Why managers must put their own fitness first - Pulis

Pulis reflects on manager wellbeing after Kompany's health scare, citing decades of toll on football's top jobs.

Tony Pulis has written about the physical and mental demands of football management, prompted by Vincent Kompany's recent health scare. Pulis traces a history of health issues among managers — from Jock Stein's death in 1985 to heart problems suffered by Souness, Ferguson, Houllier, Kinnear and Redknapp — and recalls a 1998 experiment where Dave Bassett and Sam Allardyce's heart rates reached critical levels during a match.

Pulis describes his own early management career at Bournemouth from 1992, when he handled scouting, signings, staff organisation and first-team coaching while dealing with relentless stress and poor personal habits: irregular meals grabbed on motorway drives, no exercise routine. He explains how the pressure of being solely responsible for results built up, with all criticism directed at him regardless of other factors.

A turning point came in 1994 when an Australian triathlete told him his job was physically hampering his fitness and, more importantly, the stress could damage his life itself. That conversation made Pulis realise the compromises he was making for his career at the cost of his own health.