With the recent upturn in Stephen Ireland’s form, and what that really shows about confidence in football, I thought I’d take the time to look at some of the issues facing modern Premier League footballers.
Many may look at a Premier League footballer and think “What the hell have you got to complain about?” After all, when you’re earning tens of thousands of pounds a week to play football, people will think you have the life of Riley, with little to do besides train, play games, and drive around in flash cars. Hardly a problem.
However, the fact remains that Premier League footballers are still human beings. They still suffer with issues that trouble you or I. Ok, these issues may not be the financial worries that often affect the average person – it is unlikely that Darren Bent will be stressing over rising gas or petrol prices for example – but stresses still remain, albeit different to those we might face.
The Problem With Pressure
So, as I mentioned, money isn’t generally a problem for players earning fortunes, although it is worth noting Brad Friedel had to declare bankruptcy during his time with us. So what exactly affects these players? What can be the difference between success and failure, between a good game and a stinker?
As we all know, footballers obviously vary in skill level. So sometimes performances are guided by that, but for players like Stephen Ireland, or for younger players taking the first steps in their football career, there is a lot more.
After all, if you’re a player and you feel awful, for whatever reason, you’re not going to be at the top of the game. If you’ve just left to play a match against a top team and the last thing you heard before getting in the car was an argument with your Mrs, as professional as you might be, you’re still going to be affected.
You’re also going to be affected if you think the fans don’t like you. Of course, some players, just like some people, are going to have thick skins. Just look at Cristiano Ronaldo for example. For all of his skills and the fans he has, many dislike him. They dislike him because he’s a showman, because he’s a playboy, because he’s often just “better” at football than the players for many other teams.
Players like Cristiano Ronaldo live with the hatred though. As the old saying goes, the only people without enemies are those who have refused to take a stand. Even those with the noblest of intentions, of spreading freedom, or of stopping racism, will be hated by some. Every action has an equal and opposite one.
Anyway, I digress slightly. Coming back to Aston Villa, it is clearly evident that confidence is a big part of the selection process. Few would doubt, for example, that Stephen Ireland is nothing less than a supremely talented footballer. Whether that makes him a good value proposition given a few years of non-performance is, of course, up for much debate.
Certainly in recent years, Ireland has failed to set the world alight for one reason or another. When he withdrew from the Ireland squad, he drew much ire for his changing story, for an attitude that seemed to show disrespect to his country, as well as to his fellow players.
On the face of it, criticism of Ireland may well appear justified. After all, if we don’t know why he withdrew, if we don’t know why he has played badly in recent years, then surely it’s because he’s lazy, or because he’s “weak”, or because he’s simply not interested.
Examining Our Own Judgments
Are those judgments fair or correct though? As with any judgment of a player based solely on the public view of them, there is rarely a full understanding of exactly what is going on in that person’s lives. All we see are intermittent stories, many of which are written by lazy journalists, as well as the occasional tweet or Facebook update for those players who use social media. It’s hardly the full story though.
Few people, barring those with an inability to keep anything private, will tell all and sundry about their private parts of lives. It doesn’t, however, take a degree in psychology to know that life affects people though. So just because we may not know the whole story, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a whole story, just maybe one that is untold.
Speaking regarding Stephen Ireland, imagine for a second that the reason he wanted out of the Ireland squad was because he was being teased. As we know, Ireland has been going bald at a relatively young age, he is only 25 now, and sometimes people can be nasty. Sometimes they can make things we feel much better or much worse.
Imagine that this baldness issue was something that his fellow players we making a point out of. Imagine that they were making jokes about it, teasing him because he’s different. That it reached a fever pitch, and something had to give.
Maybe those players did it with an underlying joviality, much like people who use humour to deal with problems, but maybe Ireland took it a different way. Maybe, in his desire to get away from people he perceived as bullying him, he bolted, made a pretty incoherent excuse, and left.
