How do they manage?
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger once described football management as like ’’living on a volcano: any day may be your last’’. Ahead of the start of the A-League season this weekend, asks two established managers and two newcomers how they deal with the stress of the job.
Graham Arnold treats his players like family. So telling one of his ‘‘sons’’ this off-season he was no longer wanted was one of the worst experiences the Sydney FC coach has had in more than two decades managing football teams.
Filip Holosko had been at Sydney for two seasons. He was one of the highest paid players at the club, with his pay outside of the salary cap. Sydney needed to pay the league’s best player, Milos Ninkovic, more money, so Holosko was shown the door.
But not without a heavy heart, Arnold said.
‘‘I had the hardest meeting with Filip. I mean s***, he went from marquee player to gone. Last year he [Ninkovic] was not a marquee player, but performed unbelievable and I had to promote him to a marquee.
‘‘I had to sit in front of Filip, who is a wonderful person, has a beautiful wife, beautiful kids, they’re only here to play football and they love living in Sydney and their kids are in school here and I have to sit in front of him and tell him it’s time to move on. I said to him ‘this is the hardest conversation of my life’. It’s like getting rid of one of my children. And he did a fantastic job for us. And I have to sit in front of him and tell him he has to go.
‘‘It’s hard, but it’s part of football.’’
That last part sums up the life of a football manager. A lot of what happens in the sport would not be acceptable in most workplaces, but is tossed into the ‘that’s football’ basket. Players and managers live with the uncertainty of finite contracts which can be ripped up at any time, but people find it hard to show them too much sympathy given the astronomical salaries which feature in the top echelons of professional football.
But this isn’t the English Premier League. Failure at this level can be terminal to a professional career.
So why do the managers do it? What motivates them to keep pushing through relentless work hours and fraught job security?
The one common theme held by Arnold, his biggest rival, Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat, and two newcomers to the Hyundai A-League, German Marco Kurz (Adelaide United) and Englishman Warren Joyce (Melbourne City), was the love of the game. It’s a way of life. But love only gets you so far. Aside from the uncertainty which surrounds the job, the stress and big days can take a lot out of both the manager and their family.
‘‘That’s one thing I do struggle with if I’m honest, my work-life balance I haven’t got quite right,’’ Muscat said.
‘‘I know if I continue at this rate it’s not going to be healthy. Not only physically, but for everything else. I’m not young anymore, my kids are 18 and 15, mymumand dad are getting on, but at the moment I’m just grateful I’ve got a great network of support around me that assists me from that perspective.’’
The same could be said for Joyce. He spent a decade in charge of Manchester United’s under-21 and under-23 squads, working closely with Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho. The 52-year-old branched out into a fully fledged management role with Championship side Wigan Athletic in November 2016, but was sacked four months later after just six wins in 24 matches.
Asking him about the highs and lows of football management, and striking a good work-life balance, elicited this response.
‘‘What was the other one? The home life? What’s that? I think it’s a way of life. It’s not a job, is it?
‘‘Unfortunately for your family, sacrifices end up getting made and people probably suffer, but you need a supportive family and I feel I’ve got that. The family times are important, but football is a way of life that is difficult to switch off from and that’s probably why all the people here are in it. Because we enjoy that. We enjoy the lows as much as the highs.’’
Neither Joyce nor Muscat are complaining. They know the privileged position they are in and that many managers do not make it to where they are. Long careers in top-level football are the exception, rather than the norm.
But perhaps they can take a lesson from Kurz.
If his comments are indicative of the German way of life, it would seem they place a higher importance on the ‘happy wife, happy life’ philosophy.
So much so that his move to Adelaide only happened once his partner, Tammy, approved it.
‘‘The most important decision in this moment was my partner, who is a teacher,’’ Kurz said.
‘‘She can have a sabbatical year and that’s important for me, I’m a family man. Without my partner, it’s not possible to come to Australia. That’s the main reason [we came], she said ‘OK, I am ready for this challenge’.
‘‘I will do my best that the team is well prepared for the game and for the season, but I must find time out and that is, for me, not so simple. My partner knows this and we find a lot of moments away from football. That’s important, that you are not thinking about football when you go home.’’
The 48-year-old too feels fortunate to be in the position he is in. He has followed 15 seasons in the top divisions in Germany as a player with 12 years as a manager.
‘‘For me, it’s not a stressful job. For me, it’s the best job I can do. I had the luck in my career to play 15 years as a professional and now after the career I’ve had the privilege to work as a head coach. Now I’m in a new country learning a new language. It’s great.
‘‘Football is my life. It’s not a stress, it’s more the challenge to win the game. That’s the challenge, to be better than the opponent.’’
The final word can go to Arnold, who guided Sydney to the greatest A-League campaign of all last season. Twenty-nine games played, 22 wins, six draws, one loss. It was his second title as a manager - the first was with Central Coast in 2013 - so what’s his secret to success?
‘‘Every manager is this league has something obviously they’re good at because that’s why they’re managers.
‘‘For me, it’s more about caring completely. I say to these boys they’re like my sons. You know, I’m 54 and I’ve got three girls and they’re in their 20s and I’ve got players who are younger than them and players who are older like him [Ninkovic], but I love him like my son.
‘‘I care a lot about what they do away from football. For me, his family is as important as mine. I know if he goes home and his family is well that he’ll perform better. So I care a lot for the players.
‘‘Everyone is different, but that’s the way I am. I truly believe happy wife, happy life and if they’re happy away from football they’re going to perform better.’’
For the record, Holosko picked up a contract with Slovan Bratislava in his home country of Slovakia. Arnold would have been the first to wish him and his family all the best for the future.