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  • God I have.

  • Are you Are you missing?

  • Make this difficult time?

  • Yeah.

  • Yeah, sometimes complained and wind on the way to match.

  • You know what?

  • You gotta drive three or four hours like Norridge.

  • I was Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

  • What did you say?

  • Sometimes?

  • No, I mean you do, don't you?

  • You've got those long five hours or you've got the trains That sort of, you know, 10 o'clock at night, they'd get off one in the morning.

  • And you think, Oh, you're I've done two.

  • Sometimes you feel like the world is against you.

  • And then your moments like this and you just realize that you do anything to be back on the road, watching football on doing normal things.

  • It's It is unbelievable.

  • This one of the very few upsides off this, though, because everything is the same.

  • Boat is up.

  • We can't go to the studio now.

  • Comparable cost, in normal way is you get great snoop around people's houses when you're on Skype in.

  • I'm loving the decor.

  • You know, this is probably going in the background.

  • Well, she's got left.

  • What?

  • Those pictures off that one.

  • That's exactly Mick Jagger.

  • Keith Keith Richards just people, people, more people might not know This probably don't know this.

  • I was, uh Well, they believe I was single.

  • I think I was signal single in Manchester from the age of about 26 to 29 on dhe.

  • Um, I actually went on a massive photography binge in terms of just our photography.

  • I used to just walk out in the afternoon and just loved artwork and got into it and collected a lot.

  • And I've got I don't if you can see, I should take around in a bit If I could take you around, show you some of the outward, actually really proud.

  • It's the one thing I've kept with me for 17 18 years.

  • I never have any artwork of football in my house or souvenirs or memorabilia or anything like that.

  • But I do have obviously artwork of of like and photography.

  • So it's something that, actually I'm passionate about.

  • I mean, I have been fortunate Thio be been in your house, not the, you know, very fortunate.

  • Very fortunate.

  • Your wife did.

  • And outside of what will your passions are, uh, music and our armor on building?

  • Yeah.

  • I love I love.

  • I love our work.

  • We never have been on a holiday.

  • Wherever I've been in the world, I've always bought a piece of art from wherever I've bean.

  • Um, it could be a small thing.

  • It can be a little sculpture.

  • It could be a little drawer in It could be sketch.

  • It could be anything.

  • Andi.

  • I've always just done it and just always brought it back and hoarded it and just ended up putting upon the walls everywhere and just putting it around places.

  • So it's something that I am passionate about.

  • You have going on Spanish donkey minute in room.

  • What if during these seriously difficult time have you got Have you got trophies on your bookshelf there?

  • What are they for?

  • I have behind May Ah, I've got I've got a couple of my favorite books.

  • So a few of my favorite books there.

  • You have Alan Smith.

  • Got a heads up book must early on, but Cara just seems to read it.

  • Have you got a vinyl collection there?

  • At the bottom as well?

  • Yeah.

  • You see that?

  • Yeah, I could see that.

  • I'm on my bike down here.

  • You know, I do like the vinyl.

  • So, people, that's it.

  • That takes me.

  • But I just saw you know, you almost the referee.

  • Did you know John must referee?

  • He's got a violin shop in Leeds cold that I know.

  • Count there, Big final man.

  • Joe, I didn't know that, but I do remember when I was younger on a Sunday afternoon that would go into the front room.

  • We had the banks.

  • They lifted a two up, two down terrorists and we lived in the back room, off the kitchen, dining and then in the front room, which would never go.

  • And we all go in on Sunday afternoon and it would be ABBA or she Waddy Waddy basically played on playing on vinyl on a Sunday afternoon with the Kentucky That's Kentucky Fried Chicken Takeaway, which don't takeaway shop near is at the time a simple pleasure.

  • Some simple pleasure, son.

  • Now, I I'm not really sure I follow the next bit because, um, we can get together.

  • So we need a bit of ox script.

  • We need something to talk about because understanding bleak there is the focus is on the important things, which is Pope People's health and we're locked down, though.

  • And Father, I want to get me to anybody of fantastic what you and Ryan any partners have done with hope.

  • Sales.

  • Brilliant.

  • Brilliant gesture.

  • Um, they need a bit of a distraction.

  • It's definitely a bit of entertainment.

  • Must be old car.

  • Get that What we do because you and I are done counts in twos.

  • He should ring him and ask him about his time at Valencia.

  • Now I can see why that could mean a lot of other people, but until it's you that's gonna lift Gary spirit, I mean, the suicide even say the word Valencia.

  • What do you think?

  • Uh, massive lesson.

  • Um, in terms of allow improbably number things, really one sometimes no.

  • Is a great word on, I think, say no to the original offer, probably from Peter when he asked me to do it with such of us a short time frames to react from it on dhe.

  • Probably thinking that about people in your business partner is your partner of the number of different things, and it it was a very different scenario.

  • It's not like the chairman of the club now ring you up and say, God, I would like to speak.

