LONDON (Reuters) - Chest pains which confined Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier to a hospital bed for eight days a decade after he underwent open heart surgery are a salutary reminder of the stresses of an unforgiving job.
The 63-year-old Frenchman is now recovering at home and has relinquished control of the Premier League club for the remainder of the season.
Heart problems have been a recurring theme in British soccer management, with the best known being Scotland manager Jock Stein's death from a heart attack after his team's match against Wales in 1985.
Another Scot, Graeme Souness, was only 38 when he had a triple heart bypass while managing Liverpool in 1992 and Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had a pacemaker inserted in 2004. Two English managers, Joe Kinnear and Barry Fry, have suffered heart attacks.
Tricia Kalloo is the owner of Wellness International, which provides the opportunity for English soccer managers to have free and regular checkups in coordination with the League Managers Association (LMA) under the Fit to Manage programme.
In a telephone interview with Reuters, Kalloo said soccer managers endured stress levels similar to those of senior executives in other occupations.
HEAVY WORKLOAD
"We can see similar levels of stresses in senior executives as we do in football managers," she said.
"With football managers, their stress begins not just from the moment that they step on the field.
"Their stresses can begin a couple of days into the leadup to the game. Football managers endure this buildup of stress over a significant period of time and recurring through a season.
"There can also be pressures with the club and the day-to-day activities that we are probably not aware of."
Kalloo said one of the contributing factors to their stress level was the sheer number of hours a football manager worked, which has been estimated at more than 80 hours a week during the season.
"We are thinking of training, we are thinking of time at the club, of game time and travel time. I believe that is what drives those statistics," she said. "Not much rest."
Kalloo said the programme had a pool of some 290 managers who could undergo checkups in Wellness International's London or Manchester offices.
"Managers, current or retired, can also access a mobile service if they live close to the area where it is being delivered," she said. "It gives them an idea of any health risks they may have.
"This accessibility has proven to be successful as it brings the service to the range of managers, not just with clubs who are under constant stress, but managers who might be temporarily out of the game but involved in other activities and retired managers who need to keep monitoring their health and take good care of themselves.
INSECURE TRADE
"In terms of the total membership we probably have approximately 50 percent of the members coming through at any one time. Given the success rate of the programme and the number of managers who benefit from this, it is disappointing that we do not see more managers through."
Kalloo said one factor all managers had in common, whether they were ex-professional players or not, was a passion for their job.
"I think it's a genuine passion from every manager that we see that drives them, the dedication and ultimately the stress levels," she said.
Soccer management is a notoriously insecure trade, with managers hired and fired on a regular basis.
"I believe that that is something that they are all very much aware of," Kalloo said. "Of course it affects them but I think there is a general understanding that it's one of the risks of the job.
"We do work with a number of lawyers, senior executives or chief executives who have similar stresses or reactions.
"Remember that we all endure some type of stress and it is really about the way we handle. It is about coping strategies. You and I may have an exact situation in life but our ability to cope with it is very different and hence our stress levels would be different."
The 63-year-old Frenchman is now recovering at home and has relinquished control of the Premier League club for the remainder of the season.
Heart problems have been a recurring theme in British soccer management, with the best known being Scotland manager Jock Stein's death from a heart attack after his team's match against Wales in 1985.
Another Scot, Graeme Souness, was only 38 when he had a triple heart bypass while managing Liverpool in 1992 and Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had a pacemaker inserted in 2004. Two English managers, Joe Kinnear and Barry Fry, have suffered heart attacks.
Tricia Kalloo is the owner of Wellness International, which provides the opportunity for English soccer managers to have free and regular checkups in coordination with the League Managers Association (LMA) under the Fit to Manage programme.
In a telephone interview with Reuters, Kalloo said soccer managers endured stress levels similar to those of senior executives in other occupations.
HEAVY WORKLOAD
"We can see similar levels of stresses in senior executives as we do in football managers," she said.
"With football managers, their stress begins not just from the moment that they step on the field.
"Their stresses can begin a couple of days into the leadup to the game. Football managers endure this buildup of stress over a significant period of time and recurring through a season.
"There can also be pressures with the club and the day-to-day activities that we are probably not aware of."
Kalloo said one of the contributing factors to their stress level was the sheer number of hours a football manager worked, which has been estimated at more than 80 hours a week during the season.
"We are thinking of training, we are thinking of time at the club, of game time and travel time. I believe that is what drives those statistics," she said. "Not much rest."
Kalloo said the programme had a pool of some 290 managers who could undergo checkups in Wellness International's London or Manchester offices.
"Managers, current or retired, can also access a mobile service if they live close to the area where it is being delivered," she said. "It gives them an idea of any health risks they may have.
"This accessibility has proven to be successful as it brings the service to the range of managers, not just with clubs who are under constant stress, but managers who might be temporarily out of the game but involved in other activities and retired managers who need to keep monitoring their health and take good care of themselves.
INSECURE TRADE
"In terms of the total membership we probably have approximately 50 percent of the members coming through at any one time. Given the success rate of the programme and the number of managers who benefit from this, it is disappointing that we do not see more managers through."
Kalloo said one factor all managers had in common, whether they were ex-professional players or not, was a passion for their job.
"I think it's a genuine passion from every manager that we see that drives them, the dedication and ultimately the stress levels," she said.
Soccer management is a notoriously insecure trade, with managers hired and fired on a regular basis.
"I believe that that is something that they are all very much aware of," Kalloo said. "Of course it affects them but I think there is a general understanding that it's one of the risks of the job.
"We do work with a number of lawyers, senior executives or chief executives who have similar stresses or reactions.
"Remember that we all endure some type of stress and it is really about the way we handle. It is about coping strategies. You and I may have an exact situation in life but our ability to cope with it is very different and hence our stress levels would be different."
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