Interview with Brian

[retro royal]

Not seen it mentioned on here

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/foo ... 03272.html

[Ian Royal]

01 May 2012

Brian McDermott has had much to celebrate taking Reading back to the Premier League but his personal horizons stretch far beyond the Berkshire club. A child of Irish immigrants, who grew up in an area of Slough that was a mini-Ireland, you can almost feel the regret in his voice as he recalls playing for England at youth level.

“I feel very Irish and I never played for Ireland. One day it would be an ambition of mine to manage Ireland. But not for now. I’ve got so much to do in club football and at Reading.”

We’re sitting in his office at the training ground. McDermott is telling me how, having been rejected by Queens Park Rangers and Millwall, he joined Arsenal as an apprentice in 1977 and went on to make his debut under Terry Neill two years later. He did not enjoy the experience.

“The dressing room was a tough environment,” he says. “There were fantastic players: Tony Woodcock, Charlie Nicholas, Pat Jennings, Graham Rix, David O’Leary, Liam Brady. But I didn’t really have enough confidence to play with them. I never played the amount of games I should have (72 in five years). I have this confidence now and I look back and wish I could put this brain into that 19-year-old boy. It is never easy coming out of the youth team in a massive club like Arsenal.

“I’d have loved to have played under Arsene Wenger. The club are run the right way, they play really good football. I’ve got the utmost respect for Wenger and the Arsenal crowd.”

So, one day, would the 51-year-old like to manage the Gunners?

“Yeah, well listen, at the moment I’m enjoying managing Reading and everything that that entails in the Premier League. So I don’t think about too much else. I’ve had a fantastic two-and- a-half years. It’s been phenomenal.”

Two months ago, McDermott signed a new contract taking him to the summer of 2015. At the time Reading were far from certain of automatic promotion but they were in the middle of a run which saw them win 15 of their next 18 games. Having been eighth on January 28 they clinched the Championship with a game to spare.

For McDermott, such turnarounds have been part of his Reading career. Promoted from chief scout, when Brendan Rodgers left for Swansea in 2009, McDermott had to ensure the club were not relegated — at one stage, they were second from bottom. Remarkably, his first victory was a third-round FA Cup replay triumph at Liverpool.

An extra-time penalty sealed the match and McDermott says: “We deserved to win, it was a great night. I’ll never forget it.”

He wishes he could forget last year’s Championship Play-off Final defeat against Swansea.

Three-nil down at half-time, the Royals rallied but lost 4-2 and he confesses: “I felt bad. After that game, I didn’t want to see another football pitch for a couple of months. It was tough, really tough. It took me ages to recover. I came back in July for the pre-season and I wasn’t great. We lost four of our first six and, in the seventh, if we’d lost against Doncaster we would have gone bottom.”

But that is when the lesson from the Wembley defeat kicked in. “You probably have to learn to lose big to know what’s required to win.”

Investment last summer saw players such as Kaspars Gorkss and Adam Le Fondre coming in and McDermott reshaped his team to fit them in. The challenge was to get them to work as a group and McDermott is very reluctant to highlight any one player as crucial to Reading’s success.

Ian Harte is the only Reading player to make the PFA Championship team but McDermott says: “If you asked me who was going to be Player of the Year, I couldn’t tell you. To me it’s an absolute group thing. Players have come in and out, it’s been quite seamless. We all know what we’re trying to achieve.”

But, given this collective approach, it is surprising that McDermott would love to have managed Paolo di Canio and Eric Cantona. As a television screen behind us shows Di Canio celebrating a Swindon victory, McDermott shouts: “That’s my man.” Later he says: “I love him. I love the way he manages. He was a brilliant player. I’d love to have managed someone like Paolo di Canio. I work with whoever the players are.”

This philosophy makes McDermott sure he would have had no problems handling Cantona. A huge poster of Cantona adorns the room where McDermott gives television interviews and, despite all the problems the Frenchman caused his bosses, McDermott says: “Any manager would do all right with Eric! I’ve watched lots of documentaries and he’s always talking about the team. Very rarely talks about himself. Nothing is more important than the team. That is what I love when you see the big players: Lionel Messi, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney. The way they work for the team is fantastic.”

However, McDermott would never sign a player unless he was the right character. “We go to the nth degree to find out they are the right person to come to the club. If they aren’t, it doesn’t happen.”

This belief that he can manage any player stems from an experience that goes back to his days in the Nineties when he was in charge of Slough. Then the wife of a player rang, complaining. “She told me that I wasn’t managing her husband very well and how miserable he was. She was right. I wasn’t managing him well. I was confrontational and I learnt a lot from that. If a player is not happy and I haven’t picked it up, I’m annoyed with myself.”

Reading, on the verge of being taken over by the businessman Anton Zingarevich, are now able to cast their net wider for players. However, when the Russian first walked in, McDermott was not sure of his own position. “When I spoke to the new owner for the first time in January, I didn’t know whether he wanted me as manager. But we’ve got a good relationship. He’s categorical. He wanted me to sign a new contract. Anton is a good guy.”

But, however this second Russian ownership of a Premier League club turns out, McDermott’s advice to English football’s first Russian tsar, Roman Abramovich, is clear.

“You have to look at what Roberto di Matteo has done. It’s incredible. To pull off a result at Barcelona with 10 men is one of the top, top accomplishments in football I’ve seen. The way he set the team up, the way the players went about their business.

“They must have had a phenomenal spirit, a phenomenal belief to do what they did. It’ll kick start everything at Chelsea. I hope he gets the job.”

Di Matteo’s success emphasises what McDermott is convinced produces winners. “I’ve seen a lot of talented people and teams that don’t really achieve much. But, when talent is mixed with hard work, you have a chance. If you haven’t done the right practice, you’ll come unstuck. Talent isn’t enough. It requires an ethos.”

We can be sure of that ethos from Reading next season although McDermott is careful not to build up expectations. “I can’t talk about surviving in the Premier League. We will try to play attacking football with two wingers as we have done this season. We’ll try to win the first game then move on and see where we end up.

“Every morning, when I wake up I want to prove something. You have got to prove you are hungry and you’ve got hungry players who want to do well.”

Follow Mihir on Twitter @mihirbose

Fuk yeah. I fricking love this guy.

[Gordons Cumming]

We have been very lucky to have him.

Good chap.

[PremAddict]

Exactly - love his approach. This summer will be a big test to try and improve the squad without having the team spirit too-affected. I trust he will do the job...

[Ups and Downs]

Good read. Though it seems like a longer version of an interview I've read before.

[loyalroyal4life]

We're Reading FC, We're Premier League

Brian will become a greater legend that SSC, certain of it. Can't wait for next season!

[wingnut]

Good read. Though it seems like a longer version of an interview I've read before.

Same here - I think the Independent carried the shorter version.
<Spacey mode>
It had the same mistakes in it
</Spacey mode>

[Big Foot]

Some very poor inaccuracies in there but a good read nontheless

[Stuka]

Yeah was pleased to see this as a full page spread in yesterday's Evening Standard.

[Caskeys Lovechild]

Best part being that the Evening Standards main distribution area - is West Ham territory....

[pea]

Best part being that the Evening Standards main distribution area - is West Ham territory....

get over it

[BR2]

Brian didn't mention his time at Oxford where most of the fans hated him as this long-haired useless winger from Arsenal (my nephew's version of things).
After loud-mouthed up-himself Pardew it was so refreshing to get the modest understated Steve Coppell.
I never thought we would ever get Coppell 2 but we have and the man is a credit to his club and himself (I put the club first because that is probably what he would have done).