  • Yeah, this is is a close personal friend and also a business associate.

  • So you probably viewed the request in a completely different fashion to being offered a job in football as it were.

  • Yeah.

  • I mean, I turned down to permanently enquiries and two championship enquiries, and probably the 18 months before I had no intention to go into management on.

  • Obviously, I was working as a coach under Roy, but I was doing Maur.

  • The video worked with Roy.

  • Roy and Ray were doing the coach and I was doing them or analysis type stuff that was doing on Sky on Dhe when Peter right May.

  • I just felt that he'd supported me and the lads in obviously sold for the end of the business ventures.

  • And you know, he didn't wantto bring a manager in part way through season because he knew that you wouldn't get the manager that he wanted.

  • He didn't want to rip the squad upon him, cost him a lot, and he wanted just somebody to navigate him to the end of the season that he trusted.

  • And I said, I said no.

  • Initially, I didn't think it was the right thing, but then eventually obviously wanted to do it for him.

  • So I think say no on being in sticking to where you are.

  • But I think also a little bit of arrogance, a little bit of ego.

  • I think at that point, if you remember, I've lived three months to 92 20 years I've gone to sky and gone well and you feel a little bit on breakable.

  • You feel a little bit so off in a position where you nothing's gonna go wrong when you're unprepared, you're not working his hardest something is all the people are when you take something on that you're not qualified in are not as qualified as you should be.

  • Then you get a slap round the face.

  • And to be fair, when I look back now, some of the decisions that I made the initial decision, obviously, But then the decisions that I made when I got there it was a massive learning for May.

  • I think it's helped may, even in the last couple of weeks, in respect of what's happened with this crisis in my business is and the hotels on the football club now act farm or despite decisively, I know at far more definitely than I've ever acted before because of Valencia, Where to be fair, I fluffed around a few decisions that I should have made, and I knew instinctively at the time that should have made big decisions and I didn't do.

  • I sort of thought I could get away with it and get it to the end, the seas, and then just steer the ship home to the sound that let someone else take it back out to sort of see again.

  • But it just never happened like that.

  • I've got a massive bloody nose when when you say it was, uh, ego driven and overly confident.

  • Did you only recognize that in hindsight at the time, did you think more angle?

  • You know, I'm analyzing football every week.

  • I'm analyzing football boy Hudson.

  • I have a 20 year career when the English clubs in the world a huge success in time.

  • Was it the case of thinking Well, I've seen how all the components work can't be that difficult to put it all together and not appreciating the difference between theory and practicality.

  • I think there's I think, that because I've never done it before.

  • I underestimated the difference between being a player, being a coach under a manager and then being the manager itself.

  • I own the most underestimated how difficult it would be in a different a different league, in a different city in a different country and the language barriers.

  • I underestimated the size of the job that was actually I was about to take on and he was gonna be difficult because the results weren't great.

  • I've been told by my brother was over there.

  • That dressing room was struggling, but there's the scale and size of it.

  • The only way I could describe Valencia in terms of a sort of hotbed of football.

  • It's a little bit like Liverpool.

  • It's a little bit like Newcastle.

  • It's like a ferocious city in the sense that it's it's fans.

  • If they take you in there, love you forever.

  • But if they don't take you in, they got a big, quite difficult with you quite quickly.

  • And I think that the ego in May said that I could handle anything.

  • I could do anything I could take anything on.

  • That was a confidence That was a belief I had which is good, but that you got off that perspective and awareness off.

  • I'm gonna second really book to this.

  • I've done this before.

  • Is this really the first job you gonna take him?

  • Football, Valencia.

  • You don't speak the language.

  • You don't know the league.

  • You don't know the away ground.

  • You don't know the referees.

  • You don't know the local media.

  • You don't know the national media Europe.

  • You're a stranger in a city that to be factors and expect you to come.

  • All those things I underestimated.

  • And it was my ego that felt I could get through anything and just take it in my stride.

  • That made me probably when I was over there, not realized.

  • How do you know how difficult it was gonna pay?

  • I don't think I saw the warning signs.

  • All the flashing lights quickly enough.

  • I think I probably should have seen the warning lights a lot quicker and got in there in crisis mold.

  • Rather going.

  • I think I could put it right straight away.

  • When you look back.

  • Now, can you see what those warning signs were?

  • What those flashing lights were?

  • Whether it be a smile, we think You should have said that to him.

  • I should have done that.

  • I should have done that once.

  • You're past the point.

  • Of course, taking the job in the first place.

  • That was an emotional decision.

  • Which, in fairness, knowing you is not normally you don't know me make emotional decisions.

  • Okay, so we move past that.

  • What if this doesn't sound like you?

  • Because you say you're you're no people.

  • People don't know you personally.

  • You're direct.

  • You all very you could be brutal in the way you normally are.

