and it always seems to be in that top right psychology corner.”
Yet that is the area players and organisations spend the least time developing. “Most people would put the heaviest weighting into the technical ability to do your job,” he says. “How much time are you spending on developing the psychology or the psychological aspect of doing your job? Most people are like zero or, you know, a tiny amount.”
That gap, McVeigh argues, is where careers are made or unravelled, especially under scrutiny. At the highest level, the volume of noise surrounding elite footballers can be relentless, with opinion arriving from all directions. How players respond to that environment, he says, often matters more than the criticism itself.
His response was to switch off. “When I was a player, I didn’t actually read the papers,” he says. “Ultimately, I have to decide what meaning I give to that.” Feedback, he felt, should come from teammates and coaches, not noise. “Who knows about professional football? I’m going to listen to my teammates and manager more than the fans or journalists.”
Harry Maguire Deserves More Respect
Harry Maguire celebrating scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup for Manchester United
That idea, that opinion only has power if you grant it meaning, is one McVeigh returns to repeatedly when discussing modern players. Asked about Harry Maguire, he becomes animated. “He’s such a great example because he never gets any credit,” McVeigh says.
The defender’s career, he argues, has been reduced to caricature. “Do you know how hard it is to do what Harry Maguire’s done in his career?” he asks. “Euro finals, World Cup semi finals, hundreds of Premier League games.”
Comparison, McVeigh believes, is the trap. “Is he Rio Ferdinand? No,” he says. “Is he still a very, very, very good defender? Still playing at the highest level at the biggest club in the world. Yes.”
What earns his respect most is Maguire’s response to relentless criticism. “He constantly gets battered left, right and centre,” McVeigh says. “And yet every time he’s called upon, he always steps up and produces.”
It is proof, McVeigh suggests, that the external narrative rarely aligns with performance. “It just shows how the opinion of so many people just makes no difference,” he says.
Paul McVeigh speaking
McVeigh now works with current Premier League players, clubs and senior leaders across industries, but his approach remains rooted in habits he formed as a footballer. “What’s my goal? What’s my feedback loop? What can I improve? What’s down to me? What are my controllables?” he says. “And you just keep improving day by day.”
Football, like the world around it, keeps evolving. “If I look at the way football was played in my last year in 2010 versus how it’s played today,” McVeigh says, “it’s evolved and progressed so much.”
What has not evolved quickly enough, he believes, is how the game understands the mind. That is the argument at the heart of his book and his second act. Not that talent no longer matters, but that it was never enough on its own.
In a sport obsessed with opinion, McVeigh’s message is quietly radical. Performance begins with deciding which voices count and which ones do not.