00:00 Rob?
00:01 And when you were at Celta, in the top of the league for a long period,
00:04 it comes with a job.
00:05 So how do you manage a club that's top of the table?
00:08 Do you come into training and get on their case to remind them,
00:11 or are you quite open and keep the laughter going?
00:14 What's the dynamic for you?
00:15 What's your approach to that?
00:18 They're not the only two options, you know.
00:20 It's not jokes and giggles or me coming in and throwing my significant weight around.
00:28 I'm the same, mate. It doesn't matter.
00:30 I'm hoping that when people see me, they don't know where we are,
00:33 what position we are.
00:35 Like I said, at Celtic, we were on top for a very long time,
00:39 but at the beginning when we weren't on top,
00:43 I don't think people saw anything different in my demeanour,
00:45 and I don't think they will.
00:47 It's one thing I do.
00:49 It's not about staying level-headed or getting carried away with either thing.
00:55 It's just that my role in that context is to be the one thing
01:00 that people can rely upon to be consistent in that.
01:06 I have one objective all the time, which is how can we be better?
01:09 And when that's your objective, it doesn't really matter where you are on the table
01:14 or what the outside noise may or may not be doing.
01:20 It's about the players and the staff and everyone involved with the football club
01:25 looking at me and saying that I come in every day.
01:28 The one thing I do is I come in every day buzzing about doing what I'm doing.
01:34 That's the kind of demeanour I have consistently.
01:39 [Question]
01:54 Oh, mate, that's a word.
01:56 I've got no idea.
01:58 I stay out of the dressing room partly because of the music choices of the players.
02:07 Most clubs want to turn their grounds into a fortress.
02:10 Ours is becoming a nightclub, mate.
02:12 I'm all for it.
02:13 Whatever makes people happy, that's fine.
02:16 I've got no idea, mate.
02:18 Is it even called a DJ these days?
02:20 Who knows?
02:21 I think you're on my bait, so we'd stay away from that subject.
02:25 [Question]
02:47 I don't know.
02:48 It's hard for me to say.
02:49 I just sometimes think we stereotype people.
02:57 I've certainly been one that's tried to break that notion that because a certain player
03:04 or certain individuals come from a certain place, they're going to struggle.
03:07 I think they're all individuals.
03:09 That's why I've always recruited from different parts of the world and not worried about them.
03:13 I mean, again, my Celtic experience of people saying, "Players from Japan will find it hard
03:19 to adjust."
03:21 Because I don't look at it as a player from Japan.
03:23 I don't look at Vic as a goalkeeper from Italy.
03:26 I saw Vic as a person, A, as a goalkeeper who I thought had outstanding attributes,
03:33 and after speaking to him, just as a person who I go, "He's going to fit in perfectly
03:37 because he didn't come here trying to prove a point.
03:41 He's just come here to be the best goalkeeper he can possibly be, and he comes in every
03:45 day wanting to improve.
03:47 He's got great self-belief, but at the same time, humility around him that he wants to
03:53 work hard every day.
03:54 He's in here every day.
03:55 If we have a day off, Vic's a one-player who's still coming in every day to do something.
04:00 When you have people like that coupled with his attributes as a goalkeeper, then I think
04:06 they give themselves a good chance to be successful and to fit in comfortably.
04:12 I think it's a great environment for him.
04:15 Bertie, Rob Bertie, our goalkeeping coach, has got a great relationship with him.
04:19 That's important, I think, for that position because that's probably the one position where
04:25 that one-on-one relationship with a goalkeeping coach is important.
04:28 To be honest, that was one question that Vic asked me before he signed, who our goalkeeping
04:32 coach was going to be, because he knew that was going to be important.
04:35 I think Rob's created a great environment.
04:37 I've said before, Vic's got the fortune of training with guys like Fraser.
04:44 He's just unbelievable at training.
04:46 His attitude, his work ethic, his quality, I think, raises Vic's quality as well.
04:57 We've got young Brandon Ossendon, who's also improving all the time.
05:00 Then he's got literally a legend of the club and one of the greatest goalkeepers ever beside
05:04 him as well.
05:05 It's a great environment for him.
05:07 A lot of it's driven by him wanting to be better.