  • So when you say you're fluffing around and trying so cajoling alone that that diametrically opposed your natural character, Jeff, I planned everything in sort of three and five year back.

  • You know exactly what's gonna happen in the next three years.

  • Next five years?

  • What?

  • I want to get out of it.

  • I've always done the evening football with my career.

  • Terms of where I want to be.

  • The two instinctive decisions that I've made in my life.

  • Which of Valencia I know the night will be Manchester, which is obviously a very different thing.

  • I No, it didn't.

  • Jeff, The two.

  • The two instinctive decisions that I've made him up in my life in the last seven or eight years since football that I've just been instinctive.

  • Not really a great deal of thought behind it, not specialist in the industry, have failed On DDE.

  • You saw off after gold through those experiences, when you sort of make those types of decisions you dumped in the planning, giving them the thinking.

  • You've got the right partners on board with you in terms of you obviously going to go into an industry.

  • And when I talk about part, there's obviously that could be the the last thing that the last thing that the staff needed in Valencia was an experienced manager.

  • The last thing that I need you was inexperienced stuff.

  • We just didn't need each other, but all the stuff for an experience as well.

  • But when I went over the going over there thinking that I was gonna put this sort of framework in place for pizza to set him up for next season.

  • So I introduced a whole new data capture department with an analyst that took over.

  • I give all the players iPods and wanted to sort of revolutionised the way in which we consumed information.

  • I wanted to set up meetings weekly with sporting director in the academy director.

  • 20 short.

  • The structures were in place beyond me, being there so that the new manager coming game was going to Yeah, I even went to commercial meetings with the club's commercial directors about the club's branding and things that I wanted to look at it as a business.

  • I wasn't there to look after the business.

  • I was there to get basically the club.

  • The first team results to the end of the season.

  • I just completely approached it in the wrong mother book from her.

  • From a pure point of view, I shall do the right things.

  • But I never dealt with what my primary role was, which was winning football matches quite quickly.

  • Yeah, results, results.

  • You see, I will say that the managers, you guys on the results business.

  • I mean, the other thing.

  • I'm curious There.

  • Those listening Gary is you again, You know, loads of people again.

  • But at that time were, you know, listening to advice from the lack of Sir Alex Roy Hodgson on other managers that you know, it's interesting.

  • So one of the big early mistakes that I made was a couple of senior players within the first couple of weeks came to me for not not nothing to do with myself.

  • One was for wanting to move back to ah, where his wife's family came from because there were family issues and the other play the other player had been receiving criticism from the fans on.

  • Both had very strong influences in the dressing room.

  • They both came to see me within the first couple of weeks and said that they wanted to leave on Dhe at the time.

  • I was of the opinion.

  • Look, when you try to get players out, wonder in a January transfer Windows.

  • I went there in sort of mid December.

  • Essentially, it's going to be a bit of a fire sale type thing.

  • If you get in players out of that time, let's try and keep the ship study to the end of the season and I should have made a couple of really big decisions on players that weren't committed to the club at that point, even though they were for the non footballing reasons, both of them and I remember speaking to star Alex on the way home from training quite early on one day, and I'm saying to may just get rid of them, son, he said, Don't even think about it.

  • He said, Protect yourself.

  • Only have people in the dressing room of facing the same direction as you on.

  • That means you need to get results.

  • Andi want.

  • Did you listen to him?

  • Because I went?

  • I went home and I went into trade in the next day.

  • Andi, I thought I've only had four months.

  • These were too German U Ni Emery said that you had five captains.

  • Uh, what was asked of management got criticized for it.

  • Well, every I think every club in Spain are.

  • Most clubs in Spain are five or six, Captain.

  • So we had five captains at Valencia.

  • These were two of the captain's.

  • They're treating the CD players.

  • They were good, lad said, No problem with the most people, that obviously individual issues.

  • I tried to talk them round over a period of a week into accepting that.

  • Let's just stay into the end of the season at the end of the season, will be a new manager comes in.

  • It'll be a lot more stable.

  • You could make a decision in the cold light of day.

  • And it's a great club.

  • So you can sort of get through these next four or five months.

  • You're a big part of the squad Started to talk to him in that nature.

  • Um, but they weren't happy.

  • If you remember, there were a couple of other players who have been left out by the previous manager I brought back in and I didn't want to be fair.

  • You only hear money just come into a club in the doing into you than thousands of these types of interviews.

  • Jeff, on here that you might just say, Look, everyone's got clean slay.

  • You start from scratch, Everyone, that's the previous history you get gets pushed away.

  • Well, I adopted that approach, but if you look at what you're doing clock didn't live a pill with Ben Tak es or Joe.

  • Hi.

  • Oh, happened to Joe Hart with Guardiola.

  • That meant that the minute that manager goals into a club nowadays, he's just got to get the right people on the bus that arrived for him that arrived for the club that will get him results he believes will I went.

  • I don't think the approach of everyone's got a clean slate anymore.

  • Is that money?

