YOU CANNOT escape the financial fears that have swept the planet over the past few weeks. It is complicated stuff at the high end but there is no doubt that on a day-to-day basis it is uncertainty and lack of confidence causing the massive lurches that is costing billions of pounds in the panicked institutions of the city and Wall Street.
Maybe it should be no surprise then that football clubs also behave in a volatile manner when surrounded by uncertainty. If you thought there was mayhem in banking have a look at St James's Park, Newcastle, now that the upper echelons of the club are
in turmoil. Players are playing like relegation certainties now that the manager has gone, fans are revolting and the owner openly wants to sell up.
For many years football folk have known that the players require certainty and that is part of the reason why they have become so mollycoddled at the top level. I remember being shocked at my first full-time club when they wanted to 'take care' of my passport for me. I was offended because they obviously thought I couldn't be trusted to bring it in when required for little things such as a foreign trip.
In reality that was partly true, they didn't trust the players generally, but it was more about giving them one less thing to worry about. The management wanted the players focused on the job, with nothing distracting them so that they would be in just the right frame of mind come match day. One manager once told me he could tell which of his players had problems at home that week just by the way they tackled in a game and I have no doubt he was right. A player with a lost focus can lose you a game hence the lengths clubs will go to keep them sweet.
At Chelsea the players were canvassed on the layout of the new dressing room and, believe me, every excessive demand was accommodated down to the individual wardrobes for their designer suits and the specific type of liquid soap – to be renewed each week – used in the new individualised high-power showers.
Some have taken it for granted to what I consider is an offensive level. At my time with Motherwell, the chairman paid for the team to have a mid-season break in the sun out of his own pocket. We went to a quality training camp in Portugal, stayed in a plush hotel and basically were provided with everything we wanted.
On arriving however there were grumblings from the camp, I thought I would be open and suggested that anyone who had any problem with the wonderful facilities, the well-organised travel schedule or whatever else could come and see me personally. I was amazed that only six of the group did not make their way to my door with a list of complaints.
When the privileges were withdrawn as the purse strings tightened, the team spirit faltered. This was nothing, however, compared to the effect that fear had on the team.
Maybe in those more naïve days most players didn't believe top-level Scottish clubs could go bust or even in to administration as happened at Motherwell, but even so there was unease. As the cutbacks began to bite and uncertainty grew more time and effort was spent by some in trying to get out quickly than trying to do their best for the team and to a degree I fully understood that.
The moment when mild concern became barely concealed panic was when the wages arrived late. It really is the clearest sign in any company that something could be radically wrong in the background.
They were of course right to be worried at Motherwell and at Tynecastle there will be no shortage of uncertainty. The first time that the payments are delayed most workers will attempt to give the benefit of the doubt the their employers, but if and when it happens again, few will be deluding themselves.
For Ukio Bankas, the intricacies of a banking system that has itself been in crisis is an acceptable cause of cash flow problems, but even if there is no immediate danger for the club the fear will have a negative effect.
All the time put in to making players feel secure, the efforts ensuring they are focused on their performances and worrying about nothing else will evaporate very quickly if the wages are late again any time soon. This in turn will almost certainly have a negative effect on the team's position in the league.
What Hearts have needed more than anything else over the last couple of years has been to get off those rocky uncharted roads they seemed to have favoured. With the creation of the latest uncertain conditions, no one really knows if there is high-speed crash around the next corner waiting to wipe them out.
The full article contains 846 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
