March 19 – Heart to Heart
PROFESSIONAL footballers lead charmed lives: a few hours of training each day, millions of pounds in the bank and the adulation of thousands every Saturday afternoon. The lives of football managers are very different.
They are under relentless pressure from all sides, all the time. Be it the directors demanding better results or getting the wage bill down, players demanding to be in the first team, agents badgering you to look at their players, the media wanting endless interviews and every Saturday afternoon thousands of people chant ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ at you.
With that kind of stress it’s no wonder managers have suffered from health problems for years. Today in 2002 Gerard Houllier returned to the dug out after time off recuperating from life-saving heart surgery. The then Liverpool boss had walked out on to the Anfield pitch in October 2001 as his side prepared to take on Leeds United. “Looking after twenty very rich people is very bad for your health,” he said to his friend and Leeds boss David O’Leary. Less than a hour later Houllier had collapsed and was rushed from the Anfield bench to hospital for 11 hours of surgery after his aorta had ruptured massively. For a time it was touch and go.
Less than six months later he returned to Anfield for one of those European nights that Clive Tyldsley et al are always claiming are so special at the old stadium. This one was a bit special as the crowd showed their appreciation for their returning manager. His team responded by beating Roma 2-0 to put them into the Champions League semi-finals.
Houllier is far from the first manager to suffer heart problems while in the job – indeed according to Dr Dorian Dugmore, the secretary general of the World Council for Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, almost half of England’s football managers have “significant” heart problems and their life-consuming, high-pressure jobs are a “recipe for potential disaster”.
Dugmore carried out extensive research into managers’ health after several high-profile incidents with top bosses. Most famously and tragically, Jock Stein died on the touchline during a match between Scotland and Wales. Graeme Souness and Dario Gradi have both had major heart surgery while Sir Alex Ferguson had a pacemaker fitted.
Barry Fry has had two heart attacks, the first occurred when he was pushing Barnet’s broken down team bus at Gateshead, while Joe Kinnear had a heart attack while Wimbledon boss, and has only just come out of hospital following a triple heart bypass operation.
Barry Fry explains how it feels: “Your arms go a bit numb at first. Then it’s like there’s a knife being stuck in your chest, and twisted. Then it feels like someone’s poured a bucket of tepid water on your head because there’s so much sweat. It’s horrible, a total panic. If you’ve got a collar and tie on you just want to rip it off from round your neck and get to hospital.”
“The second time, I went to Papworth. I was lying in a ward and there were people dying either side of me. And I’m lying there thinking ‘What the hell am I doing here?’
“Even when you’ve recovered it can stay with you. You get bad indigestion and you’re thinking ‘Is this another one?’ It’s frightening.”
Fry has no doubt about the cause of his problems and those of his fellow managers: “It is a very stressful job,” he said. “The media alone is ridiculous. It used to be one press conference a week, now it’s one a day. Radio stations want to talk, there’s TV, websites hammer you to death. Radio phone-ins start two minutes after the final whistle asking whether the manager should go. And I get dog’s abuse every match in the dug-out. And that’s just from our own fans!
“It’s draining, mentally and physically. As a profession it can be full of pressure, loneliness and stress.”
Although he has now moved from being Peterborough’s manager to club-chairman, back in 2005 Fry insisted that even when he was lying in hospital he never considered giving up the game. “To be honest, I didn’t,” he told The Independent. “Even in hospital I thought ‘I’m doing the job I love’. There are lots and lots of lows in this game, but you’re in it for the highs, rare as they are.” And that’s why they all keep doing it.
We will be back again tomorrow, as regular as a pacemaker, but for now, have a look at one of the most bizarre European tournaments ever conceived, and find out how Sutton United have European silverware in their trophy cabinet, right here.
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Topics about Football » March 19 - Heart to Heart on March 27th, 2009
[...] On This Football Day placed an observative post today on March 19 – Heart to HeartHere’s a quick excerptPROFESSIONAL footballers lead charmed lives: a few hours of training each day, millions of pounds in the bank and the adulation of thousands every Saturday afternoon. The lives of football managers are very different. They are under relentless pressure from all sides, all the time. Be it the directors demanding better results or getting the wage bill down, players demanding to be in the first team, agents badgering you to look at their players, the media wanting endless interviews and every Sa [...]