  • We haven't got time to be able to give a year to apply it to work out whether there got a good lead on or a bad lad.

  • Oh, no, you just gotta be definite.

  • I understand exactly what you'll sign, but there's a big part of me is that it is thinking, and you can also hear in your voice to degree will be it for the right reason in your mind, you've ignored one of the greatest managers ever.

  • Do you know what I did, Jeff?

  • I looked at Sir Alex Ferguson in terms of, you know, I remember the part of Sir Alex Ferguson that existed at Manchester United, where he was incredibly loyal and kept a lot of players at the club for 10 years, 15 years, eight years.

  • I forgot the part that basically where he was brutal and he was clinical and made decisions that were at the time he felt right for the club that surprised everybody else on the outside and even those on the inside, sometimes by players leaving in such a shot.

  • You know.

  • I always remember Sof, Mark, Mark Hughes, Andrei Kanchelskis and Paul into leaving one summer when we broke through and the kids broke through and it was a roar that even I was shocked at the time of a zoo player thinking that he done that and then obviously there are other players that left over a 10 year period, some of them very quickly and in a short period time that surprised everybody.

  • I almost remembered one past rallies Ferguson, but didn't remember the other on that day when I heard him speak on the phone.

  • Do I think I thought to myself before?

  • Well, that's easy for him to say because obviously he had the control and the authority to do that.

  • If I go in tomorrow and get two captains, what will that do to the rest of my address it and what we do, too, The rest of the players, you like those players well, they think that I'm just coming in here to make a a statement and do something that's essentially quite unpopular season and I went I went weak on Dhe.

  • I promised myself when the left Valencia that I would never go a week on the big decision again, and I would always be definite and I would always be clinical.

  • And I'd always act decisively and quickly on Dhe.

  • That's what Valencia it all may.

  • I went weak for a period of 34 months where I lost my confidence.

  • Eventually, I'll come on to that in a bit.

  • I generally lost my confidence, so I went.

  • I woke up in the morning not wanting to go to trade in.

  • It got to the point where I didn't want to take training sessions, actually handed over tobacco Iris down and fill it and the other coaches because honest f l embarrassed in doing the sessions in broken English, where I had to stop with the translator that they're not to be translated to the player, the player then come back to translator, then come back to me.

  • And I was actually, to be fair, losing my own will to live, let alone the players who were standing around waiting and in the end, I just completely lost my confidence because I just my whole life, I've communicated well, I've been able to speak to people well, but the idea that I couldn't communicate to people.

  • I couldn't get the message across.

  • I was naive in the decisions that I was making men.

  • It just all came on top of me quite quickly.

  • Well, you stood there thinking I can't do this because of the language barrier.

  • This is not working our Congress or you actually stood there thinking I can't do this.

  • I know football coach.

  • I found out in the worst possible circumstances.

  • I cannot do this.

  • What we're thinking the I think both I think that the I wasn't thinking I couldn't do this because of the speaking language in the sense that I was doing 45 lessons a week.

  • But you know, when you've got four months in a job, you haven't got time to learn Spanish.

  • I had two should not have even I I should have put the the Spanish lessons to the back burner on Washington.

  • Don't was bringing in two or three really expected experienced English stroke, Jew language speaking English language that basically could sense to do the job for me in a three form on the pigs.

  • I think there's no chance that I was gonna learn Spanish in four months.

  • Even though I was trying my best and I was doing everything that I could, it was important that committed.

  • So I took a family over.

  • I learned the language book, the things that I'm, the things that I knew before I went over there like I didn't speak the language.

  • I didn't know the league.

  • I didn't know the away grounds and all the referees and all the media.

  • I never looked at those excuses.

  • I knew those before I took the job.

  • What I would say in terms of did I think I wasn't a good coach, what I would say if I went into a coaching role in the future, which will never happen.

  • But if I was to, I would go in there with the best in class.

  • Coach is what I do feel I can do is communicate to people and see a football match and understand the football match book.

  • The ability to coach a football team of 20 football squad of 22 players requires hundreds of hours of practice on the grass and I didn't have the under the hundreds of hours of practice on the grass behind me to be a football player managed to 1920 years.

  • I practiced for thousands of hours playing fullback complaint.

  • Perhaps it being defender, being it, be able to pass the ball, to think that I could go on, be a coach, having not done any hours on the grass because I wasn't doing that with Roy Hodgson.

  • I was only doing the video analysis were mainly that was just completely not too naive.

  • Between arrogance, I need to bring in three or four.

  • You know, I had wanted to already that were there, but I need to bring in probably a couple of others, really specialists in culture and football teams to a philosophy that I wanted.

  • And that's why I think Steven Gerrard's done or put rages.

  • I think he's brought in really good quality coaching around him.

  • All of the soul shards that months united Ryan Giggs have seen that obviously I know was doing it with whales.

  • If you bring get high quality.

