Managing a top six club in the English Premier League is a job with a lot of pressure accompanying it.
The rewards for the success of the club and, therefore, the manager, are vast. The price of failure is usually the sack for the manager and a severe loss of revenue for the club.
So how do the different managers cope with the pressures of the job? We looked at the top six as usual. and gave each of them a barometer reading from 0-10 whereby 10 means that they couldn’t handle the pressure any better.
Arsenal – Arséne Wenger
Stubborn Old Man completely ignores the pressure. He has done since the first day he took over when he decided that his way was THE way forward for Arsenal.
For many years, of course, he was right but the last few have seen his methods and, consequently, his team lambasted for their failure to win the Premier League and indeed, to even compete at the very top level.
Pressure to Wenger is just a small irritation which comes with the territory. Unfortunately for Arsenal fans, he regards their feelings and opinions in much the same way.
Barometer reading – 8/10
Chelsea – Antonio Conte
Antonio Conte looks as though he is about to explode at times. He doesn’t handle pressure particularly well and some of this is born of frustration at not being able to speak English very well. Many a time he has the perfect response to stupid questions but cannot find the words to answer them.
He is also irked by his club’s lack of spending in the last transfer window as he thought recruits were needed to challenge in the Champion’s League this season.
It would appear that he has been told to keep his feelings to himself as he has been a much quieter man in the last few weeks.
His frustrations will result in him leaving Chelsea at the end of the season.
Barometer reading – 5/10
Liverpool – Jürgen Klopp
He seems to have settled down somewhat over the last few months and appears to be getting what he wants, more or less, from the Liverpool owners.
In spending the big bucks though, Klopp is actually piling the pressure on himself to win something and we don’t mean just the FA Cup, for example.
He does handle it well and is, in the main, unruffled by constant questions. His English has greatly improved so his answers are now more thoughtful and witty.
He reacts to pressure far more on the field than off it but the same can probably be said of all of the top six managers.
Barometer reading – 8/10
Manchester City – Pep Guardiola
Pep is another one who sometimes fails to completely understand some of the totally inane and banal questions posed by the British media.
He doesn’t appear to react to the pressure of the job. He does react to comments from other managers but usually in a thoughtful, rather than a bad tempered, way.
Accepting that, last season, he would have been sacked had he been with Bayern or Barcelona, he has simply carried on this season by making Manchester City the best team in Europe
Pressure, what pressure?
Barometer reading – 10/10
Manchester United – José Mourinho
Mourinho is excellent at handling pressure, providing his team is winning. He is the exact opposite once they begin to struggle.
Think back to his final game in charge of Chelsea when he blamed the players for everything!
He also blames his players at United from time to time when things are not going well, although not to the same extent as at Stamford Bridge.
In that respect he is selfish and everything, when it doesn’t go well, is somebody else’s fault.
Handling pressure is not one of José Mourinho’s strong points.
Barometer reading – 3/10
Tottenham Hotspur – Mauricio Pochettino
The pressure at Spurs seems to be slightly less than at the other five clubs but it still exists. Holding on to players is one such pressure and his chairman’s reluctance to pay them the going rate means that Pochettino must always be worrying about losing some of his top stars.
He also, of course, needs to produce results but the bar is not quite as high at Tottenham. Pochettino’s exploits could even be described as over-achieving for a club the size of Spurs.
As far as his reaction to pressure is concerned, he is similar to Pep Guardiola in that nothing really seems to faze him.
Barometer reading – 10/10
So that’s the “top six” managers and how they handle pressure, or not, as the case may be. Please use the comments section below to let us know if you agree with our assessment or if you have different thoughts entirely.
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