http://sport.guardian.co.uk/tennis/story/0,,2219548,00.html

Steve Bierley
Friday November 30, 2007
The Guardian

Miles Maclagan, back in the day. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA

Andy Murray, who split with his American coach Brad Gilbert a couple of weeks ago, is gradually surrounding himself with the team that he believes will help him press for a place in the world's top five next year, and propel him towards winning one of the four majors. The latest to join Team Murray is Miles Maclagan, the former British Davis Cup doubles player, who has been coaching some of the world's leading doubles specialists in recent years.

"Miles is a good guy, I get on well with him. He hits well, he practises well, and he's a mellow guy. I heard that he wasn't coaching the doubles guys any more and he will be with me in the States doing the training. And there is a good chance that he will travel with me next season," said Murray from Miami yesterday where Maclagan has joined him. On December 9th they will move to Nick Bollettieri's academy as the training intensifies.

"We will see how it goes in the States, how we get on. If it's really positive, then I'm sure we will be spending a lot more time together. But I don't think that Miles is going to be travelling with me for 40 weeks a year. That isn't something I'm looking for at the moment," added Murray. "I don't want any egos involved in my team, I don't want any personality clashes at all. If there is a personality clash, and things aren't going well between people in the team, then I want someone to bring it up with me and stop it from going on."

Murray is very much keen to be his own man and pay his own way. He wants to make the decisions and Maclagan, a calm individual who is used to travelling and is highly regarded as a coach, appears exactly the right man to help him out at this stage. By splitting with Gilbert he has distanced himself from the LTA, who were paying the American's wages, and began to regard all that Murray did as part of their business.

"With Brad it wasn't a clash of personalities - there were a lot more things contributing to it than that. I just felt like I wanted to take control of my tennis. I wanted to take the opportunity to be in control of what I was doing. I feel much more relaxed now, as I feel like I'm in charge of the decisions. The responsibility is on me to sort things out, and that's the way I wanted it to be. I wanted to move on. This is something I needed to do. I want to ensure that I go on court with a free mind, believing that I have the right people in place, and they are all people I have got working with me. I just want to be as good as I can, and that's what this is about.

"The split with Brad wasn't something I was thinking about for months, but there were times when I wasn't all that happy on court during the year. I found it difficult travelling with one guy all year. When you are at the top level of the sport, you are together with your coach for 40 weeks and you are spending so much time together. That gets more difficult towards the end of the year. That can get tough."

Murray will begin the New Year in Doha, where he was a finalist last time, followed by the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne, an eight-player warm-up, including the world No1 Roger Federer, for the Australian Open, where Murray reached the last 16 this year, losing to Rafael Nadal.

An interesting article from today's Telegraph on "Team Murray". I thought you all might like to read.

Exclusive: All for one in Team Andy Murray
By Mark Hodgkinson

An ego-free collective is what Andy Murray is expecting to achieve with his new, innovative and rotating squad of coaching and fitness consultants. A couple of weeks after ditching coach Brad Gilbert, the 20-year-old said last night that he would not tolerate "any personality clashes" within Team Murray. "I don't want any egos involved," Murray said.

In his first interview about how the set-up of advisers would work, Murray also explained why he had felt the need to take greater control over his career, and how he hoped it would allow him to walk on to the court next season "with a free mind". Murray wants to be his own man in 2008, and a happy man who plainly will not stand for any backstage bickering.

"I don't want any personality clashes at all. If there is a personality clash, and things aren't going well between people in the team, then I want someone to bring it up with me and stop the clash from going on," Murray said on the day he confirmed that Miles Maclagan, a former British Davis Cup player, and described yesterday by his employer as "a mellow guy", had been added to the happy band. Maclagan has flown out to Florida to work with Murray in the sunshine for three weeks, and, if they get on, will probably spend more time with him on the road next season.

"I just want what's best for me, and what's best for my career, and I want people to work together to achieve that," the British No?1 said.

"I want people to get on, and to help me get as fit as possible and help me to play the best tennis I can. I need to make sure that I put together a team with the right people and the right personalities who will work together for me. And I don't want to have too many people involved, probably a maximum of seven or eight people at any one time."

In addition to Maclagan, Team Murray also includes fitness consultants Jez Green and Matt Little, plus coach Louis Cayer, who has been working with Andy's older brother Jamie, and Leon Smith, Andy's boyhood coach. Team Murray will meet on a fairly regular basis, and people will be rotated. Murray and his agent, Patricio Apey, are in contact with other possible additions to the group, but coaching egomaniacs and control freaks need not apply."