  • Yeah, Look, look no further than the example was in front of you for 20 years.

  • He didn't do that.

  • Not to the coach.

  • No, sir.

  • Alex never didn't even coaching on the grass.

  • But he had fantastic coaches in Brain kid Steve McClaren, Jim Ryan, Mick feeling ready, Meulensteen Callus Caro's And they were the changing element of this Alex Ferguson era.

  • But they were all brilliant on the grass.

  • Now, from that point of view, I I went over there and in Spain the coach goes onto the field.

  • The coach goes onto the coaching, picked on the training pitch and he does the sessions.

  • So I felt that I had to go on the training pitch and do the sessions.

  • And again, I should have just stuck to what I knew, which was I can read a game.

  • I could deal with people, let other people coach the team and do the sessions A me pick up, even if they had to do the actual.

  • Some of the team talks in the video analysis, because obviously there was communicating in a language I couldn't don't.

  • I do generally believe the players liked me and the players wanted to do well for me.

  • I don't think I lost The dressing room is such in terms of me as a person.

  • I think I lost a dressing room, maybe in the quality of the training sessions that I put on the communication skills on that, maybe then just wore them out a little bit.

  • And I think ultimately it was just not setting you up.

  • It was not setting it right when I went there straight away.

  • It was not understanding where my pitfalls we're gonna be and where my weaknesses were, which in every other part of my life, you know, the reason I used to give the ball to David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo's because they were better on it than may.

  • I understood what I was.

  • A football player was a server.

  • I should have played the roles as a cultural manager that I could play at that time and I didn't do.

  • I try to basically do everything.

  • It was just naive of me, really.

  • There was the real Madrid game early on where we could have won it in the last minute.

  • It was a one on one Rougher.

  • Benitez was manager of Real Madrid.

  • I think you actually lost his job the next day.

  • Believe it or not.

  • Um but that was a eyes amazing night.

  • Like we drew two to the atmosphere was incredible.

  • Uh, it was out of this world in terms of being on the your seeing Cristiane Perry.

  • If they're not, they're not part of you.

  • I understanding and you have been very honest about it.

  • But is there a part of you that is proud that you just managed against Real Madrid?

  • No, I never think of.

  • I've never think about anything that I've done and felt proud about it.

  • Actually, What I remember about that game is that, um that obviously we were struggling in the league and Real Madrid were absolutely outstanding.

  • Their bail Cristiano Ronaldo and all the other sort of great players.

  • We left the grass really long on the pitch so that the ball wouldn't travel very quick and we didn't water either.

  • I remember Cristiano coming over to me honestly is a true story came over him before the game.

  • Isn't gas got a disgrace is in disgrace.

  • Cook the pitch.

  • The pitch.

  • I said you have no chance of being caught in the honestly.

  • It was like a farmer's field.

  • Honestly, Iwas we left it that long.

  • There's no there's no way he was driven that night.

  • Uh, but she doesn't think at that point I have to thought that's in the players had anything.

  • Cristianos heads that before the game this waas I thought that I always knew when we were distracted before a game, maybe united the time where we thought maybe I remember once at Bradford.

  • The dressing rooms were big enough when we all went out, and it was it was boiling heart.

  • We'll wait outside in the corridor before the game, about an hour before just in the corridor.

  • What we were selling.

  • Bradford.

  • Word that the changing room wasn't good enough, so it probably lifted them a little bit.

  • And I suppose that message from Cristiano that gave me a little bit of a whole.

  • But then there was another period partway through where I think we went.

  • I think we won three games and drew to think we're like a little beer on including cop games on.

  • We got the first league when I thought, Here we go.

  • We've got it now we'll go on a good run.

  • Um, that was appeared when I felt as though we were starting to get there to set that Packer would commit.

  • The training sessions have started to become a lot with Phil would have become a lot more smooth, the communication to become a lot more smooth.

  • The place seems to be responding a little bit that you that we're doing quiet little fitness work with them in the early days and we were trying to get them fit.

  • There were quite a lot of injuries at the time.

  • When I first joined on, the players were coming back from injury and was starting to get quite good and I could see the bones of ah really football team.

  • But they're really talented players.

  • I mean, Gaia can sell.

  • Oh, now is it managed to city gold measure was Valencia um pack while far who was, uh went to Barcelona.

  • But Miss Taffy was their way.

  • Had 56 players that you could say We're really sort of good players on Dhe, some decent young players as well.

  • I just felt that we would get in there and things were improving and then I think that's when the seven nil came against Barcelona, probably a couple of weeks after that, and he started to get really bad quite quickly.

  • Youth, your hugely experience, they even a player you've always comfortable to.

  • The media.

  • You're comfortable doing interviews, and you were quite happy going on the front foot.

  • You're quite happy to taking journalists on over here.

  • How different was it?

  • How different were the press conferences to what you're used to, Jeff?

