Is Football a really hard job?

[Eddie Hitler]

Take the money out of the equation for a moment.

Rory Fallon was on TV doing a piece about a speciality ice cream business he's started up with his wife.

Part of his reason for doing it was how hard a job football was, I think he was including coaching and playing, and he'd seen friends who had to keep working in it because they had no other skills and how hard it was for them.

He did say the actual 90 minute game was great but that's all people see and think that's what it is.

So allowing you to assume that you have the necessary skills, fitness and age to play professional football but on the sort of lowish wage ?£20k you'd get Conference / Div 4 would you do it for the next fifteen years?

I'm not sure that I would.

[spudski]

5 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

Take the money out of the equation for a moment.

Rory Fallon was on TV doing a piece about a speciality ice cream business he's started up with his wife.

Part of his reason for doing it was how hard a job football was, I think he was including coaching and playing, and he'd seen friends who had to keep working in it because they had no other skills and how hard it was for them.

He did say the actual 90 minute game was great but that's all people see and think that's what it is.

So allowing you to assume that you have the necessary skills, fitness and age to play professional football but on the sort of lowish wage ?£20k you'd get Conference / Div 4 would you do it for the next fifteen years?

I'm not sure that I would.

In hindsight...no.

But when you are young, and hooked on football as a kid, you dream to become a footballer.

Any type of talent and you end up playing for local clubs or picked up by a pro club....then you are hooked.

If you aren't bright or have any other skills...I see why some stick with it.

He's right though...it's not an easy job. Constantly moving home, can't have a free life, masses of boring down time on your own. It's ok if you are one of the lucky one's being paid Millions...but there are many others who aren't.

[Tipps69]

41 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

Take the money out of the equation for a moment.

Rory Fallon was on TV doing a piece about a speciality ice cream business he's started up with his wife.

Part of his reason for doing it was how hard a job football was, I think he was including coaching and playing, and he'd seen friends who had to keep working in it because they had no other skills and how hard it was for them.

He did say the actual 90 minute game was great but that's all people see and think that's what it is.

So allowing you to assume that you have the necessary skills, fitness and age to play professional football but on the sort of lowish wage ?£20k you'd get Conference / Div 4 would you do it for the next fifteen years?

I'm not sure that I would.

I guess the dream is that you catch someone’s eye & get picked up by a big club & start earning big money & get all the sponsorship deals.

But there are two ways of looking at the difference in standards, not making it to the top means you get all summer to yourself & you don’t tend to work 8 hours a day every week but then you do lose your Saturdays & and an evening or so during a week for a midweek match but you also have all the traveling invariably by coach.

While at the top end of the game, you get more money than you can imagine, all the fame & seemingly only ‘work’ limited times & get to travel the world. But you get limited time time for your own social life but then money is all that matters to some people.

You also have to take into consideration as to how the game & life has changed over the years, training used to be easy, turn up at 9:30 & be gone by 12!! Now if players / teams perform badly they may get double sessions but a lot of time is spent in the ‘classroom’ going over tactical stuff & they have to look after themselves a lot more than back in the old days.

Of course, a job that pays you obscene amounts of money & allows you to travel the world first class sounds like everyone’s dream job but is it something that everyone could do & at the end of the day, not everyone has the necessary ability to be at the top of the game & to get all that fame & fortune.

[And Its Smith]

Naive people say they only work for three hours per day. I would argue that they are always working as they have to continuously eat properly, keep fit when on holidays and sleep properly every night. 

Also they have abuse on a bi-weekly basis and have to put up with being famous.  Not something I would want to do 

[Lanterne Rouge]

8 minutes ago, RedDave said:

Naive people say they only work for three hours per day. I would argue that they are always working as they have to continuously eat properly, keep fit when on holidays and sleep properly every night. 

Also they have abuse on a bi-weekly basis and have to put up with being famous.  Not something I would want to do 

Totally agree mate. Add in the media spotlight - would Tomlin`s case for instance have made the national press if he was just some scaffolder or bricklayer from Leicester? I think not. Add in all the `I saw XXXXXX at Motion over the weekend and he was slaughtered and giving it the big `un` on social media and your life is just not your own.

[JoeAman08]

I guess it could be but I love sports and I would have loved to have been paid to play football or basketball even baseball. I guess it depends why you play. If you actually love the game you are playing, I doubt it is that bad. 

[Rob k]

I always thought I’d love to be a championship player, you become a multi millionaire and relatively out of the limelight. 