"I have been contacted by a number of coaches, good names, about working with Andy," Apey said. "But they have wanted to be in control, and so I have had to explain how it is going to work with Andy. You can be the greatest coach in the world, but unless you want to work in the way that Andy wants, it's not going to happen."

Now firmly in charge of his own destiny, Murray said he will welcome the greater responsibility. "With Brad it wasn't a clash of personalities - there were a lot more things contributing to it than that," Murray said. "I just felt like I wanted to take control of my tennis. I wanted to take the opportunity to be in control of what I was doing. I feel much more relaxed about my tennis now, as I feel like I'm in charge of the decisions. The responsibility is on me to sort things out, and that's the way I wanted it to be.

"I wanted to make sure that I go on court with a free mind, believing that I have the right people in place, and they are all people I have decided to have there working with me. I just want to be as good as I can be, and that's what this is about."

Working with a variety of people will keep things interesting. "The split with Brad wasn't something I was thinking about for months, but there were times when I wasn't all that happy on court during the year. I found it difficult travelling with one guy all year. When you are at the top level of the sport, you are together with your coach for 40 weeks, spending so much time together. That gets more difficult towards the end of the year. This is good as people will only travel with me a few weeks at a time, and that will keep it fresh," Murray said.

It is unlikely that Murray will have to deal with any ego problems with Maclagan. "Miles is a good guy, I get on well with him. He hits well, he practises well, and he's a mellow guy. I don't know him really well, but I have practised a few times with him, and I have seen him around at all the big tournaments," said Murray. "There's a good chance Miles will do some travelling with me next season. We will see how it goes in the States, how we get on. If it's really positive, then I'm sure we will be spending a lot more time together. But I don't think that he is going to be travelling with me for 40 weeks a year. That isn't something I'm looking for at the moment. Louis Cayer is coming out to the States, and Jez Green and Matt Little will also be in America."

Even though Murray was out with a wrist tendon injury for more than three months, missing the French Open and Wimbledon, and sacked Gilbert once his year was over, he said that he was still pleased with his year-end position. "Maybe people think it has been a difficult year for me, but I don't see it that way," Murray said. "Despite the injury, I played well and finished the year at 11 in the world. I don't think that's a bad year."

-- Edited by helki at 16:49, 2007-11-30

helki wrote:

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From today's Sunday Times.

Massaging an ego
We are told that Andy Murray's overriding priority in altering the personnel in his extensive support team of coaching and fitness consultants, and introducing a rotational system for those who will accompany him on the tennis circuit, is to eliminate personality clashes, to establish an ego-free collective. But everything said when changes were announced suggested the real objective was to guarantee that the boss's ego would be allowed to flourish unchallenged. Perhaps that's fair enough. Murray is the one indispensable in the group, its reason for existence. However, consultants usually contribute more when they serve as sounding boards rather than as echo chambers sending back a steady stream of endorsement.

-- Edited by helki at 16:27, 2007-12-02

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Given the number of times Andy's quoted in various articles as saying "I want(ed)" or "I don't/didn't want", Hugh Mac may have a point!  Makes you wonder whether Andy actually knows the meaning of the word "ego"...  Clearly he was never taught the meaning of the phrase "I want, never gets" when he was a child!   That said, he who pays the piper...

A couple more people have decided they need to add to the debate.   From today's Telegraph.  

       Andy Murray questioned over large entourage
By Mark Hodgkinson

Andy Murray's decision to employ a bigger entourage than most American rappers has certainly provoked debate in the tennis world, with a couple of former Wimbledon champions expressing caution over using a rotating squad of advisers and consultants. Michael Stich and Pat Cash yesterday described Murray's posse approach as potentially "dangerous".Still, Stich and Cash also said that the young Briton's numbers game could suit him.
Murray's innovation could pay off, and handsomely. The bottom line is that no one is quite sure how Team Murray will turn out, but the sport is certainly intrigued by how he has structured his tennis life post-Brad Gilbert. No one could ever accuse Murray, now 20, of being a tennis dullard, or of being too timid to take responsibility for his own affairs. This was certainly not criticism from Stich and Cash, just a few words of caution.

"There's not one golden rule that's the right way, but I don't think it's necessarily easier to have a lot of people around," Stich said. "You need one person in charge - who should be the coach - who's also dealing with all the other people in your team. But as someone who still needs to develop both his game and as a person I think it might not be helpful for Andy to have a big entourage. I think it can be dangerous having a big entourage, but Andy has to find out himself. He shouldn't start feeling too special about the fact that he might be able to hire five or six people, who cost a lot of money."