  • Honestly, um, I will stand in front of any camera and speak any time a cz, Many times after I have done that throughout my career, you know, in England got knocked out of the World Cup or European championships at show I stand up and do the press conference.

  • Is that at Spelman?

  • You're what we call them to meet you.

  • You're what we call the go to play, right?

  • Come out.

  • That being done, who will come out?

  • Yeah.

  • If we lost that, I'd be the player that would go out and speak.

  • You know, if it was, you know, with England, you know, I would be one of the players that should say I was over there.

  • I think I 30 matches on the rules in Spain are as they are in England, that you have to do a press government of the day before every game and obviously straight after the game.

  • Full press governments exactly saying I was over there.

  • I think 120 days, 130 days, something stupid like that and I did 60 press conferences.

  • I don't have people.

  • I don't know if people remember, they won't remember we did not because we were in the copper at the Copa del Rey on the on the Europa League, to the point whereby I left.

  • We had a game every mid week whilst I was there, so we played Saturday, Wednesday, certainly Wednesday.

  • We didn't have one single free week from the moment I arrived until the moment that I left.

  • And that was one of the big mistakes that I made that Peter rang me up about January mid January and said, uh, other than the Christmas break, which everybody hard.

  • So basically, every time we played a game with the game three days later, every single games, there's never any training time.

  • It's all which is one of the big frustration because we just felt I just felt like we needed to jump off the roundabout that was spitting in just rest and give the players a couple days off.

  • What I should have done that actually was probably give the place to her three days, often turn up for the game on Wednesday just to give him a break.

  • But I didn't know I always went through the same routine.

  • But what Peter said to me in mid January was, Look, Gary, get out of the copper del Rey.

  • Gout of your old colleague is the league.

  • That's the priority.

  • That's that's the competition that's killing up.

  • That's killing us.

  • And we kept on winning in the rope.

  • A lead in the in, the cop in El Ray, obviously, until the semifinals in the quarterfinals, Uh, but we've got no energy the weekend.

  • Then the pressure was building every single weekend with soul food.

  • Over the last five years, I've always said the F A troll feel, whether it be the managed to senior cook when we're in the lower leagues, that not the priority.

  • Forget about them.

  • We deal with the league.

  • That's our priority.

  • And even Sir Alex when he was younger and you know he put the kids into this off Carling Cup teams or the League Cup teams and he played the the main team in the Champions League in the Premier League.

  • I've been surrounded by this all my life in terms of soul, food or months united and again, just a really weak decision not to play the kids in a game in the Europa League and carpet El Rey getting up out the competition.

  • Take the initial what would be hit in terms of criticism and that gets you a priority.

  • Whereby were the weeks recovery before each league game.

  • So we just I just made a massive mistake with that in terms of priority.

  • And it was the press conferences were relentless.

  • Every single game, the questions were detailed, and I'm not being critical of the English press here.

  • The questions were a lot more tactical.

  • Ah, lot more pointed a lot more specific around.

  • Why did this new game?

  • Why didn't do that in the game?

  • And if you have to think of the Mariah answer, you get a follower, which would actually chase it down the road with you.

  • But you felt as though you're being questioned in terms of your understanding of the game and your tactical knowledge in the early you Sorry to interrupt you what would make the donkey's years and, uh, colleagues part, and Laura when we're into the in marriages.

  • It's a different culture here.

  • Part of the Pep Guardiola.

  • Um why did you play Carl Walker?

  • Uh, as I sent it back in a three.

  • As opposed to win back because of his place.

  • It's gonna look at May.

  • Well, sorry, Jackie.

  • Just remember, who did you play for?

  • Who did you, coach Jeff?

  • Obviously, the questions that, uh, the coaches rest all respect her a lot more technical precise.

  • And they hit you exactly where you don't want it.

  • So it wouldn't just be a case of to Pep Guardiola.

  • Why didn't you play?

  • Why didn't you play Kyle Walker in the back three?

  • It would be.

  • Look, you could see this wasn't working after 36 minutes.

  • Why didn't you shift Kyle Walker from about three into arrive?

  • I could go with a conventional back four, and you go about finding the second G That and then the next question would be U substitution that you brought on.

  • You'd probably expect body all the question.

  • What was the thinking behind the substitution of kale walker for the ports?

  • You can't ask him the questions that he would say.

  • Well, okay, I think it is because they said they'd give you some salt will be blonde down.

  • So probably the B O.

  • However, in Spain it would be it would be a completely different it would be.

  • That was a ridiculous substitution.

  • That was That was a highly questionable substitution that you made by putting quarrel Kyle Walker instead of the poor.

  • Why didn't you put Bernard or Silver on the crowd?

  • Were asking for it.

  • The big beat you were asking for?

  • Everybody in the stadium could see it.

  • It would be a lot more political.

  • Maybe that was because they were going for me as well, because obviously I was the stranger in town a little bit and I was young, and I think they realized they could potentially go for me a little bit more than some of the experienced managers.