I’d love to have been good enough 

[TRL]

It is a hard job, yes the perks can be great, but the downsides are most likely off the scale to what a bog standard 9-5 worker would experience, more so the more successful you get.

Add to the fact many people see it as 10 to 15 year career at best,  the longer lasting effects to the body potentially live with you for a life time.  Take a look at poor old Batistuta, granted he is better than he was, but he lives in constant pain.

its a tough job if you get paid loads or a little, and at the bottom end the career prospects are not great for staying in your profession.

 

I have always been of the opinion that people who see it as not a hard job and have a little dig are just a little jealous of the money players an earn with the perceived lack of work put in.  You make your choices and if you strive to be the best you deserve the rewards you get.  I've chosen my life style, I won't get hung up about someone having lots more money than me because they do a different job.

 

[alexukhc]

3 hours ago, Red Right Hand said:

Totally agree mate. Add in the media spotlight - would Tomlin`s case for instance have made the national press if he was just some scaffolder or bricklayer from Leicester? I think not. Add in all the `I saw XXXXXX at Motion over the weekend and he was slaughtered and giving it the big `un` on social media and your life is just not your own.

Who was it?

[Numero Uno]

You have to be in the top 1% of the hundreds of thousands who play the game in this country just to get a £500 per week contract at Accrington!!

So it’s hard to get there in the first place. Add injuries, 500 mile round trips to sit on the bench, watching games back you might not have played in, playing for a new contract and hence your mortgage etc. and for some it’s probably not all it’s cracked up to be!!

[TBW]

Any job that is related to fitness is going to be a bit more stretching than sitting in the office as you have to be particular about your fitness and nutrition and that doesn't stop when training does.

Sports and athletics require a love for the job as well whereas in an office it doesn't, it ends at 17:00 and you're good to eat your pizza and drink your beers without anyone but your significant other making a point about it. You don't NEED to worry about hitting your fitness targets or injuries preventing you from working and getting your next contract but these are points that any professional in sports needs to keep on top of and take care of consistently.

I suppose though, as with most things... If you truely love it, it's easy. If you start to look at it as a job, not so much.

[Talk Of The Town]

A mate of mine was offered £250 a week by Bournemouth when they were in the 4th division. He turned the offer down and joined Clevedon Town. He was earning £350 a week as a Carpenter and being paid at Clevedon. Sometimes being able to save for a house, enjoy a social life and live more comfortably is more important than lower league football.

[CiderHider]

If it was easy we'd all be doing it, to get to high pro level (champ) you need to sacrifice a lot unless you're literally Gascoigne and just have the raw talent. 

[Eddie Hitler]

Very decent and thought out responses all, cheers.

[The Coach]

How much more difficult is it then for a Head Coach/Manager and his coaching team? I'd imagine more difficult surely? Cannot imagine them having a day off thinking about the job.

[Lanterne Rouge]

Just now, Red_Wizard said:

How much more difficult is it then for a Head Coach/Manager and his coaching team? I'd imagine more difficult surely? Cannot imagine them having a day off thinking about the job.

It`s probably much the same but in different ways. They obviously won`t have to do all the physical stuff but the mental pressure must be intolerable sometimes.

[petehinton]

Extremely difficult. As someone said above, just the constant moving house or living in a city Mon-Sat, then home again Sunday would kill me. If you think, every loan move/short term deal for a player is just another time period of living out of a suitcase/in a clubs accomodation, getting used to certain areas, making new friends etc.

Coaching especially. You’d constantly be in work mode every day and night. 

I saw an article a few years back, and there were quite a few managers in league two in 2012-2013 who were said to be on salaries of c£40k a year. Crazy considering the amount of work/effort/stress/responsibility. 

[AppyDAZE]

Well, Mark Sampson found managing the England women's team pretty hard, that's another story...

[You Do The Dziekanowski]

12 hours ago, spudski said:

In hindsight...no.

But when you are young, and hooked on football as a kid, you dream to become a footballer.

Any type of talent and you end up playing for local clubs or picked up by a pro club....then you are hooked.

If you aren't bright or have any other skills...I see why some stick with it.

He's right though...it's not an easy job. Constantly moving home, can't have a free life, masses of boring down time on your own. It's ok if you are one of the lucky one's being paid Millions...but there are many others who aren't.

This is my argument to all the people who say footballers get paid too much. The ones who get paid too much are only about 2% of the footballing world. The reality is they earn the same wage if not less than someone who works from 18-65, because of the short careers of footballers they get paid more at once. It’s easy though see how young players who don’t make it or the story of Lee Hendrie happens. 

