A team player

A winner of six League of Ireland medals (five of them with his beloved St Patrick's Athletic), the genial Dubliner, who was appointed as the football development officer for Westmeath earlier this year, has definite ideas of how you improve young players. "When I look at a player, which I do quite a bit with the U14 development squad, I ask 'is he technically good?' I don't look at tactics much because they are only learning the game. I look to see if he is in good shape. I also look at their mentality. Mental strength is absolutely massive, but I put technique just ahead of mental fitness. "You can be as mentally strong as you want, you can be physically fit, you can be tactically astute, but if you do not have technique, there's no point in having those other things. If you are not that physically fit, it's not that hard to get fit. If you're not technically good at 12, it's difficult to improve. Fitness and speed can be improved on when you are older, but it is hard to improve technique." Paul's first five months in his new role have been "challenging but rewarding". Warmly welcomed everywhere he's been, he admits that he wasn't quite prepared for the administrative side of things. "There are a whole range of fields you have to cover. The title is development officer for Westmeath but you could do with three or four development officers to affect the amount of people that you need to affect. The hours are unsociable to say the least, but when you affect people through the medium of football it's rewarding. "There is a lot under the umbrella. We do coaching courses, we work with community groups, we work with ladies, we do stuff with schools, we have futsal programmes. It's not just developing younger players. "Probably the most coaching you do is with the emerging talent programme. Outside of that there is very little coaching. We are funded by the council and a lot of the time is taken up with social inclusion work, working in the Rapid areas in Athlone and Mullingar. "There are a lot of phone calls and meetings. If there are any grants available I have to apply for them. There is a lot of administration involved. It's good because it gives a good-behind-the scenes insight to things. Also, getting used to the administrative side of things is a good life experience." As much as he may enjoy getting to grips with Outlook Express and applying for funding for this scheme or that, the father of one (his 14-year-old son Evan is a promising left-back with Dublin powerhouses St Kevin's Boys) truly becomes animated when he speaks about the sport he loves. One of the first names on any best League of Ireland XI over the last 25 years, the winger turned defender's name will forever be synonymous with the team he spent all but one season of his 15-year career at, St Pat's. His time at the club, which began in 1988 during the tenure of former Ireland manager Brian Kerr, coincided with a period of sustained success that is unlikely to be repeated any time soon. One of the most decorated players in the history of the club, Paul, who ranks drawing with Celtic in a Champions League qualifier in Parkhead in front of almost 70,000 fans as his finest memory, chooses to concentrate on the collective rather than the individual when talking about his career. "I would class myself as very lucky, genuinely. I won six league titles over the space of 15 years. I remember someone saying to me after the last one, 'Jesus, that's six medals you've won,' and I said to them that I didn't win six league medals on my own. I think that it's important to recognise that it's a team sport. "I can remember in one of the seasons early in my career I was injured for a large part of it. I still got a medal because I played the required amount of games. I wouldn't have been a huge part of that team but the history books show that I won a medal. You need a certain amount of luck. "Of course, luck might not get you six league medals - you need to have some amount of ability, but you can be lucky and play in good sides. I had a good haul. The only thing I didn't win was an FAI cup medal and that's unlikely to happen now (laughs)." Despite tasting success more often than most players, Paul's career was sufficiently long for him to have experienced plenty of dark days as well. Unlike many of his former team-mates who would beat themselves up after a defeat, he says that he tried to talk a balanced approach to both winning and losing. "I was never a bad loser and it's something that I'm trying to instill in my own son. Analyse your own performance. If you didn't play well, address why you didn't play well and try and improve on that. I've often come off a pitch after winning four or five nil and been really annoyed. "There were also times that we might have lost and other players would have been up the wall but I've felt really well as I couldn't have done much more. Now I know it's a collective thing as well, but I always analysed my own performance. Because it's a team game you can't get too caught up in results. You just have to look at your own performance and if everyone does that there will be more happy days than sad ones." Paul's best years came in the twilight of his career. Despite being the wrong side of 30, his performances during St Pat's 1998/99 title winning season earned him a clean sweep of the three player of year awards on offer - the first and, to date, last time this has happened. He also added a league cup (2000/2001) and a sixth and final league title (2001/2002) before hanging up his boots in 2004. "You want to keep going on but your body tells you. It starts off with a 19-year-old kid leaving you for dead in training. Then you try and chase him the following week and you get a niggle in your back. Then your performances start to dip and you know yourself you just can't do it any more. I think that's the reality with any athlete." If Paul Osam displays the same honesty of effort and dedication in his new role as he did during his stellar career, then the football community has quite an asset on their hands.