  • But there's no doubt some of the press conferences became brutal.

  • I mean, the one after the one after, say, friends, games like it's Bill by aware last door against other Tico Madrid or against Barcelona, the seven deal.

  • Obviously they were brutal press conferences where you walk out after another soft smirks myself, thinking, I know that that is a It's a pretty severe grilling that I've just taken and I'm There was no forgiveness.

  • Why would the baby there was no putting point that No, there's no fellow money just putting their arm around me, saying You'll get through this.

  • It was You're on your own.

  • In fact, I do remember Simi Oniy.

  • Um, we got be a home to tail off Athletico Madrid, and I remember them going one day low on we're in the game.

  • If I was a little, I think up to 60 minutes when we were in the game and then he scored after 60 minutes or something like that.

  • Then they scored later on when they scored the first goal it during that match.

  • It was interesting because there was a couple of games.

  • That fellow's those up against coach is where I thought, I'm out of my league here.

  • I am totally out of my league here.

  • It was Val Verde E.

  • We went on somebody's Barcelona for Bilbao.

  • He changed E change system three times inside the game and he was always one step in front of Mae.

  • I always felt like I was toying with me like a little like a little puppet.

  • You're you, You're chasing smoke.

  • Honestly, Jeff, I could feel it on the touchline.

  • I thought, This is what inexperienced feels like.

  • I don't remember being on the touchline against Atletico Madrid, and I felt like Sidney only was strangling me gently through the game.

  • I felt like it was nil nil.

  • Up to 60 minutes.

  • I felt as though he put his hands around my neck after about five minutes and he thought, You know something?

  • I'll just Yeah, I will literally carry on with you and I'll just toy with you a little bit.

  • But he was almost talked treatment football wise.

  • Over 90 minutes at the end of the game, I went to shake his hand and he just stormed off past me down the tunnel.

  • I always thought, Can I swear on this podcast?

  • Att This time I think we know what you thought.

  • You I thought you also you absolute because to me, respect.

  • He's always at the end of a game.

  • Whatever happens, you're going to take your opponent's hand or you shake your you fellow money.

  • Any storm straight past may I thought you are one horrible So and so you, uh which obviously I admired in his team's when I watched them.

  • I have admired in his team since his team represent him, these benches all over the place during the match.

  • They're all attic.

  • There will shower little screaming.

  • But I honestly felt that in two or three matches that I was well out of my depth in terms of I was up against coaches was spotted.

  • Gary was a possibility that the reason he did that was it.

  • He was looking to you thinking go and the way he played the place to go Ego Gary Devil, have some of that out there.

  • You think you could just pick up here in La Liga, be a top class coach, take away your ideas, your media career, do what each of you some of that I think you look whether he's like that anyway, I don't know or whether it's just something that, like you say, thought I think I need to leave.

  • We're not new.

  • And I think you need a lesson after the game.

  • I remember you all these things that happened to me, the world, the games that I remember like real Betty's away, and that's when I knew that.

  • That's what I knew.

  • I was gone the moment the moment I knew that I was gone.

  • When when you go from when you gold from starting office 433 then went and played Villarreal away and I went to 532 and I don't even like the system hates it.

  • I then went to 442 um, with the narrow midfield for about probably mid February.

  • And then I went to really Betty's away.

  • I knew I was finished as I was doing the team talk, probably, but I knew I was finished during the game.

  • If I wasn't sure during the team talk, I actually put two big men out front and I thought, Let's go direct, Let's beat, let's beat, Let's beat the press that they have Let's go full on and get up behind it.

  • Let's go old fashioned.

  • Let's be awful.

  • Let's be aggressive.

  • Let's go messy.

  • Let's let's go win tackles and you know when you do that, you realize you've run out of ideas and essentially you were prepared and at that moment alone, I knew after that game that I had to be sacked.

  • I knew that I was in trouble and you that this just was something that wasn't right for me at this moment in time because I've literally that's exact around like I was on the wall says for four months, changing systems, trying different things, that place just need that consistent message, that message of that direction off.

  • Believe in what we do and believe in the cold.

  • His sessions believe in the process is that you're going through on the results will come eventually.

  • If all of a sudden, after 34 games, you change the team, you change the system.

  • You obviously it all over the place.

  • And it taught me a lot in terms of it taught me a lot and I think that's where there were these lots of little messages.

  • I I think against your betters was the world worded.

  • The team talk where I think Alvaro Negredo came up to me in the morning of the game were a from home and I got to a point where I could speak reasonable football Spanish.

  • I was living.

  • I say I was due for lessons a week and I was, you know, I was really trying hard, and I always made sure that the team talks were in Spanish, and I always made sure that I called.

  • His meetings were in Spanish, and I always wanted to immerse myself in the court because I've seen what happened.

  • That united when the international players came over and we tried to immerse them in the soft your monk union call to straightaway.

