00:00What have you learned about your group, the squad, across this last week with the results
00:05that you've had and what do you want to see differently from them for the game at Fulham
00:09at the weekend?
00:11Yeah, we're always learning. As a group individually, as a collective, I think we're always learning.
00:20It was at some point in time when you're trying to build towards something, you know, it's
00:25not always going to go perfect, it's not always going to go to plan, I think. Well, I know,
00:32history tells you that any team that's been successful goes through periods when you've
00:36got to work through it, you've got to come through it, you've got to improve. We've had
00:43a small period now of this recent time where it hasn't been exactly what we wanted it to
00:52be. I was expecting a point at some stage where we'd go through it, it was going to come.
01:01We had such a good spell last season and going into this season, whether it was going to be
01:06now or at some point during the season, there's going to be a time when you don't get everything
01:11out of it what you wanted. It's how you work through it, it's how you react. Stay in focus,
01:20keep doing the right thing, stay in level as best as you can and come through and keep
01:27believing that you've come through, which we fully believe that. It's one of them spells
01:31and it's a week or two really of results that haven't gone our way and it's tiny margins
01:37in a couple of them games as well, you know, like 95th minute goal, a goal that shouldn't
01:41have been and all of a sudden it feels, not for me it doesn't feel it, but it can feel
01:47a lot bigger than it actually is. We work through it, winning games is always the answer,
01:55it's the answer to a lot of things. It can cover up a lot of things as well sometimes by
02:01winning games and people don't see the whole picture so it works both ways.
02:05Are you confident you know how to get past this though?
02:07Yeah, yeah.
02:10Michael, on Wednesday you said after the game that the pressure doesn't bother you, but what
02:19about your staff, what about your players, your friends, your family? You know what this
02:25club is and you're right, it's a small period of time, but sometimes it only takes one defeat
02:31or one bad result and this kind of huge noise starts and you might be able to protect yourself,
02:38but what about everybody else?
02:42I think that's my role as well, is obviously taking care of myself and looking after myself,
02:49but there's a lot of other people that I can help influence as well, of course it is.
02:54It's the beauty of being here at this football club, there's great times, there's things
03:02you can achieve and there's great feelings and there's obviously the disappointments
03:05and sometimes the smaller disappointments lead to being a little bit bigger.
03:10It's just part of coping and being at this great football club.
03:18It doesn't always feel like a great football club, sometimes I would have thought.
03:22Yeah, 100% it does, yeah. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
03:27It's the best place for me to be, so part of the times when it's maybe not going to plan
03:33are sometimes the best times to work your way through, find out a few things and come out an awful
03:39lot stronger.
03:43It's a period of time where, as I said, it can be small things that become big things from a
03:50lot of other people.
03:53The key to it for us is staying focused and staying on track and understanding that it can happen as
04:01much as we don't like it
04:02and we don't want to accept it, it can happen. As I said, the fact it's happened the first cluster
04:08of the season really,
04:09if this happened in November after a good few wins, you know, it's maybe seen a little bit different.
04:15But I was expecting at some point we were going to have a spell where we'd have to work our
04:19way through
04:19and we're kind of in that little bit now and we'll find our way through it.
04:24Michael, you've been part of coaching staffs and even as a player where things can spiral very quickly
04:31and some of those players have been here in those seasons as well,
04:34so how do you kind of stop that feeling? You talked a lot after Wednesday night of a feeling around
04:40the team.
04:40How do you stop that feeling from developing?
04:42It wasn't the feeling around the team, it was the feeling around everywhere else. It wasn't about, to be clear
04:50with that,
04:51it wasn't the feeling about us or me or the staff or the players, it wasn't that, it's just the
04:56general feeling that
04:57we just spoke about, that I can create but I can't knock us off track or take our eye off
05:07it or refocus
05:07or think about things that we don't control. It's about trusting what we do, what we're good at
05:17and keep doing those things to give us chances of winning games. Like I just said, it's fine, fine margins
05:23and then everything escalates from there and we live in a world of instant reaction, instant judgment
05:32which is fine, it's how it is but it's not in my world. As I said, being realistic and then
05:39understanding
05:40this was going to come and being ready for it and knowing, learning about each other, I think it's really
05:45important
05:47and building on it for what's to come.
05:51Michael, you speak about not feeling the pressure but when you're walking off with the players on Wednesday night
05:56and the strep that ends chanting what it's chanting, that must hurt on a personal level.
06:01We don't like losing football matches, so it's not that I don't feel the emotion of losing football matches
06:08but it doesn't affect how I think about what we need to do next. I think that's the most important
06:15thing.