Stich, the 1991 Wimbledon champion, never had a big entourage during his playing days. "I hated a team of people," he said. "I never really enjoyed having too many people around because you have to take care of them. And if you do have a team of people with you, you need to have a certain character to be able to block those people out and not let them get too close to you."

The German was speaking ahead of the BlackRock Masters, which starts today at the Royal Albert Hall, with the field also including John McEnroe. Greg Rusedski will feature, too, after Goran Ivanisevic withdrew because of injury.

Stich continued: "I always had my coach with me. In my early years I never travelled with a physio, though I did later on. But Boris Becker always travelled with a coach, a physio, a press guy, a stringer and it worked for him. I don't think there's any one way to do it. If Andy can't handle Gilbert, then it may be tough for him to handle several people. He's still young. Tennis is a business, but tennis is supposed to be fun, a game. It shouldn't just be about work and money. I think the danger is that the bigger the team get, you make it more and more of a business instead of something you enjoy."

Cash suggested that Murray would have to be careful not to surround himself with yes-men. "Maybe this could be the best thing for Murray because it's down to the individual, but it can be a bit dangerous having your own people. Occasionally somebody needs to say 'no', and Andy is going to have to watch that. You don't want people saying just 'yes' all the time," said the Australian, a Wimbledon champion in 1987.

"But in some ways it's good to have a team because there are so many elements to tennis. Early in my career, I used to have quite a lot of people around who I thought were the best in their field, like diet and fitness, and I took a bit of stick for it. I'm very interested to see whether this is going to work out for Andy."  

helki wrote:

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A couple more people have decided they need to add to the debate.   From today's Telegraph.  

Andy Murray questioned over large entourage
By Mark Hodgkinson

Andy Murray's decision to employ a bigger entourage than most American rappers has certainly provoked debate in the tennis world, with a couple of former Wimbledon champions expressing caution over using a rotating squad of advisers and consultants. Michael Stich and Pat Cash yesterday described Murray's posse approach as potentially "dangerous".Still, Stich and Cash also said that the young Briton's numbers game could suit him.

[..]

The German was speaking ahead of the BlackRock Masters, which starts today at the Royal Albert Hall, with the field also including John McEnroe. Greg Rusedski will feature, too, after Goran Ivanisevic withdrew because of injury.

[...]

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And now Jet Ski himself has jumped on the bandwagon:

Murray needs main man - Rusedski

Greg Rusedski has warned Andy Murray only one coach should have overall control of his career among the host of advisers he is employing. The British number one is planning to use a rotating team of specialists after splitting from his coach Brad Gilbert after 18 months together. But Rusedski believes the 20-year-old must hand someone complete authority. "You need to have one coach leading the whole situation, like there was Gilbert before," said Rusedski. Murray has apparently opted against employing a direct replacement for Gilbert, whose relationship with the Scot had apparently fallen apart. Rusedski says Murray could benefit from surrounding himself with a team of "relaxed" advisers, as long as there is one person in charge of overseeing the operation.

"It will be interesting to see who will be the main person in his camp because with all these personalities someone's got to put a programme together, whether it's a physical trainer, the mental side, and there has to be someone who oversees all those things," Rusedski added. "I was a little surprised with the team of advisers route he went down. I thought he'd hire another top coach. But it will be interesting to see because his mentality is so different to a lot of players - he's very fiery, he's very emotional. So having a team environment around him with different personalities, probably ones that are a little bit more relaxed (than Gilbert), might work for him."

Murray has begun the process of building a support team to guide him through the next stage of his career. Former Great Britain Davis Cup player Miles Maclagan has flown to Miami to spend time with Murray, while LTA coach Louis Cayer, who has been working with Jamie Murray, and fitness experts, Matt Little and Jez Green, will join Murray in the USA.

With Gilbert as his coach, Murray reached a career-high ranking of eight and won two ATP titles, but the relationship was intense. "With Brad, it wasn't a clash of personalities - there were a lot more things contributing to it than that," Murray said. "I just felt like I wanted to take control of my tennis. I feel much more relaxed about my tennis now, as I feel like I'm in charge of the decisions." He added: "I don't want any personality clashes at all. If there is a personality clash and things aren't going well between people in the team, then I want someone to bring it up with me and stop the clash from going on."

* Yet another who won't come down on one side or the other & say he's done the right or the wrong thing - probably because it's far too early to tell...!