Simon Grayson exclusive interview
For the full interview, logon to: yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk later today
Her er hele intervjuet med 'Larry':
Leeds United: Simon Grayson exclusive interview
The life expectancy of a Leeds United manager in the 21st century is not a statistic for Simon Grayson to dwell on.
Three weeks into his employment at Elland Road, Grayson is too flushed with optimism to allow needless negativity to seep into his first extensive interview, but his understanding of the position he holds would be incomplete without an acknowledgement of the men who bowed out before him.
Grayson resigned from Blackpool last month to become the new manager of Leeds, ending a tenure in Lancashire which spanned three years and one month. On arriving in Yorkshire, the county of his birth, it was a sobering thought to realise that no coach since David O'Leary has survived for as long at Elland Road as Grayson remained in his post at Blackpool.
The absence of longevity would have been a mystery to the late Don Revie, United's longest-serving boss. It was certainly a surprise to Gary McAllister. Heralded as the level-headed visionary required to open the gates to the Championship and beyond, McAllister was dismissed by Leeds last month, 11 months and 50 games after his appointment.
McAllister's role at Elland Road was his first in management for four years, a break enforced by personal reasons rather than professional. In leaving Blackpool and the Championship, Grayson vacated a desk that was secure and stable to accept a tantilising job which he knew was responsible for swamping many an aspiring manager.
Is the fate of McAllister a worry for his 39-year-old replacement?
"My glass is always half full," said Grayson instinctively. "I like to think positively and to think of myself as a positive person. And anyway, you're fully aware of what you're stepping into here, as a player or a manager.
"Pressure comes with the territory and when you take this job on, you accept straight away what's at stake for this club. You also accept that your job is linked to those stakes.
"If you meet the expectation then you're in control of your position. If you don't then you've obviously got a problem. But there aren't many jobs in football where failure is tolerated. People pay their money, they expect certain things and you have to deliver.
"Staying at Blackpool wouldn't have been a case of me staying in the comfort zone. I had a good relationship with the club, but it was never an easy job because we were relegation favourites for the past two years. You're always under pressure and if you don't perform or get results then there's a risk you could lose your job. That's the case in every league and you expect it and live with it.
"What I couldn't turn down was the chance to test myself. I had the option of staying at Blackpool and working under slightly less pressure, but as a player I always liked an opportunity to see how I'd cope at the highest level possible. It would be a bit strange if I went into management and started acting any differently.
"The attraction for me is that I want to be the one who makes this club successful again; the one who gets us playing at a level which properly suits the club. Managers have come and gone and not been able to do that. I think I can, and time will tell, but I trust myself to make a success of the job."
Grayson is the fourth permanent manager employed during Ken Bates' time as United's chairman, a reign which enters its fifth year later this month.
McAllister and Kevin Blackwell were sacked within six months of losing play-off finals and although Dennis Wise chose to leave Elland Road last year, his disenchanted demeanour in the weeks before his resignation suggested he had taken Leeds as far as was able.
The considerable advantage that Grayson has over all three of those predecessors is the prior experience of winning promotion from the division in which Leeds are asking him to work.
It is less than two years since Blackpool beat Yeovil Town in the League One play-off final and, under Grayson's guidance, climbed into the Championship for the first time in almost three decades.
The defining moment of their season was the conclusive sequence of 10 victories which established a club record and swept Blackpool out of League One, but Grayson also remembers the solitary win his squad achieved from their first 11 matches and the criticism that form earned him.
As a newly-appointed, fledgling manager who had retired as a player at the end of the previous season, Grayson was an easy target for sceptical supporters, regardless of the fact that he had kept Blackpool clear of relegation as caretaker boss during the 2005-06 campaign.
The recovery made after their directionless start, culminating in the play-off final, taught him that a position like that held by Leeds on his arrival last month – ninth in League One and treading water – is far from hopeless.
"The key for Blackpool was that we hit that run of wins at the business end of the season, at the right time for a team chasing promotion," he said. "We were the form team in the league and that told in the play-off final.
"There were games within that run of 10 wins when we deserved to get beaten and where privately I wasn't thrilled with our performances. To me, the results were down to belief and momentum and the fact that we'd played ourselves into a position where things were going for us.
"Yes, we got lucky on a couple of occasions but we deserved that because of the run we were on. That's what people mean when they talk about earning your own luck.