06:16You don't feel you need to show more emotion?
06:18I need to show more emotion. In what way?
06:25I don't know, sometimes they want to see more emotion but you don't see your emotion.
06:30What do you want me to show?
06:34Michael, you spoke about belief earlier. In a practical sense, how do you go about trying to maintain that belief?
06:42You and your staff, do you have meetings with the players or do you show them videos of happier times?
06:49You put things in a little bit, it's not a catastrophe or disaster, it's not the end of the world.
06:55We're not in a place where we've gone on an awful long run of horrific results.
07:02We've lost a couple of games recently and we feel that we've started and we've been in all the games
07:10that we've played,
07:11if not being the better team at the start of the game, so it's not like we're having a real
07:14struggle all the time.
07:17We've done a lot of good things in them to put ourselves in really good positions in the games that
07:21we've been in.
07:23So the belief certainly comes from that. The good things that we've done, that gets totally lost in some ways
07:29in the surrounding feeling but it doesn't get lost by us.
07:35Hi Michael, this is about team news for the weekend. Are you expecting Luke back and is there a chance
07:39Carlos could make his debut?
07:42There's kind of a chance on both of them really. Not totally 100% yet but there's also a chance.
07:50What's the situation with Luke? Has it been long and unexpected?
07:55Yeah, it is really short term to be honest but it's just working towards the game so we'll see how
08:03he is coming the weekend.
08:04James?
08:05Michael, you said obviously we live in a world of instant reaction and judgement which is absolutely right but football
08:12owners inhabit that world as well now.
08:16We see managers routinely moved on and just the recent experience of this history one obviously the new ownership sort
08:23of took over the day to day running.
08:25Eric Ten Hag lasted 20 months from that point. Ruben Amarin's lasted 14 months. Not a long time at all
08:33and results ultimately dictate things.
08:35So is the reality that you do face a short term pressure for results amid your longer term wishes?
08:45Yeah, but I think they'll be a lot longer than one or two games of results.
08:50I understand, first of all taking away all that, that's relevant for me.
08:57It's about what's, I know the club, I know the role, I know what's expected here in terms of playing
09:05at a certain standard,
09:07achieving certain things on the pitch, so I get all that.
09:12In terms of future and ownership and how long I've got in the job, that's just totally not in one
09:21part of it.
09:21How long have I got? It's ridiculous to think that way in a position that I'm in, that's just not
09:27on the radar.
09:28I understand what we need to achieve and where we need to be as a football club.
09:32For the owners, what they expect, for the supporters as much as anything,
09:36if not more importantly for me, what they expect and what they want to see.
09:41I get all that, I get all that.
09:44It's two or three games that we haven't had certain results.
09:47And two or three games too many because I really hate losing.
09:50But that doesn't mean that the world caves in.
09:54In some minds it does, but it can't for us because we've got to perform, we've got wins
10:00and we've got a lot of games to plan for and that's exactly what we're doing.
10:07You've been really consistent in that whenever there's been a bad result
10:09you've always taken responsibility onto yourself, you've never pointed the fingers at players,
10:14you've never made public excuses or anything like that.
10:16Because you're doing that, do you think that that maybe invites more criticism onto your own shoulders?
10:21That's why I'm here.
10:23It's my responsibility, I'm fine with that.
10:27It's not a blame game.
10:30It's not a blame game.
10:31We all search for things to look at and point at and somebody or whatever reason it may be
10:38and find the blame and sometimes it gets almost like too much of a thing
10:42of wanting to find someone to blame or something to blame.
10:46Blame me, no problem, I'll take the responsibility of whatever it is,
10:49but it's not about blaming people, for us it's about finding the solutions and being better.
10:54That's as a whole football club, as a group of players, as staff, as owners, supporters,
10:59it's a whole collective thing.
11:02You can put it in different directions, you can worry about different things,
11:07it's about what you focus on really.
11:09I'm totally happy taking responsibility, absolutely no problem.
11:14It doesn't bother me, I just know where we want to get to and we want to get there fast.
11:20Hi Michael, you said on Wednesday that it's important to take a delicate approach with JJ Gabriel.
11:26I was just wondering, has there been any progress or update towards resolving his future
11:30and how confident are you that the club can get it resolved?
11:33Yeah, I think I'll just repeat what I said the other day really.
11:36He's a young boy, JJ, and I think it's important that we certainly don't play anything out here.
11:44I think the exposure and the scrutiny and everything, you've got to be careful and be sensible
11:50and think of him as much as anything.
11:52So the situation will work itself out, whatever way it's going to work itself out.
11:58Make sure he's okay is the important thing.