05:11 Like I said, when we signed him, I wasn't looking, "It's a risk because he's a foreign goalkeeper."
05:19 I just don't look at it that way.
05:20 I just look at it, "Well, okay, he's a person that I think is going to fit in really well with us."
05:25 Was there a moment where you could see he was just getting a lot of confidence, maybe for a save or something?
05:30 Some goalkeepers, they may miss on it, and you could see the confidence that way.
05:34 Was there a moment by the trainer in the game you thought was just…
05:37 No.
05:38 Again, I think it was really important for us.
05:42 I think Vic was the first one we saw.
05:44 It was my priority when I came in and said, "If we're going to sign a keeper, we need to do it early.
05:48 We need to get him in preseason.
05:50 We need to say those kind of things."
05:53 I think it was the West Ham game or preseason where we conceded a couple of goals.
05:58 He didn't really have any saves to make.
06:02 To build confidence for goalkeepers, you want to make saves.
06:06 But he worked through that process because we went through the whole of preseason with him.
06:09 I think that was really important for us.
06:12 I think it would have been more of a challenge for him if we signed him on the eve of the season.
06:18 The club was great in ensuring we got him in early.
06:22 I think that was one thing I'm impressed with.
06:24 I think that helped us.
06:26 Adrian?
06:28 I just want to go back to what you said earlier about your hope that when people see you,
06:32 they don't know where you are and where your team are.
06:35 Because you've had so much success in your career, you've dealt plenty of time with managing expectations.
06:41 When does that side of you change?
06:43 Is there a point when somebody might look at you and be able to go, "I don't know, I've got to see you"?
06:48 No, I don't think so.
06:51 It's just the way I am.
06:53 I get so much satisfaction from what I do.
06:58 I really enjoy what I do.
07:00 On a daily basis, there isn't a day I don't get up and not looking forward to the day ahead.
07:07 There's no other levels of satisfaction in me to get.
07:14 That's it.
07:16 I'm buzzing to do what I do.
07:18 There's no time.
07:20 Like I said, within that context, I also understand that I have a real big responsibility to lead an organisation,
07:32 players, staff, people, to what I hope will be a successful place.
07:40 There's got to be some reliability there in what they see and what they feel with me.
07:48 Some of it is conscious, but the other bit is just, "I'm not skipping about the place, but I'm really happy, mate.
07:56 I love what I do."
08:01 Just because, like I said, it's just the way I am.
08:05 I'm very, very happy.
08:07 What about when a goal that you're chasing is achieved?
08:10 How does that show you that you're normal?
08:13 Again, it's just enormous pride and satisfaction.
08:21 The great bit about the end bit, the success, is not what it does for me.
08:25 It's what it does for others.
08:26 That's where it gives you the buzz.
08:28 I've been around, and like I said, where I have had success, it's usually come off the back of prolonged periods of no success.
08:38 A lot of people have suffered through that.
08:40 You see them enjoy that, and that's where you get the buzz.
08:44 For me, it's not what it does to me personally.
08:47 It's what it does to others.
08:48 That's a great motivator, because you want to do that more and more in your career.
08:52 That's the way I deal with it.
08:55 Paul, and then finish it down, please.
08:58 Do you think you've raised expectations a little bit on the club?
09:02 Because that's a challenging bit of stuff sometimes.
09:06 It just depends.
09:10 I didn't come here to not be successful.
09:15 I think this football club has all the fundamentals to be a successful football club.
09:23 The expectations should be there.
09:25 I think part of the reason why there's been this real desperation for a trophy here is because they feel like that's the space they should be in.
09:36 That is the expectations.
09:38 That's the reality of it.
09:40 But again, it's not what drives me.
09:42 What drives me is not raising expectations or dampening expectations.
09:45 What drives me is trying to build something that will realise the aspirations that this football club has in this particular moment while I'm here.
09:56 What that does in terms of people's perceptions, that's not something that concerns me too much.
10:05 But this is a big club, and it should be in a position to challenge for trophies every year, in my opinion.
10:13 You said earlier that the players can drive you mad at this point.
10:17 What sort of season would you be comfortable staying on?
10:23 If we're in this position around 36, 37, I might look at the subject.
10:31 We'll see how we go.
Comments