"This Leeds team are outside the play-off positions and I'm not saying that we're going to win 10 on the trot like Blackpool did, but it's always a possibility.
"That's why I'm not prepared to concede that automatic promotion has got away from us. A winning habit is difficult to get into, just like a losing habit is difficult to get out of, but sometimes there's no stopping a team who do that.
"The chairman's looking for the same as I am this season – to get into the top six at least and make sure we're involved in the play-offs. I still think that getting into the top two is a viable possibility, but I carry the same aims that he does.
"He's been very supportive of me and he's given me every encouragement to be a success, helping me to get players in, players out and offering bits of advice from his own experience. He's seen a lot of football in his time and he works hard for this club."
Grayson's experience of League One was one of the fundamental reasons why Bates sought his appointment and burdened himself with the complicated process of freeing the coach from his contract at Bloomfield Road.
Other alternatives, notably Adrian Boothroyd and Gus Poyet, had the simplicity of being unattached.
Blackpool rejected United's proposal for compensation for Grayson and lodged a complaint with the Football League after the 39-year-old submitted his resignation and took up the offer of employment at Elland Road.
Karl Oyston, Blackpool's chairman, alleged that United had broken Football League rules by appointing Grayson, and the complaint has been passed by the League to a Football Disciplinary Commission who will rule on the matter unless a belated deal is reached between the clubs.
Blackpool also threatened to take legal action against Grayson for breach of contract. United's manager maintains that he first became aware of interest from Leeds when their approach was announced on Blackpool's website and confirmed to him in a meeting with Oyston. His immediate response was to state that he wished to speak to the Elland Road club and take the highly unusual step of dropping divisions to accept his new job.
"I told Karl (Oyston) straight away that I wanted to come," said Grayson. "I think he knew that I'd give him that answer and so did everyone at Blackpool. From there it was down to the two clubs to sort things out, but there was no way I was going to let this opportunity pass me by.
"The majority of people in Blackpool have been wishing me good luck. I've had a lot of letters and emails from people saying they understood why I left. I do wish it had been sorted in the manner I would have wanted after six good years there and that I'd walked away without any of this legal stuff going on above me, but these things happen in football. Managers move on and I felt I'd done my job there. This was the next step in my career.
"As far as dropping a division goes, when your first game in charge is against Leicester City in front of 33,000 people at Elland Road on Boxing Day, that tells you everything you need to know about why I did it. The attraction for me is the thought of what could happen here in the future.
"The expectancy level at Leeds is higher than it is at a dozen clubs in the Championship and certainly every club in this division, and a really positive thing for me was the fact so many people – especially people within the game – told me that I was making the right decision by coming here.
"I've worked hard to get to a club like this and it's reassuring to hear other people say that I deserved the opportunity. It was a bit of a surprise that Leeds came calling but I hoped they would.
"Everybody was looking at higher-profile people, guys with names that were perhaps more familiar than mine, but the chairman said all along that I was his number one target.
"I suppose that's why he stuck by me with regards to Blackpool when he could quite easily have taken a different option and gone down the line of appointing somebody who was out of work and wouldn't cost any compensation. He showed a lot of desire to get me here and it's a natural reaction to want to pay him back with results.
"I don't want to be making wild statements about what I'm going to achieve as manager and it would be foolish to say that within three years we'll be back in the Premiership or that within five we'll be back in the Champions League. They're just words and it's a bit too easy to talk the talk.
"As much as we all want to be back in the Premier League and the Champions League, the only thing that matters at this moment is getting out of League One.
"You look at Manchester City now and see that they're the richest club in the world, whereas five or six years ago they were in League One and that's how quickly your fortunes can change. But you can only think like that and reflect on it when you've reached the stage they're at. For us, the priority is to take the first step."
Grayson's is a considered view for someone whose appointment was completed at whirlwind speed at the busiest stage of the football season.
The timing of his induction at Leeds, on December 23, left his wife without a full complement of Christmas presents, and he has not yet had the chance to clear his desk at Bloomfield Road. That particular job is likely to wait until Blackpool and Leeds have resolved their differences over Grayson's availability.
"You wouldn't want too many Christmas' like this one," he joked. "I've not even been back to Blackpool to get any of my stuff. I'm sure half of my training kit has been pinched already.
"I'll do that at some point and also, in all seriousness, to see a few people and say goodbye properly. Once everything's been settled then I'll be able to go back and collect my belongings. That's if they're still there and nobody's sold them on Ebay."
YEP
