With the craziest week of the Premier League window just around the corner, it’s easy to forget that all the players who have moved, are moving or will move from club to club this summer are human beings.
While some fans will be spending their free time replying to every post their club publish on social media with “ANNOUNCE” followed by the name of the player or using Paint to create very strange yet original memes involving BBC’s David Ornstein, the footballers themselves have to take many things into consideration.
Most people who will be reading this will have, at some point in their lives, experienced what it’s like moving house, whether it be around the corner or across the country, but few will have done so internationally.
Living abroad, in a new culture, surrounded by people speaking a strange new language, can be extremely stressful, and it’s extremely easy to quickly feel homesick.
That’s why, after spending millions of pounds on their new assets, clubs are now trying to ensure the new acquisitions are able to integrate their new environment as smoothly as possible, and they’re dedicating entire teams to it.
West Ham are the latest to focus on this, hiring Hugo Scheckter from Southampton back in March, who sat down with Betway to discuss what his job entails, and why he feels this is one of the most important aspects of modern football.
He said: “I believe that player care is the new wave of difference making in football. In the ‘90s, it was medicine, more recently it’s been video analysis, and I think player care is the next area where clubs can really get an advantage over each other.
“By having players who are set up properly and looked after, it means they can focus on nothing but football as soon as possible after they walk through the door.”
With the ambition of having one of the best player care departments within the next two years, Scheckter and his team work relentlessly to ensure the new signings settle in as quickly as possible.
This can range from sorting out the council tax for their new home, setting up bank accounts or simply reminding them they need to stop at zebra crossings when they get behind the wheel of their new car.
He continued: “Player care sometimes gets seen as like running a concierge or nanny service, but if you or I moved to a foreign country aged 20, we wouldn’t know what to do because we haven’t grown up in that environment.
“Someone like Fabian Balbuena, for example, has never lived outside of South America. There’s so much different stuff they have to get used to. It’s about trying to work out the gaps in their knowledge.”
The more footballers the club recruits from abroad, the more Scheckter’s job becomes important, and West Ham have done a lot of buying this summer.
A perfect example happened right in the middle of Betway’s interview, as new signing Issa Diop approached their table to ask the head ‘which of the taxis outside the training ground was there to pick him up’.
Scheckter explained: “I think the biggest skill is empathy and understanding that, just because a problem doesn’t sound serious, it might be to them.
“I treat the players as people, and I think that’s how you get the best out of them. Hopefully they feel that love from the club. It sounds a bit hippyish, but to feel some love back from your employer no matter where you work is really important.”
And when your job is to provide entertainment for thousands or millions of viewers around the globe, having peace of mind that everything else outside is taken care of, at least in the beginning, must be a great comfort.