 

I did agree however that £400k a week is too much money but no one in there right mind would say no to that because ‘all they do is kick a ball around’. If someone offered you £100k a week to do your current job you’d snap there hand off. 

 

 

[joe jordans teeth]

12 hours ago, RedDave said:

Naive people say they only work for three hours per day. I would argue that they are always working as they have to continuously eat properly, keep fit when on holidays and sleep properly every night. 

Also they have abuse on a bi-weekly basis and have to put up with being famous.  Not something I would want to do 

So your basically explaining a soldiers life apart apart from the fact that footballers do only train for 3 hours a day and do get holidays,must be a right struggle for them being famous and not going into a war zone.Is football a hard job don't make me laugh 

[Bristol Rob]

6 minutes ago, joe jordans teeth said:

So your basically explaining a soldiers life apart apart from the fact that footballers do train for 3 hours a day and do get holidays,must be a right struggle for them being famous and not going into a war zone.Is football a hard job don't make me laugh 

No one is saying it's the hardest job, just that there is a lot more to it than 90 minutes a couple of times a week.

As for the armed forces. Not a job I could do, and all credit to those who make that career choice.

[joe jordans teeth]

3 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

No one is saying it's the hardest job, just that there is a lot more to it than 90 minutes a couple of times a week.

As for the armed forces. Not a job I could do, and all credit to those who make that career choice.

I was replying to red dave who seems to think keeping fit and eating right is a hardship 

[Bristol Rob]

7 minutes ago, joe jordans teeth said:

I was replying to red dave who seems to think keeping fit and eating right is a hardship 

I'd say that was a privilege rather than a hardship.

[Lympsham Red]

Ben Smith, the former Yeovil Town player (amongst many other clubs) wrote an autobiography, " Journeyman: One man's odyssey through the lower leagues of English football." It's an absolutely cracking read, well written with great witticisms as well as an eye-opening account of exactly what life is like for these more *rough* pros.

[joe jordans teeth]

14 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

I'd say that was a privilege rather than a hardship.

Exactly 

[Northern Red]

3 hours ago, Lympsham Red said:

Ben Smith, the former Yeovil Town player (amongst many other clubs) wrote an autobiography, " Journeyman: One man's odyssey through the lower leagues of English football." It's an absolutely cracking read, well written with great witticisms as well as an eye-opening account of exactly what life is like for these more *rough* pros.

Will give that a look. Garry Nelson, the ex-Charlton player, did a couple of very good books along similar lines, basically season-long diaries of playing for Charlton and Torquay at lower levels.

[Davefevs]

10 hours ago, Lympsham Red said:

Ben Smith, the former Yeovil Town player (amongst many other clubs) wrote an autobiography, " Journeyman: One man's odyssey through the lower leagues of English football." It's an absolutely cracking read, well written with great witticisms as well as an eye-opening account of exactly what life is like for these more *rough* pros.

Thanks for bringing it up.  It is a good read (not brilliantly written), and gives a good insight into the lower leagues and how little money they earn...relative to the big boys.  Paying his crappy agent, the moving into another player’s house as they’ve moved on, living away from family etc.  Desperate the get a one year deal because it meant he’d get paid through the off season.  It’s not all glam.  And then the struggle trying to convert to teaching after his playing career stuttered.

I think most players who have a career at Champ level will be reasonably well sorted.  The Journeyman, below that level, unless they play for the bigger payers will be finding it more difficult once their playing days are over.

6 hours ago, Northern Red said:

Will give that a look. Garry Nelson, the ex-Charlton player, did a couple of very good books along similar lines, basically season-long diaries of playing for Charlton and Torquay at lower levels.

Both very good books, and the first player to really do these type of books.  The season at Torquay was quite an eye-opener.

[spudski]

You couldn't pay enough to be famous or a well known footballer. Being 'recognised' by the public and judged by them and the media, is a world I'd never want...let alone the shallow and restricted lifestyle.

Making millions from business and being unknown would be far better.

Being recognised and constantly stared at, is the most uncomfortable feeling in the world imo.

I experienced it, sort of, for the best part of a day, whilst being sat next to Shane Warne at a one day International. People constantly staring at you and asking for autographs. Just being sat next to him experiencing that for a day was so irritating...to have it all your life...no thanks. Actually felt for him.

Lucky git still stuffed Liz though...so maybe worth it :laugh: ;-)