Seasonal period heralds a blizzard of football with no partying allowed for the players – though even Roy Keane liked to indulge a tiny bit, writes Roy O’Donovan.
It might have been December 25th, but it was only in the evening when Roy Keane lent over the bar and offered me a pint of Guinness that I began to feel even a little bit Christmassy. The festive time of year is very different for footballers across the globe.
From the Premier League to the A-Leagues, the Christmas and New Year period turns into a blizzard of football for the vast majority of players – basically your heaviest workload just at the point most people are kicking back and enjoying a holiday with seasonal celebrations.
Ever since I was an apprentice back in Ireland, the Christmas period has been a bit special but not because of the mince pies and presents under the tree. In many leagues it’s the time that sorts the challengers from the rest, thanks to the intensity of games; Sir Alex Ferguson used to say that if you came through the end of December and start of January in the title race, then you knew you were serious.
My first year in England, having signed for Sunderland in 2007, Roy Keane called us to stay in a hotel on Christmas night, even though we were at home the next day, taking on Manchester United in the sort of Boxing Day fixture the fans love.
I think Roy was trying to strike a balance between giving us Christmas morning and afternoon at home with family – especially important for team-mates with kids – and making sure we still stayed focused, despite all the festivities around us.
This might surprise you given Roy’s reputation for straight talking and demanding standards but he got a couple of rounds in at the hotel bar that night; Guinness, naturally enough, for Irishmen like him and me. Throughout my career I found that coaches who treated us as adults were rare, but usually were rewarded with grown-up behaviour.
I know there is often a debate about the wisdom of the workload for players over this period, and how much of a role it has played in England’s struggles at major tournaments with players who are often exhausted. In Germany, Spain and Italy, by contrast, they have a winter break.
But speaking personally, I loved it – if I was actually playing. Just before Christmas, your coach would inevitably give a speech about the role the whole squad had to play as the games came thick and fast – yet invariably the team would be left unchanged if it was winning. In those periods you’re hardly training, just playing, recovering and repeating the cycle.
It can feel a bit disconnected from everyone around you who’s partying and celebrating – the only way is to be utterly ruthless, almost selfish, put the blinkers on and remind yourself that it’s a short career. They say you’re a long time retired, and that will be the point at which Christmas can be convivial.
In the Isuzu UTE A-League, the games aren’t quite as intense as in England but it’s still intense – my old club the Mariners will play six games in 28 days. Their young boys, assuming they can cope physically, should be on a high as they go again and again.
But I’ll be interested to see how Garang Kuol, Jason Cummings and Danny Vukovic handle the instant immersion back into club football, just like the Melbourne City boys. The timing of the World Cup makes this even more of a precarious period, and I think we might seem some strange results and performances over the next few months.
Normally players who go through the emotional wringer of a World Cup get to go away on holiday straight after; the physical toll is bad enough, but the intensity of the environment is also hugely taxing and you can see that in a dressing room in players who have been there.
Mathew Leckie, for instance, gave very ounce of himself in Australia’s cause and produced a series of unbelievable displays against some of the best players in the world. There has to be some kind of comedown at some point, even if not immediately.
Kylian Mbappe meanwhile, was straight back into training at PSG after scoring a hat-trick, winning the Golden Boot but losing the World Cup final. Those extremes of emotions could almost need therapy, but he has to get back into League 1 action immediately.
Likewise Harry Kane, carrying the knowledge of what a missed penalty means to his country, but expected to lead Spurs once the EPL resumes straight after Christmas. He has more singlemindedness than any player I’ve observed, but every human has their limits.
Even Roy Keane, believe it or not. I enjoyed those couple of pints of Guinness, but it was definitely a one-off. Firstly he was gone by the following year, but more importantly the day after he got those rounds in, we lost 4-0 at home to Manchester United. Any Christmas cheer was long gone by the final whistle.
