The mental side of football management

By @UtdNiamh, published on 02/11/21

"Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face" - Mike Tyson.

Yesterday, I put out a tweet that went like this "Its mad how mental health is so important, but we have people being abused every week because they may not be the best for the job by a bunch of people who have never done that job." This came to me after I watched Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's press conference in which he looked exhausted. Ole has aged tenfold since he took over the job in the winter of 2018, same with the managers before him. These men are put under pressure every week by the press and their fans on social media. Press pressure is expected as that's their job, but the fans job is to support the team; of course, fans can criticise but do it constructively and do it in a way that helps people, but some don't. In this article, I will be going through how being a football manager affects mental health.

Go through any of United's posts on social media. You will see many posts calling the manager to be sacked or calling for another manager to be appointed. Yes, people can have different opinions, but if we support the current manager, even if we disagree, some of his choices are wrong. It's no wonder that so few managers have social media, and it's never used if they do.

The mocking of managers looks does not sit right with me, with managers such as Steve Bruce being made fun of because of their looks. The abuse Bruce got was unwarranted by a group of entitled supports whose team haven't been relevant since the 1990s. Unai Emery got mocked because he said good evening in a language that was not his first. Those same people would fail miserably in speaking Spanish.

Now let's get back to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who has been treated nothing short of appallingly by both fans and media. Being called a PE teacher and having his management ability questioned by former players who have never managed a football club in their life. If you are on Twitter, you think Ole is the worst person in the world, with fans calling all sorts for reasons that any average individual would think stupid and immature.

Now think if you went into a shop and told the worker that they're not good enough and went to their boss and said that you believe their employee is not good enough now that would be like what people are doing on social media all the time to a man they have never met and who is trying his best. I saw an account comparing Ole to Hitler, yes that guy who killed people all the time. These are the type of people who are currently on social media.

Next time you abuse a manager online, please remember that they are, in fact, humans and have feelings and have children who don't want their dads to be abused online by men in their 40's who have never touched a woman and live in their mum's basement.

Be Kind

Niamh Maguire