As Liverpool’s Director of Research for over a decade, Ian Graham was at the heart of the data revolution in football, and his approach helped Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, the team he also supports, to win the Premier League and Champions League in his time there.

Ian shares the stories and insights that helped them to win - why Brendan Rodgers left partly because he couldn’t get on board with the new approach, how the experience of Liverpool’s owners in American sport allowed data to thrive, the players, including Mohammad Salah and Joel Matip, that were identified by this approach and why even Jurgen Klopp’s appointment as manager was only green lit after some last-minute data analysis.

Ian also gives his thoughts on the state of the Premier League, why data’s most effective when combined with the human touch and how he can still watch football as a fan, not just as an analyst.

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Tom Beahon is the co-founder of sportswear label Castore, which in less than a decade has grown in to a major global challenger brand, and can be seen on athletes and teams including Andy Murray, Red Bull Racing, Newcastle United and the England cricket team.

Growing up, all Tom ever wanted to be was a pro footballer, but that particular dream ended when he was let go by Tranmere Rovers as a 19-year-old. It was this crushing disappointment that fuelled the fire for what came next. He made the decision that this failure wouldn’t define him and, with his brother Phil, took his passion for sport on a new path.

Tom shares the stories of starting out on his journey with no clue how to start a clothing label, the qualities he believes opened the doors which allowed the business to grow and shares the most important lessons for anyone looking to start out on their own.

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Ed Jackson says he has lived two lives. For ten years he was a professional rugby player, who was defined by his physicality and performance. 

But in 2017, at a family friend’s barbecue, an accident ended this old life forever. He dived into a swimming pool, not realising it was three feet deep. On the way to the hospital he had to be resuscitated three times. Not long after, he was told he’d never walk again.

Incredibly, just three years from this moment, Ed was standing on the world’s highest trekking peak, Aconagua. He shares this rollercoaster story, from the initial devastation of his prognosis to the slow flicker of hope, from long rehabilitation to a level of recovery he didn’t think was possible.

It was a fundraising expedition to Snowdon that then sent his life in an entirely new direction, when he saw the opportunity to use his experience to help others in a similar boat. Now, as co-founder of the Millimetres 2 Mountains foundation, such is the purpose he has found, he says he no longer regrets the accident that led him here.

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Jacqui Oatley is a hugely respected sports journalist, commentator and presenter who in 2007 became the first woman ever to commentate on Match Of The Day. In fact, her career is full of media firsts for women, although all she ever wanted to do was the job she loved.

A football obsessive from a young age, a serious knee injury in her twenties led to her reappraising her career. She retrained as a sports journalist, she worked her way up from non-league football, to the Premier League on Radio Five Live. 

An opportunity to commentate on Britain’s flagship football highlights programme blew up into a huge national media story with her at the centre. 

As the first woman to ever call a match on the show, she faced a torrent of publicity, criticism and, frequently, abuse. 

Jacqui tells her story vividly and honestly from the inside, describing what it was like to be at the centre of a cultural moment, how she had to develop a thick skin to get through the aftermath, how things have progressed and why there’s still work to do across the board.

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Now the dust has settled on the 37th America's Cup, it's the perfect time to look back on how things played out both on and off the water with the skipper and CEO of INEOS Britannia, Ben Ainslie.

As well as some stories from the inside, Ben considers the highs and lows of his team’s journey to face off against the Kiwis, the details that he thinks made the difference and the biggest lessons, both collectively and personally, he’ll take in to next time.

He tells us how the boat’s near sinking made him realise how much potential was in the team, explains the challenges of having leadership roles both on the boat and on the business side and looks ahead at what it’ll take to take the extra step and win the cup for Britain for the first time in history.

As always, the parallels between success in sport and life are on show here, with insights on everything from team-building to handling pressure.

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A true rugby union hall-of-famer who ranks as one of the best scrum-halves who ever played the game, George Gregan is known for having the whole package - skill, creativity, tenacity, intelligence, sportsmanship and leadership. He is the seventh most capped player of all-time with 139 appearances for Australia, 59 of them as skipper.

George puts these remarkable performance standards down to the moment at 19 when he gained a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport. It’s what he learned there, from elite coaches, specialists and athletes in every sport and discipline, that paved the way for the personal and team success that followed.

He shares some of the lessons that can be applied to anyone looking for performance gains in their own life - how preparation can see you through even unexpected challenges, how regular reflection can iron out problems and the factors which make the difference between good and great.

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Professor Russell Foster is one of the world’s leading experts on sleep and circadian health. 

He explains how modern lifestyles have disrupted our natural body clocks and why many of us aren’t getting the quality sleep we need to perform at our best. More importantly he goes through ways  to get back into the rhythm. 

As Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at Oxford University, Russell says it’s vital we understand the importance of sleep in how our minds and bodies function to unlock its benefits. Expect to learn why light plays such a crucial role, what to do if you wake up in the night, why it’s not all about getting eight hours, why bad sleepers have a negative world view, and why dreaming helps us solve complex problems.

You can take the anxiety out of sleep by taking back control. Get it right and it can become the most effective performance enhancer we have. 

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Brett Gosper is a leading figure on the business side of global sport, having been CEO of World Rugby during a pivotal era, and now, in a key role at the NFL as Head of Europe and Asia-Pacific.

It’s a career that has come full circle as Brett recalls the moment when, as a promising rugby union player, he was on the verge of breaking in to the Australian national squad with the rest of his 20s already mapped out in his head.

When he was told he hadn’t made the cut, what seemed at the time like a personal failure actually sent him on a new path - to France, where he played top tier club rugby whilst building a career in advertising, which ultimately led to his current role as a sports leader.

In this week’s episode, Brett shares his memories of rugby’s amateur era, the personal lessons he learned in sport and business, the greatest challenges during his time in World Rugby and what working in the NFL has taught him about the differences with American sport and the Premier League.

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Adam Jones is a former Major League baseball player, a five-time all star and four-time Golden Glove who retired a fan favourite and local legend for the Baltimore Orioles having spent 11 happy and successful years there. He was even given a ceremonial send-off in front of fans and dignitaries when he retired to mark his time in the city.

Rewind to 2008 though and few would have predicted such an outcome. Adam was just a prospect in his early 20s when he was told he was being sold and had to leave the safety net of his native west coast for the other side of the country.

Initially shocked, he could have seen it as rejection and played the victim. But he’s not cut like that. Within minutes his brother told him it was a chance to ‘show out’. To prove how good he can be to a whole new set of people. 

And Adam spent the next decade turning an unforeseen hurdle into a new adventure and a remarkable career on and off the field. Adam’s story is a lesson for all of us in the power of attitude when things don’t appear to go your way.

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Kenyan long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge is a two-time Olympic marathon champion who has run four of the fastest 10 marathon times in history. 

In this latest episode in our ‘A Moment in Time’ series of Performance People with the Inside Tack podcast, Eliud looks back to his most memorable achievement - the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, when he became the first runner to break the two-hour barrier for the marathon, in Vienna in 2019.

He shares the story of how he and the support team achieved what was once inconceivable. From the training requirements to prepare his body, to the mental approach that allowed him to believe the impossible. In fact, he explains that it was being told that it couldn’t be done which gave him the motivation to show the world that it could.

He is now on a mission to inspire people in different fields that running is a force for good and that no human is limited.

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