Late winning goal added to Roeder's stress

As the manager of a football club steeped in history and yet staring relegation in the face, Glenn Roeder has been living under prolonged periods of stress all season.

The effect on his body will have been enormous and experts believe it could be why he collapsed yesterday evening after watching his side’s dramatic late victory against Middlesbrough.

The culmination of a season haunted by relegation worries will have left him mentally exhausted and at a point where his body could no longer cope with the stresses and strains that have remained a constant throughout the campaign for survival.

“The pressure on football managers when their team is not doing very well, like Glenn’s, is absolutely enormous,” said Dr June McNicholas, an expert on stress-related illnesses at Warwick University.

“It’s like trying to drive a car in fifth gear the entire time. Something is going to go and the body grinds to a halt. It just gives up.

“We hear about people becoming mentally exhausted, leading to collapse and it’s because of the chemical change in their body – the over-pumping of adrenaline.”

Referring to ‘Sympathetic Adrenal Medullary’, the system that primes the body for the “fight or flight” reactions, she said that Roeder would have endured a “roller-coaster” of emotions throughout the 90 minutes of the match.

And instead of relieving him of the pressure the 77th-minute winner from Trevor Sinclair would only have heightened his emotional and physiological state - effectively adding an extra loop to the roller-coaster.

“He would have had ups and downs, of optimism and pessimism, throughout the season, watching his players play and train and even when it comes to team selection.

“Today’s stresses for most men and women are to do with mental pressures so we are responding in a very high-powered way which puts enormous strains on our body that doesn’t wander away.

“People then become mentally drained because the body can’t keep it up like that.”

The stressful moments, she said, were products of adrenaline and cortisone in the body.

The changes in the body chemistry has the power to reduce the rest of our body’s functioning to the extent that people can finally become physically ill.

Dr McNicholas added: “Glenn just has to realise the fact that there are times in his life when he is not a football manager, where he can take time out of the rat race just to diffuse the stress – even if its for just an hour a day.

“How people find that is up to them. Some people meditate, others play golf or go for a stroll. But he must do something that has no material gain, no pressure, something that allows you to be yourself.”

According to League Managers Association chief executive John Barnwell stress felt by club bosses is increasing with at least 14 managers diagnosed with minor heart problems.

Mr Barnwell said the LMA had sought to tackle the stress-related problems by introducing a programme which monitored managers’ physical well-being.

Approximately 60% of all league managers, he said, were signed up to the monthly monitoring programme run by them and the Professional Footballers’ Association which was based on “prevention” rather than offering any cure.

“We have identified 14 who have minor heart conditions at the moment. They are not life-threatening but they can be dealt with.

“Glenn was one of the 40% who felt they had a reasonably fit programme.”

He said the news of Roeder’s collapse was “extremely disturbing” but “not surprising”.

“The incentives and constant intensity of the job has escalated - particularly at this time of year when they are under extreme pressure,” he added.

“The rewards in the game at the highest level are so great and the need to be successful has grown and the game has never been more exposed or analysed than it is today.”