When I was coming towards the last few years of playing I had an idea of wanting to be a manager and how I would want to play.
The most enjoyable times I had as a player were in teams that played football. I was a little short-a**e so if the ball was going to get lumped up to be then I was definitely going to struggle.
As a player and a person, I’ve always been positive. Maybe that’s the attacker in me.
Playing football is more enjoyable to watch, certainly as a manager on the touchline. And it’s a philosophy I feel is the right way to play.
There are times when we’re going to have to out the ball up to Chris Brown and then go and play in their half but I feel we’ve got the players who can adapt to both.
You’ve got to adapt and I think we’ve shown this year with systems that we’ve adapted but always stuck to the same philosophy of playing good football.
People will wonder why managers don’t all share the same style but the personnel at your disposal can dictate your philosophy.
We have recruited players with the philosophy in mind and if we didn’t have the likes of Harry Forrester, Mark Duffy and Richie Wellens we probably couldn’t play the way we do.
There is that though process behind recruitment as you can see with Gabby Tamas and Abdou Meite who are very comfortable on the ball.
We do a lot of team play on the training ground. I don’t think you can just do your team play on the Friday and expect it be right on the Saturday.
We plan training six weeks in advance in terms of teams we’re playing and what we want to do. A majority of what we do is down to team play, passing the ball and how we want to hurt teams.
When it comes to being a manager, coach or player I believe you are always learning. If I do get any time off I will try to go and watch other clubs train.
I’ve been very lucky over the last year to have been to Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Madrid. I just try to pick up any ideas.
As a player, my philosophy was just the best you can and work as hard as possible, and it’s no different as a manager. So if I can go somewhere and pick little things up by watching games or observing teams train and creating relationships with other clubs and managers, I’ll do it.