Man Up, it’s a Man’s Game? Men’s football scores another own goal.

Feeling browbeaten day after day,

I think It's over but I just can't get away.
You said forget it,
Well don't go jump to the gun,
You're laughing this time next time you might be the one
To tell...
(the story of the blues)

The Mighty Wah. The Story of the Blues Part 1. 

Woke this morning and glanced on Twitter to see a post by @SteveFeekins highlighting a radio interview with Bolton Wanderers FC boss, Ivan Evatt, telling his goalkeeper Billy Crellin to ‘MAN UP‘ following a couple of mistakes in his past two games. Evatt had chosen to double down on ‘Man Up’ by going on to say football is a man’s game. 

The @EFL chosen charity, @MindCharity and @womeninfootballmust be collectively sick as the proverbial parrots when ‘Old School’ public shaming and such toxic language is used in 2020. 

I’ll not waste time discussing the connotations of the phrase, nor the idea that football is a purely a man’s game, but if you want to see just how much work still remains in educating people around mental health, read the comments the interview drew on social media. If you do choose to read them and then need some positivity, check out the stories on www.beingmankind.org/stories and give @BeingMankind a follow.

I hope the EFL & PFA ensure Crellin is given an opportunity to get support if he needs it and Mind have the opportunity to educate Evatt to understand the toxicity his public lambasting of a player using the narrative he chose, has no place in Football in 2020 nor wider society. 

As a 53 year old ‘bloke’ experiencing my first ever episode of clinical depression, I’ve had my eyes opened to how much more work is to be done to ‘level up’ attitudes, knowledge and services in relation to Mental Health. It’s partly why I’ve been writing this blog, to remind myself of just how exhausting it is trying to get the service you need at the right time. Fortunately no one has yet suggested I ‘man up’.

Whilst there has been a high profile media campaign raising the shocking statistic that suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK, there is little said that the demographic most likely to complete a suicide attempt are men over 65. Services for this demographic are almost non existent and there seems little appetite by the big mental health charities to stand up for them. So rather than Man Up, it’s time for mental health charities to lead by example and campaign to Level Up support for all ages and genders.

As for my own health today, well I feel I’m in something of a vacuum. The Californian Rocket Fuel cocktail of meds haven’t kicked in yet. I’ve various messages I need to read and reply to, bills to pay and basic daily living tasks to complete, but I’ve a numb head, legs like jelly and an empty pit of nothing in my chest. 

Writing this blog helps to concentrate my mind and I purely do it for my own wellbeing. I do enjoy choosing the lyrics, which are mostly picked to reflect my mood at the moment of writing.

A final thought. No kid should go hungry, now the footballers have stepped up, its time for the Big 4 accounting firms to step up and cough up some of their profits from the multitude of government contracts they’ve been awarded on a plate to ‘advise’ on Covid and Brexit.

Love and Tier 1 hugs

Blot x