Some Words of Thanks

When, at some point during April, I put out a tweet asking if there were any graphic designers who could help in the design of this site's Facebook page, at best I was expecting someone to provide me with some pointers.

What I got instead was a reply from Ritwik Roy who liked the site so much that he offered his professional web design services for free.  His ideas - and his creativity - astounded me as did his generosity as he re-did everything; ultimately reconstructing Blueprint for Football giving it the nice look it has today.

I'm sharing this story not only because I want to publicly thank Roy for his help but also because it is also a fairly typical in so far as this site is concerned: I've found help, support and encouragement at every turn.

When I was toying with the idea of setting Blueprint for Football, it was the brilliant Roy Henderson who gave me that encouragement that I needed. Roy has remained a supporter throughout, providing feedback and opinions as well as retweeting links to the articles. CNN digital producer John Sinnott is another to whom I owe thanks as he not only allowed me to reproduce his excellent article 'Coaching the Brain' but has retained an active interest throughout.

Over the months there have been others who have given similar support. Sachin Nakrani allowed me to reproduce his interview with Frank McParland whilst the guys at In Bed With Maradona liked the interview with Hamilton Accies' Frankie McAvoy so much that they asked to reproduce it thereby providing this site with an added platform.

Then there is Craig Easton* whose interest in the everything related to football is infectious and who kindly allowed me to publish his excellent articles on the future of Scottish football.

And so on.

All of this has helped make Blueprint for Football more of a success than I had ever imagined; not necessarily in the number of hits (although even those have been very positive) but in the human connections that it has allowed me to make.  Which is infinitely more important.

So, thanks to all those that have helped along the way. And thanks also to all those who have visited and read the articles. It is all greatly appreciated.

* Of course, Craig is also a professional footballer currently at Torquay but who has played at Dundee United as well as Scotland Under 21s. What he doesn't know is that I used to manage him when I was in charge of Aberdeen. In Championship Manager.