IT’S VITAL TO KEEP PLAYERS’ SPIRITS UP
FOOTBALLERS love structure and organisation. That 3pm kickoff on a Saturday. Training in the week. There is so much up in the air and the unknown makes for a frustrating time.
We’re fortunate to be full-time at Kidderminster so we put a lot of work in during the week, planning, but it’s not knowing whether your upcoming game will go ahead. We’re all keen to get a firm idea of what will happen.
Players are on social media every hour of the day so they read things often before anyone else. I’ve been very open with them from the start that I will let them know anything as soon as I do. It would be wrong not to be like that in this climate.
We know there are mental health concerns all around the world at the moment because of the situation with the pandemic.
It’s exactly the same in football because of the insecurity of it all. They start to build a bit of momentum, the league stops, it restarts, then the snow comes. Plus, as always, a lot of players are out of contract this summer. That’s not an easy situation to be in when the picture isn’t clear.
We’re lucky at Kiddy that our sponsor is a mental health charity – Kaleidoscope. I’m not
saying everybody needs it, but we have big links with them and it’s nice to have that positive feedback.
You have to have your quiz nights and Zoom calls to keep spirits up. Player welfare is more important than what happens on the pitch, particularly at this time.
It’s not just my players I feel for – I feel for every player at every club. For those playing, no one wants that to be in front of an empty stadium. No one wants to train all week ahead of a derby that doesn’t have any fans through the gate.
It’s nearly been 12 months now and we’ve had 15 competitive games. We’re very grateful to be full-time so we can train every day and that’s been good for us. But there’s a lot of parttime clubs up and down the country who aren’t getting that.
What’s my gut feeling for this season? Look at it from the outside. We had a two-week suspension.
Out of 11 National League North games last week, only one game was on. On Tuesday night, all games were off and yesterday there was only one fixture played – granted, the weather didn’t help. But two games out of the last 33 perhaps tells a story.
Whatever happens this season, everyone is looking forward to next season when hopefully we’re back to normal.