  • You speak English in the dressing room, you do the things that we do.

  • You basically make sure that you're dear to the Scott call to that we've created in this club and all the players did that.

  • And that's why we had a successful team that could be from SOF, South America, Africa, Europe.

  • Scan that wherever, wherever it was in the world.

  • We're the great spirit because everybody did to the culture and the spirit of the fact that they were in Manchester.

  • And so before that game, I'll viral came up to me and said, Gary, we want you to drop your translator, put it, sit him down.

  • We want you to do the team, talk in Spanish.

  • I will help you through it, and we know what you're gonna say All you have to do is get a couple of words out.

  • We know where you're going with it, a part way through that team talk.

  • I went to say, You know, I want you to play lots of passes and went, say, 123 But I said, Enough, enough.

  • I'm a French from skill Kicks it and wait till you sticking together.

  • I remember looking Alv are on the front row and feather all laughing the players.

  • To be fair, I remember thinking to myself, Oh my gosh, you don't you?

  • You don't remember?

  • You got somebody to be fair spoken on television for five years, confidently.

  • And then you stood up there in front of 22 players trying to speak in a foreign language, one that you've only lived for the last two Bonds.

  • You've completely lost your confidence in yourself.

  • You completely drained yourself of every little bit of belief that you've ever had.

  • I remember around that time saying, to Paco and to Phil, Phil was, you know something.

  • I don't think Bill's ever spoken the truth about this.

  • Phil became incredibly frustrated with me out in Valencia because he'd seen someone who had been relatively strong and resilient and robust food out the whole life breaking down in front of them.

  • In terms of the principles of that, I allowed allowing other people to take the lead, allowing other people to do things, not not really standing up there and being from in Central and say No, I'm taking the coaching sessions.

  • I'm doing it.

  • Everybody else moved to one side and I remember saying to pack on Phil one day there was a point where by the training was probably stood still for about three or four minutes on Dhe.

  • It was stood still for three or four minutes because I was going to get a message to Won't play that was asking me questions back and you've got Remember, if I answer for what if I answer a question with the 2nd 6 30 seconds to translate, he then comes back.

  • So you just doubling everything up.

  • And it was so frustrating for May, let alone for the players.

  • I remember coming off the side of the pitch on it, been stood in the players invested around somewhere, jogging on the spot, someone kicking balls, someone talking because I was dealing with one or two players and I remember coming off the side of the pitch and saying Filled Paco, I want you to feel have been out there for about 89 months of spoke a lot.

  • Wolf, Spanish in Paco was fluent, obviously in Spanish, in Spanish.

  • So I just said to them, That's it, Do all the sessions From now on, I'm not stopping the players I would have hated.

  • This is a player myself.

  • I don't that point.

  • I lost the confidence to stand out on the training pitch in the middle of the training sessions and actually communicate with the players as well.

  • So you gotta imagine I've gone from this person who entered into Spain who come over who was sure himself here, obviously was confident.

  • 2 to 3 months later, it's essentially dismantled.

  • May piece by piece and I want to take my composure.

  • Never lost my temper.

  • I never lost.

  • Never.

  • I never sort of started snapping up.

  • I think a couple of times at half time I think I lost my temper with the players fellas, though there were moments where there they were is one of the things that I learned from that session from that from that experience.

  • Sorry, but when maybe found sometimes and maybe when I was in the media Look, a group of players and we think are they're not.

  • They're not doing all they come for the club.

  • They don't care, Jo.

  • Sometimes they just lost.

  • They just haven't got any direction.

  • They just haven't lost.

  • They lost the confidence.

  • They've lost the belief they've lost their love of football momentarily because the teeth, because the pressure is so much.

  • And that's what made me see things differently.

  • I don't think the players ever gave it in Valencia.

  • They never once give less than 100% but all there were times whereby they were questioned for that.

  • But I could never question them for that.

  • They just didn't have the right coach for them at that moment in time.

  • That's all.

  • Really.

  • What effect do you think the whole experience had on you?

  • Sure, medium and long term you know something at once I was, um So once I was psyched.

  • I have to say that because of my experience I had when I was younger and football when I lost my confidence around the age of 23 24 around the world, the European championships in 2000 and giving the goal against Vasco de Gama the season after the trouble.

  • I lost my conference for about eight months.

  • I'm not learned coping mechanisms and strategies to be able to deal with losing my confidence in that time.

  • Andi, when I was in Valencia, my losing confidence in myself came out of the fact that I've never been there before.

  • So once I got back into England on DDE, I decided that I was gonna take a tree month break to the end of the season.

  • I wasn't to go back on television for that two months.

  • It was right to take that break.

  • But I recovered really quickly.

  • I realize that ultimately I was more experienced as a pundit than I had Bean before Actually went to Valencia, had more experience.

  • I'd lived through the You were you were you were you worried that your credibility has become It would have been damaged. 00:45:47.830 -->

God I have.

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