Consistency of performance is essential. You don't have to be exceptional every week but as a minimum you need to be at a level that even on a bad day you get points on the board.
I had good parents. Two older brothers, bit of a handful between us, all got ginger hair, a bit fiery. I remember a very happy childhood.
I've put all the hours in and there's a depth to my education. There are a couple of brain cells in there, more than you might expect of a 6ft 1in ginger skinhead.
Established is a dangerous word for me. It could imply a modicum of complacency.
I don't think I've ever been a fashion item, I don't think I was as a player.
No one seems to want to do anything about diving in the game apart from me. I'm still amazed by it. Kids everywhere are watching, all copying it. No one seems to care about it.
If I can understand them better as a person then I can understand how to make them a better player too.
The early music I heard was Top of the Pops. But in bedrooms, around the house with my brother playing the Sex Pistols, Sham 69 and the Ham and all these groups then going into that sort of mod turnover scene and then going into the New Romantics scene the coming of age myself in the mid-eighties and into the noughties, it was changing.
In this game you can waste a lot of energy wondering about other people's opinions when the one that actually counts is yours. Because that's your job, to lead and to manage.
I have no problem with anyone's view about what we do, I really don't. Very rarely does it stick in my craw what managers or media outlets say about us.
Work hard and do it right. Very simple; but very effective. They are morals I got from my mum and dad. And within that are the details. Be respectful. Try and smile, try and enjoy it. They are things that I still value.
My brother works at Weetabix in Kettering. That was taken over, there were redundancies. My other brother is a builder who has lost jobs, lost work. Football is not immune from that, it just happens to be in more of a spotlight.
Imagine going into an office and telling the staff that they have to follow your philosophy. Imagine the reaction you would get if you said that in any other walk of life. Why would I offer that to my players?
If there is a flaw in the academy system it's that they try to tell them everything. Kids are taught the same. They look the same. So you're constantly looking for the X factor. It's the hardest thing, that mystical ingredient, instinct, the four-second hit, like/dislike, it can come unbelievably quickly.
I look at the group I've got and then I decide what strengths and weaknesses they have and then I formulate an appropriate way the players can work in order to be collectively successful.
I don't want just pure roll out of the back four. I want productive mixed play... how many ways can you affect a game?
All I can do is work hard, prepare the players properly, give them everything I've got and they give me everything they've got.
As a manager, everyone is clambering for you to do something. It comes from the media, the fans, the board and even your own staff sometimes. The strongest thing can be to do nothing and remind the players of the simplicity of the format. The players have taken ownership of that.
I was a player who got the job done, and I think I'm kind of maybe thought of like that as a manager.
I won promotion four times as a player, and I'm not going to deny I would enjoy another one as a manager, but you can ask any of the clubs I went up with and they will tell you the same. My focus was always dead calm, always on the next game.
