‘Guys on major money can still have problems’
Following Aaron Lennon’s troubles, Jason Burt hears from the PFA’s man on the front line, Michael Bennett
This is a busy time of year for Michael Bennett. The time when players are being told they are no longer wanted by their clubs, when their futures are in doubt, their livelihoods and self-esteem under attack, when stress and depression can become a factor and mental health problems surface.
“The public perception is that Premier League players don’t have any issues because they have got loads of money, but we are trying to break down that stereotype,” Bennett, the head of welfare at the Professional Footballers’ Association, says.
“A kid can be at a club for five, six years and he’s chasing to get his pro contract and doesn’t get it, and that impacts on him. You have the 18-yearolds who are trying to get out on loan or can’t get a game or get released, and that’s a transition. Or there are just the ones who are not wanted by a new manager, and it’s all change. The public don’t see that. They just see that these guys are on major money, so why should they have any problems? In the lower divisions the players are earning a lot less and the clubs are just giving out one-year contracts. Come Christmas you are looking to see if a club will renew it and that impacts on you and your family. The player is panicking about what he’s going to do.”
There has been another “spike” in the calls received by Bennett and the service he heads – there is now a network of more than 100 counsellors, twice as many as only two years ago, such is the workload – following the revelation that Everton’s Aaron Lennon had been detained under the Mental Health Act and admitted to a hospital after being spotted near a busy road in Salford next to the M602.
“We’ve had a number of people coming to us on the back of it,” Bennett says. “You don’t want to use someone’s misfortune to highlight the work we do, but it has led to people coming forward. Aaron Lennon is a genuine guy, so it’s got people thinking, ‘Wow, Aaron Lennon has got issues’, and it gets people thinking about themselves. And that’s happened.”
Bennett, a former midfielder with Charlton Athletic, among other clubs, whose own career was blighted by injury, is not looking for public sympathy, just understanding – both from within and outside football – and he has already criticised the clubs for not doing enough. The 47-year-old cites the standard employment contract for all players as an example.
“It’s written in the player’s contract that mental illness and disorder is the same as a physical injury, so they [the clubs] should be aware of that, and I’m sure they are aware of it,” he says. “But it goes back to the fact you can physically see a broken leg or whatever, and you can treat that properly. But you can’t ‘see’ mental health, so it’s not given the same focus, and that’s where the education comes in.”
Last year, 160 former and current players used the service. That figure will be exceeded this year, partly as a result of the revelations over abuse, with Bennett now running ‘pilot schemes’ – with first-team players at Portsmouth, 18 to 23-year-olds at Liverpool, Reading Ladies and the scholars at Norwich City – to try to identify problems early. ”
So experienced is Bennett that he can even identify players he believes are struggling with problems when he watches them on the pitch. Social media abuse and simply being in the public glare can also take their toll.
“Your dream has come true,” he says. “But people don’t know about the demands, the pressure and the emotional torment that players also have to sometimes go through.”
Gambling is a growing problem; often a sign of a bigger issue such as depression. Those issues are more acute with former players. “Recently retired players have no structure in their life,” Bennett says. “They are used to getting up, training, being told what to do, where to be. Then you leave the game and you are waking up and thinking, ‘What am I going to do with myself ’, and that ultimately impacts on your self-esteem and self-worth – who am I?
“What we have in place is a PFA safety net, which is an online service that members can go into and click on ‘anger’ or ‘depression’ or ‘behavioural problems’ and you can see what it looks like – ‘Have you got these feelings?’ It’s available to the clubs and to parents as well as players.
“You just hope that people are warming to a better understanding of what mental health means, so that we can break down the barriers.”