Maybe something like that happened, maybe it didn’t, but if it did, then it might go at least some way to explaining why things went bad for Ireland, and why things are going better now he has grown to be accepted as part of a new club.
I’m sure we’ve all done something approaching what I suggested, whether in our childhood, or in adult life. We have been faced with an obstacle and we’ve hesitated to get over it, or we’ve bolted totally.
The only difference is that thousands of people aren’t interested in what we do, but there will be a story in what a footballer has done, even if what’s reported may not actually bear any resemblance to the truth.
Conversely, what if Ireland now feels comforted and accepted by his manager and team, and thus can produce what he is capable of as he has shown us in recent weeks. Maybe that alone might show that cutting people a break, or in Ireland’s case making himself understood, and can prove there are clear rewards to support and positivity.
So next time, before you judge a player for being awful, before you consider them a worthless idiot who is a waste of oxygen, think for a second. Just what is that player thinking?
Competition Giveaway
On a connected note to this post, I’ve been asked by a friend of mine who currently plays for League One side Brentford, Richard Lee, to review his latest book, “Graduation”
Richard’s had a long career in football, playing for Watford for 10 years before moving to Brentford last season. All through his career, he has suffered from severe anxiety and panic before games, which has regularly made his life hell. Although many might consider playing football a “dream come true”, playing it when suffering from anxiety makes the situation more nightmare than dream.
Richard’s book looks at his life as a footballer, but also as another person just like you or I. Last season provided a change, a new job, and a new environment, all of which can put people under stress, as most of our fear in life comes from the unknown. “Graduation” details much of the issues that Richard has fought with all through his professional career, as well as taking in the finer points of following a football club that has their ups and downs, much like they all do.
There are many parallels that any Villa fan reading it can draw. Brentford had been trying to change their football philosophy for example, trying to change from direct play to the more desirable “prettier” football that many fans demand nowadays. As with any transition, often things don’t go to plan, and being able to read the thoughts of a man in the midst of the action, it is interesting to see what people can do when things do go wrong.
It also plots the birth of a concept Richard runs called GK Icon, which includes Ben Foster amongst one of their owners, so there is a lot more to the book than might first meet the eye, in fact reading it often had me gaining a deeper insight into being a footballer, into the issues that pervade the lives of footballers, rather than the regularly publicised view of merely making money and little else. Perhaps part of this is because of Richard’s place in non-Premier League football team, although he was with Watford when they were in the Premier League as a player, but the insight is varied, sometimes surprising, but overall very interesting.
Richard has learned to cope with things over the past year, sweeping away much of the anxiety and stress that plagued his career till moving to Brentford, using positivity and neuro-linguistic programming, a tool for helping people cope with their lives by training their brain. In that sense, “Graduation” plots Richard’s life that could be viewed through two lenses: the first, of a player who has moved down the football league ladder, but the second as a player who has won the bigger battle, the one for his own happiness and, eventually, personal success.
All through the book, Richard comes across as another decent guy, another human being stuck in the same kind of situations as you or I, which is why the book immediately feels accessible. We may not all be professional footballers, but we can all draw parallels with another guy just trying to pay the bills, and trying to earn a living.
I highly recommend the book as well worth a read.
Richard has been kind enough to offer a copy of his book as a prize for a competition, which will be signed and personalised for the winner. In order to win a copy of the book, simply tell me the number Stephen Ireland wears for Villa, either via a comment on this article saying “Stephen Ireland is our number x”, where x is his squad number, or tweet me via @astonvillalife saying “#avlcompetition Stephen Ireland is our number x”, again with x being his squad number.
For those looking to purchase the book, it is available exclusively at Amazon.
You can get the paperback edition here.
You can purchase the Kindle edition here.
All entrants will be included in a prize draw, and a winner will be picked at random in order to ensure fairness. All entrant may only post one entry. Multiple entries will only mean that your prize is voided, so please only enter once. Comments will also only count on this article or via tweets in the format requested above. Competition closes 11:59am GMT on Wednesday 25th January.
The Author
