Roberts leaves Performance Director role at newly promoted Coventry

In a statement, the Sky Blues said: “The club would like to place on record its appreciation of Dr Roberts’ contribution to a highly successful period in the club’s history, culminating in its promotion to the Premier League.

“The club has been through significant change in the last three years and her commitment to developing and enhancing the club’s performance environment has been highly valued. Everyone at the club wishes Dr Roberts every success in her future endeavours.”

During her time at Coventry, Roberts worked closely with Head of Recruitment Dean Austin, trying to ensure the club signed players who were also “decent human beings”.

Elite performance culture

Roberts is hugely experienced in sport – both on and off the field – as an athlete, coach, psychologist and performance leader.

She is a former international swimmer who qualified for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics – only to be unable to compete because of injury – and also played football for Swindon Town and Aston Villa as a midfielder.

Roberts worked for the British Handball Association for nearly three years before spending seven years as Chartered Psychologist for the British Olympic Association, including during London 2012.

She also worked for the Premier League for nearly nine years – the last 18 months of which was as Head of Elite Development – and is also currently an Independent Non-Executive Director of Bath Rugby.

Speaking at TGG Live 2024, she said it was time to rethink what an elite performance culture meant and how it could be achieved.

“One of my biggest bugbears is the pseudosciences that perpetuate in first-team football – in all of football in fact,” she told the audience.

“The desire for quick fixes, the power of charismatic marketing: we love to jump on a bandwagon of something that we think we’re going to do differently with very little empirical support or research support.”

She said the solution was for football to be “honest” and then it was about “establishing sustainable attitudes and values that underpin behaviour”.