Rotherham United v Stoke City: Why Leam Richardson's life experiences ensure that pressure is relative at Millers

Pressure intensifies at the start of a new year. Pressure to get the big decisions right in the transfer market. Pressure to get results.

Rotherham United manager Leam Richardson is no different in that regard. But he also possesses a fair amount of perspective.

In his year’s ‘sabbatical’ from management, the former Wigan Athletic chief spent time observing leaders in other sports alongside business to broaden his knowledge of the art of management, which is fundamentally about problem solving.

Part of his education involved spending time with his brother, who works for the air ambulance service. It was an eye-opener and the sort of thing that enhances your life-skills, let alone football management capabilities.

Earlier in November 2021, Richardson had shown his resourcefulness in a high-pressure situation.

He performed CPR on Wigan striker Charlie Wyke after he had a cardiac arrest in training.

Richardson’s calm response and quick thinking at a time of crisis shone through. Wyke would credit him with saving his life.

So when people talk about notions of pressure, it is certainly all relative as far as Richardson is concerned.

On his therapeutic break from management, Richardson – who signed a two-and-a-half deal on December 11 - said: “Consciously, I took the time out to discard what I don’t need and have the break that you do need to re-energise.

"But also to recap on what’s made me successful and then enhance what I can add going forward.

"I’ve been abroad to a few places and been in and out of a few football clubs, different industries and sports and (met) leaders of certain organisations. Because it’s all relative and high-level, high elite environments.

"There was the Air Ambulance team which my brother is heavily involved with and I spoke to them about how they deal with high pressure and the elite environment they face. I also went into different sports such as the elite end of rugby to see how they train and prepare.

"I spoke to past managers I have had who were at elite level in the Premier League. I did many things I was grateful to do.

"Every sport is forever evolving at the minute with society and social media. Football is evolving at a rate of knots and it’s important you evolve with it and embrace good parts of the game and it gave me time to do that.”

On observing his brother at work and lessons to take into his own particular sphere of management, he commented: “There’s a lot of similarities in certain aspects and ways.

"But when you do a breakdown of reality on it with the high pressure disciplines and ‘minimum second decisions’ you are making and certain things in hospital, it’s relative, but very surreal as well.”

Appointed to hopefully help retain the Millers’ Championship status for a second successive season, Richardson has also been brought in to build a club in his own image over time, as he did at Wigan where his work won plenty of admirers across football.

The 44-year-old is big on team culture, good habits and players taking individual and collective responsibility.

His appreciation of that was enhanced by his stint at Wigan, which also afforded him time to study how the town’s highly successful rugby league club, Wigan Warriors, worked at close quarters.

He added: "I had a really good connection with the head coach there and the staff and their facilities were across the road, so it was interesting to see how they prepared and re-energised post and pre game.

"Vice-versa, I was always eager to share my knowledge and thoughts on how to enhance and help in any small way. It was a collaborative conversion always welcomed. You can only improve and go forward with things like that.”

The Millers are yet to make a strike in the January transfer market; a notoriously tricky window.

But with two-and-a-half weeks still to go, Richardson remains calm and is prepared for things to change as business starts to gather pace in many respects and dominoes begin to drop.

Leeds-born Richardson said: "With each organisation at a football club, there’s a process.

"There’s finance, recruitment tools in place and conversations to be had and moving parts all the time.

"Sometimes, it’s frustrating as you want things ‘yesterday’. But you are very aware with the experience you’ve got that there’s a process to follow and a real methodical way of doing things.

"As a coach or manager, you want bodies in and a really good number of players to work with.

"Sometimes it's out of your control. Other clubs have decisions to make. We're in the race with everybody else and we're doing our best to come to some conclusions and add quality to the group."