More to come

I love the tactical side of the game.

At such an early stage of my coaching career, I have had the tactical tests of being up against managers of the calibre of Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca and Mikel Arteta. Going into games I have never felt that my teams would have an issue tactically. Yes, I’ve had to move some things around, and the Premier League always tests you. But I always felt that, tactically, we would have the answers.

When most managers start out, they have a different progression to the one I’ve had. They learn under less of a spotlight. Before I became a head coach I saw my own progression beginning at League Two or League One level, but it turned out that my first job was in the Premier League. I was thrust straight into being up against Pep one weekend, then Jürgen Klopp on a Tuesday, followed by Mikel Arteta the next Saturday. All with the world watching, so there was a need for me to quickly step up.

It was a test that needed a lot of work and hours, but I really enjoyed it. To come out on top in some of those battles was hugely satisfying. To manage against Jürgen at Bournemouth in my first season, with a newly promoted team, and win 1-0, was fantastic. Just as it was to go away to Tottenham and win 3-2 with a Bournemouth team most people thought would go down.

I love my team to have the ball, as difficult as that can be when you take over clubs in the lower part of a league. We’ve always tried to behave as a team that wants to have the ball, so all our game plans are around the need to look after the ball when we get it. 

Not just for the sake of it, because I think for a while in the modern game there was a move towards possession for possession’s sake. I never want my team to look like that. It has always been possession where we look at the first and best opportunity to attack and get to the goal – to find solutions. Out of possession, we always try to be aggressive, but from a sensible base and understanding. 

The real learning – certainly from my time at Wolves – came from my management of the group and understanding what different players respond to. Bournemouth was a group I knew and had been with for a while, and they had grown together. Wolves had been assembled from different parts of the world at different times, with different journeys to arrive at that place. 

“It was important that I got these players to understand that I was trying to help them”

I was learning quickly, trying to answer questions like: “What does Matheus Cunha need from me and how do we tap into Matheus?” Or: “What does Max Kilman need from me? His journey has been very different to that of Matheus, so how do we tap into Max?” 

In those cases, my coaching staff and I were able to develop them both. Look at the increase in Max’s value that followed our arrival. The work we did on his body shape, being constantly ready and not switching off the engine, understanding what build-up looks like, and not getting locked inside by the number nine. All this work went into Max, and he became a £40m centre-back.

Matheus arrived from Atlético Madrid with bundles and bundles of talent, but hadn’t been able to consistently project it on to the pitch. When we arrived, we spent hours with him in the dressing room, as well as afternoons out on the grass when the other lads had gone home. We were constantly working on his movements as a left number 10. 

Pedro Neto was also a top talent; we would do individual sessions with him on a Wednesday afternoon, when the boys had gone home. I worked on improving his understanding of where we needed him to be, depending on where the ball was, so that he could impact the game more.

It was important that I got these players to understand that I was trying to help them, which in turn helped the team and myself. That I was trying to help them to reach their goals. That could be to stay at the club and be the best player they could be for Wolves, or move to Real Madrid, Manchester City or Chelsea. Whatever their goals were, how we tapped into them and progressed them along that journey was the real learning for me at Wolves.

I have been extremely fortunate this early in my career to work with some top talent. Not only that, but players who were at the right age and stage of their career. At Wolves, Matheus Cunha, Pedro Neto, João Gomes, Rayan Aït-Nouri and Max Kilman were all players at the right part of their career to fully buy in to what I asked of them.

“The accomplishments so far have been great, but the caveat is how early I am in my coaching career”

I also take huge pride in the work that went into progressing players at Bournemouth, but especially with what we achieved at Wolves. You only have to look at the increase in the value of these players from when we arrived and the work that went into improving them. 

Of course the recruitment feeds into that. The recruitment at Wolves was excellent, to get players of that talent at the football club. But there is pride in playing a big part in helping them progress. Chelsea and Manchester United weren’t knocking on the door for Pedro Neto and Matheus when we got there. Rayan Aït-Nouri was potentially moving to France when we arrived, but we spoke heavily with the club about making sure we kept him. We wanted to work with him, and try to progress him.

Most people judge the success of a coach by goals, points and league position. That’s fine. They are the most obvious ways to judge, and they’re vital to your success as a coach. But clubs have also paid me to improve the value of their players. They are trying to run a successful business, so the financial aspect is incredibly important. As well as points and where we finish in the league, these other wins are an important part of what I have tried to do as a coach.

The accomplishments so far have been great, but the caveat is how early I am in my coaching career. I have had incredible moments at a good level, but I am only 42 and I am still in a growth phase as a head coach. My first two years involved building with the aim of getting to greater heights, which is really exciting. Now, I am looking forward to getting back in.

