Ronnie O’Sullivan’s manager speaks on ‘chaos’ and ‘putting out fires’

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s manager has lifted the lid on the ‘chaos’ that comes with overseeing his career in the wake of his lacklustre showing at this year’s World Snooker Championship. The Rocket was knocked out in the quarter-finals by eventual champion Luca Brecel after an extraordinary collapse, which ultimately ruined his hopes of claiming the top honours for a record-breaking eighth time at the Crucible this year.

O’Sullivan has been widely considered as one of the most controversial characters in snooker for the vast majority of his career but has been helped by his manager, Jason Francis, in dealing with the trials and tribulations of being the highest-profile figure in snooker over the years. Francis opened up on his relationship with O’Sullivan during an appearance on the Talking Snooker podcast, in which he explained that a large part of his role is simply to prevent the 47-year-old from getting too distracted when he should be focusing on his game.

“My role with Ronnie is filtering chaos and trying to put out fires before they come,” said Francis. “One of Ronnie’s faults is his generosity, so you can turn up at a tournament, it will start off being me and him but very soon the circus is in town.

“Someone who’s a friend of Ronnie or wants to come and see Ronnie… what Ronnie probably should say is: ‘Look, I’m here to win the World Championship, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks for a dinner’. But he’s so generous, they want to come and see him, and suddenly we end up with an entourage.

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“Part of my job over the last 10 years has been managing that, but also be respectful that ultimately he’s the player, he has to decide. I don’t want anything I say to ever thought to have cost him a match.

“There’s nothing that I can do to make him win a tournament or lose a tournament. It’s the player and the table, but my job is to try and bring some stability, maintain relationships with people and be professional. I think that’s why it’s worked with Ronnie for as long as it has.”

O’Sullivan, meanwhile, will be hoping for his performances to improve as a matter of priority in the wake of his recent World Snooker Championship failure as he aims to bounce back by winning his eighth title at the next time of asking in 2024. He sparked fears that he may be one step closer to retirement after his quarter-final defeat at the hands of Brecel by insisting that he was not overly bothered by the manner of his exit despite blowing a 10-6 advantage in the final session.

“I’m not really that disappointed,” he told Eurosport. “I wish I was but you kind of get to the point where you’re like: ‘Why am I playing snooker?’. I love the lifestyle, I love my life, I love everything I do with snooker. I don’t just play snooker. Part of it is playing, I’ve accepted that to not get too down on myself. It’s just a snooker match at the end of the day.

“I’ve probably lost here 24 times and won seven times so the law of averages say at some point you have to get beat. This year was the one time, I’m sure I’ll have another good performance at the Crucible, but who knows? We’ll just wait and see.”

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