SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

(This is based on an interview I gave on Sky Sports News, 12th April 2012) Mancini’s recent statement is at odds with what football managers usually say. We are used to managers being positive about their team in the media, on talking up the team’s hopes, on saying that they are fighting to the end. Instead Mancini has said that the battle for the Premiership title is over, that they will likely finish 3rd, a place he will be happy with, when right now they can mathematically still win. He also spoke about how Manchester United, the team above them, shows much better spirit than City. How Mancini’s statements might work I believe that there are 3 potential advantages to this statement: 1. The Manchester City players, individually or collectively, set out to prove him wrong: that they can win, do better, show spirit… 2. City’s chief rival, Manchester United, takes its foot off the gas, becoming overly confident, complacent, under-prepares and under-plays in the last games....

Sports stars, footballers and managers are human too. What I mean by this is life still happens to them. Challenging life events or experiences still happen. So, just like the rest of us, they end up in challenging relationships, enter into marriages that break-up acrimoniously, have loved ones who get sick with nasty illness, cancer or mental health difficulties. They can experience accidents and get into car crashes like we all can. Just like the rest of us. What we see is them performing on the pitch or under the spotlight. What we don't see is their life outside those 90-minutes a week, when they are training, at home, with their family, at the hospital…. We see them composed, focused, coping, performing athlete. This is what we expect. We don't see the struggles, challenges, emotions, arguments, angst, doubts, fears. Who expects this from high paid stars doing what we dream about doing? Sports stars are able (mostly) to cope with competitive pressures and they can appl...