I was ready to go straight back in when I left Wolves, because I hadn’t been doing it long enough to need a break. The first two and a half years of my journey as a head coach were so quick, however, that it was hard to reflect properly. You try to reflect while you’re in it, but I didn’t have the luxury of having the time to fully do so. The fact that the break came gave me an opportunity to slow down and reflect on what I did well, and what I needed to do better. For example, there can be things that come early in your journey – you don’t think it’s a big thing at the time, and so you allow it to happen. Further down the line they become much bigger, and that is something you learn from.

I have taken a lot from having the time off, including fantastic trips to see some great people. I was extremely grateful to spend a full day up at Manchester City with Pep. There, I was able to watch a whole session, and then spend the afternoon and evening with them after training.

“I make sure I watch every Premier League game. I get two done a day on a wide angle, so that I am fully on top of things”

I also did some work on culture with a visit to the rugby league world champions, Wigan Warriors. Their head coach, Matt Peet, has been incredibly successful. The culture of rugby compared with football fascinates me. It is very different, but it was helpful in terms of learning more about harnessing togetherness in the dressing room.

The culture of the team and what it stands for is the most important thing to me. Tactically, you can be flexible – we might be more aggressive one week than another because of the match-ups – but when we defend we must all defend together. When we attack, we all attack together. When it’s a tough moment, how do we respond? How do we behave when we’re winning? That will be underpinned by our culture.

Every team has talent in the Premier League. Every team has a coach who understands the game tactically. But if you look at the teams that are able to achieve something, they have something else. It’s that togetherness, of not knowing when you are beaten. If you are 2-0 down, having the attitude that it definitely doesn’t become three. If the referee gives a bad decision, how do we respond to it? We need to get back and get our minds quickly focused on the next action, always. It’s about trying to create that within a dressing room, and helping the players with the tactical understanding of what the team looks like. A team that stands for what I stand for is key.

I’ve had a few learning trips abroad in the last few months, as well as meetings with my coaching staff, going back through Wolves games where we were successful and not so successful. For example, we have looked at set-pieces – a huge part of the game – so we can make sure we are better at them. 

I have covered everything in the last nine months. It is quite a long time when you have every day to be able to push to improve, which includes staying up to date with the Premier League. Tactically, it moves fast. If you switch your brain off between jobs, by the time you come back, Chelsea won’t look like they did before. Nor will Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and the rest. The flow of the game, the referee and everything won’t look like it did before, which is why I make sure I watch every Premier League game. I get two done a day on a wide angle, so that I am fully on top of things. You can feel like you’ve got loads of time – then the phone rings, you are thrust back in, and that time is quickly gone.

There is still an awful lot more to come from me and my coaching staff. As a player I made my debut at 16, so two and a half years in I was still a YTS player. Likewise, a couple of years into being a head coach, there are plenty of growth opportunities. So I am using my time well to make sure that I go back in as a better manager than when I came out.

“The financial situation of the club meant that we were trying to improve and use what we had to the best of our ability”

Hopefully in the next role we will have an opportunity to add to the group. At Bournemouth we were newly promoted and going through a takeover, so adding player profiles that fitted what we wanted was tricky. The recruitment team at Bournemouth are top, as we have seen in recent years. While I was head coach we signed Antoine Semenyo and Illia Zabarnyi. Unfortunately, Zabarnyi had a tough injury which meant he was unavailable to me for most of my time in charge, and Semenyo had a fracture in his leg. Top recruitment, but in my spell we weren’t able to utilise them fully. 

At Wolves, the financial situation of the club meant that we were trying to improve and use what we had to the best of our ability. For example, we had Pedro Neto on the right wing, but there wasn’t an opportunity to have real pace on both sides, so we had to be tactically clever with how we moved things around to use what we had.

In our next job, we'll work our socks off – on and off the grass – to improve the players we have. If we can earn the right to have time, hopefully we can then add the next layers in terms of recruitment. Then we can start to progress to the next level and show what we can really do as coaching staff. 

I don’t compare myself to others, I just want to constantly try to improve myself and be the best that I can be. Back when I was a kid kicking a ball around in a south London playground, if you said to me I was going to get to this point, I would have laughed. I would have said there was no chance that kid was going to play in England’s top two divisions for 20 years, then go on to manage in the Premier League.

With my coaching journey, I am open-minded and happy to take it wherever it goes. I love the Premier League and it is all I have known so far. But I am open to coaching anywhere, worldwide. Right now I am doing everything that I can to be even better equipped for the next role. That is all I am focused on.