Much of coaching can feel like a high-rise circus act, seeking a precarious balance in an impossibly delicate situation. This is no more keen that in the handling of egos; dealing with shapes and numbers, impersonal and two-dimensional as they are, is almost a relief compared to the psychological management of the players themselves.
The legendary Bela Guttmann once described management as akin to a lion-tamer's act, and it is this element of sudden, grievous risk that another visionary, the great Marcelo Bielsa, seeks to avoid when maintaining an emotional detachment from his players.