Festive burnout is a real issue for bosses

CHRISTMAS is a time of celebration and festivities for most people – but not for football managers.

It’s the busiest period of the season, without a doubt. Firstly, there are so many games to contend with.

There’s generally 15 points to play for over Christmas and New Year. If you have a bad one, you could possibly lose your job. Have a good one, you might shoot up the table.

Secondly, there’s the professionalism of your players. Will they stay disciplined when everybody else wants to indulge?

Then there’s the inevitable transfer speculation about your biggest and best players. It can be very disruptive.

On top of all that, you’re hoping and praying you don’t get the sort of injuries that will seriously disrupt your season. A player out for a couple of weeks in September might only miss one match. Over Christmas, he might miss four. It’s very stressful.

Personally, I always give players Christmas Day off. It’s a waste of everybody’s time trying to bring them in.

You don’t want to be there. They don’t want to be there. Everybody is just going through the motions. You’d achieve nothing that couldn’t be done in a couple of hours pre-match on Boxing Day morning. So what’s the point?

If you can’t trust your players to look after themselves and spend a little bit of time with their families, it’s a very sad state of affairs. I’ve never run a Christmas Day session in my life, but that’s not a particularly common approach.

Younger managers, especially, are very wary of taking criticism if their team doesn’t perform on Boxing Day. They want to be seen to do the ‘right’ thing whether it’s sensible or not.

Because you do hear all sorts of ill-informed nonsense – that the players have obviously been out on Christmas Eve, or they’ve eaten too much turkey on Christmas Day.

And it only gets worse.

There are lots of things said about how players perform in mid-to-late January.

They’re not fit enough. They can’t run around. They’re not trying hard. But that’s sheer ignorance.

People only take into account what they can see – and what they can’t see is that the majority of players are physically and mentally shattered.

We accept the festive schedule. We have to do it. But it’s crazy. All it does is increase the risk of injury and dilute the quality of the football.

Fatigue

That’s why we’ve lobbied the Premier League for 20 years to introduce a winter break, with reams of data to show that it’s necessary. Only now have they finally relented.

And whilst it’s probably more critical at that level with Champions League and international football, the EFL would do well to study the evidence and consider implementing their own.

Because you would not exploit a dog, a horse or any other animal to the kind of workload that footballers are subjected to over Christmas. The fatigue levels are off the scale.

What I always say to the players is that it’s a very important time for supporters because they want to come out and enjoy festive football. So give your all, don’t be resentful, and send them home happy.

At the same time, we talk about what will happen at the other end. I always promise a few days off, or to take them on a warm weather break at the end of January.

That way, they can play flat out knowing they’re going to get a bit of recuperation and something to look forward to.