Managing a football club brings constant pressure for results, impatience from fans and club owners, and endless media scrutiny. For some managers, there is another complication: living away from their family home, sometimes hundreds of miles from the club they run.
Frank Lampard, the Coventry manager, splits his time between the Midlands and London. Jose Mourinho lived in a hotel during his time at Manchester United, dividing his time between a luxury five-star suite and his home in London. Arne Slot chose to live in Hale, Greater Manchester while managing Liverpool, just down the road from Old Trafford but about an hour’s drive from Anfield. The location made it easier for him to visit his wife and children, who remained in the Netherlands.
Tony Pulis knows the routine well. The former Stoke City manager kept his home on the south coast during his time in Staffordshire, a round trip of more than 400 miles. When he joined Middlesbrough in 2017, the journey grew to 320 miles each way. Pulis spent most, if not all, of his working week near the clubs he managed, but drove back to his family home after games.
“My wife was absolutely adamant where we lived on the south coast was the place to bring our children up, and she was right,” said Pulis, now 68, who played for and then managed Bournemouth until 1994. He said he never felt he was letting a club down by having his family home away from it. In fact, he felt that without having his family there, he spent more time thinking about and preparing for his work. “It’s not very nice to say, but that way there’s more space for you to do all those things you need to do as a manager,” he said.
Pulis said clubs were always good to him about his living arrangements during the week. At Stoke he had an apartment, and he stayed in nice places, which helped. It also meant that wherever he was, his wife and children could come up and stay as well.
The commute itself became part of the job. When Pulis was at Stoke, he would drive home to the south coast after a Saturday game. It could take three hours or more, but he described it as precious time because he could spend much of it on the phone and start preparing for the next match. His chairman Peter Coates would always speak to him then if Stoke lost; if they won, Coates never bothered, knowing Pulis would not need comforting. Win or lose, Pulis would ring his assistants David Kemp and Gerry Francis to discuss the game in finer detail away from the stadium, giving them a different perspective. He would then contact his chief scout, who had been at the next opponent’s game, for a quick run-down of what he had seen: their shape, patterns, strengths, weaknesses and any injuries.
By the time he arrived home, whatever the result, Pulis would have dinner on a tray in front of the TV while watching a recording of the opponent’s last game, which he could get downloaded. Sunday was for spending all day with the family, but late on Sunday night or early on Monday morning he would be back up the motorway, with a clear view of what he believed was needed for the next game.
Pulis argued that the car offered a rare kind of focus. Many people in football, he said, would tell you the same: by jumping in the car, being by yourself and choosing who to speak to, with no interference and no other phones going, you can concentrate on what you want. In the office, by contrast, there are distractions, and a chairman may want to speak just as a serious debate is under way. In the car, he said, you have time to think about everything. He always valued that time and thought it was important, making it more beneficial for him as an individual to live away from the club.
He added that having his family on the south coast did not stop him from understanding the DNA of Stoke City. He got to know the area and the fans, and wanted to give them a team they could identify with. Wherever he worked, he never felt he was not doing the job he was paid to do, and he wanted his club to feel like a family, with everyone pulling and pushing in the right direction.
Pulis, whose last job in management was with Sheffield Wednesday in 2020, admitted he spent quite a lot of time away from home. “My girls would probably tell you I spent more time working away than I should have,” he said. But he said that was the way it was for him as a manager. He believed in getting the balance right and would never have tried to do the job remotely. He felt he had to be there, taking care of training and everything else during the week. For him, it was about knowing what would make him and the team successful, and he did not think any manager would do anything but the right thing to achieve that.
Pulis managed Stoke from 2002-05 and 2006-13, leading the club to the FA Cup final in 2011. He was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.