AS YET another season draws to an end, I’ve used the last week after finishing our fixtures to reflect briefly on the past ten months.
As is customary, it goes very quickly and, before you know it, you’re either out of contract, worrying about your next income or just excited to get away on holiday and relax after a hard, intense season.
For me, it has been one of my most stressful seasons for a while – undoubtedly, a rollercoaster of emotions combined with many highs and lows, both on and off the pitch.
I have had a few injuries this term, which has been quite unsettling. I’ve also missed some key games through suspension and, overall, it has been very frustrating and challenging.
Nonetheless, I have finished the season strongly – always a good way to end it.
What I have noticed, more importantly, is the way in which approaching the end of a campaign is similar to when you approach the end of a term at school, counting down the weeks and days.
Call it unprofessional but this is the way in which players think. The atmosphere becomes rather relaxed, especially if, as a team, you haven’t got anything to play for.
If you’re in a relegation battle, then understandably you are fighting for your lives. Conversely, if you are in with a chance of promotion or the play-offs, you have that fire in your belly.
There are the added incentives, which every player strives for, of the promotion bonus, getting to Wembley for the play-off final, playing in a division above, a wage increase or a nice holiday at stake.
Me? I have had nothing to play for.
That, in turn, creates a “holiday mode” atmosphere, weeks before the final game of the season. Holiday mode is a term used by many infuriated managers when it comes to the final weeks of the season.
It’s a living nightmare for them. They face players taking their foot off the gas and preparing themselves for the summer ahead, which will consist of six to eight weeks on holiday and the inevitable binge drinking.
It resembles school, when pupils have the option of bringing a game or toy for the last week. Players tend to let their hair down in terms of general attitude and conduct.
For instance, a few McDonald’s breakfast bags start to creep into the changing-rooms on a daily basis. And the “fine system” becomes forgotten as rules and punctuality drops way off the standard it was during the season.
Players start to talk about what trips they have lined up and some even start booking a lads’ break for when the season ends.
The biggest lesson I have learnt is that you should never let the coaching staff hear this. It will come back to haunt you.
I’ve been involved in a few of these in my time but, as I’ve grown up, I’ve realised that some of these trips are more acceptable when there has been something at stake.
For example, Eastleigh, who have won the Conference South, have been rewarded by their very generous and wealthy owner with a paid-for trip to Las Vegas.
This is surprising, given that the club are in the sixth tier of English football and are part-time. Still, it hasn’t stopped the chairman paying, which is a nice reward.
What strikes me most, though, is that the players will have the flights and hotel paid for but the “spends” is the most expensive thing to consider when travelling to Vegas.
You only have to read the first book of “The Secret Footballer” to realise that.
For the Eastleigh players, I am very well aware of the big wages that some of their players earn. In fact, some of their players earn more than a lot of League Two players.
But the rest of the squad don’t. So I do congratulate them. That said, I hope that they don’t get too carried away and spend their life savings!
The mindset of a player approaching the end of the season can be very erratic. If a team are planning a team holiday for when it is all over, it can be very tricky.
The majority of the team may be out of contract so the mood determines whether the manager puts out his retained list before the trip.
I have been in this position. When we had a holiday to Magaluf a few years back, the gaffer had us in for meetings the morning before we flew out. Fortunately for myself, I was offered a new deal.
I was contemplating not going as I wasn’t sure how I would be able to deal with facing being released and then having to share the next few days with the lads who had been offered new terms and were relishing the trip.
It was a very subdued atmosphere when we boarded the plane to Magaluf later that day.
Half a dozen lads who had been released that morning stayed strong and made it. But after a few little “fellas” on the plane, the mood soon changed and everyone enjoyed it.
For those players in that position this summer, I salute you for remaining strong-minded. Or for being daft enough to endure it, however much that horrible feeling awaited when you returned.
That harsh reality check, along with hundreds of other players, of being out of contract and having to join the cattle market.
Sadly, later this summer, I could be one of them.
*Read The Secret Non-League Footballer’s blog on www.thesecretfootballer.com
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