sabato 14 gennaio 2012

Intervista a Westley

Ecco le prime parole del nuovo manager Graham Westley tratte dal sito ufficiale del Club:

Welcome to Preston North End, first and foremost why are you here?
"You walk into the ground and see people like Sir Tom Finney, Sir Bobby Charlton, David Beckham and Alan Kelly - all the legendary names that have been here.

"Preston North End were the first double winning Club! You look at the stadium and the infrastructure and you know it is a Club punching below its weight. 

"It is a fantastic opportunity, not to do anything but respect the Club's history but a great opportunity to bring some life, vitality and freshness and to get this Club first punching at its weight and then kick it on from there."
When Preston North End approached Stevenage to talk to you and made their interest known, did all of that make it really easy to start talks?
"When a Club of this stature makes an enquiry about you, albeit the geography is not natural for some people from the south, you feel it is a privilege, you are excited and you know it is a very big Club.

"You know there is a massive opportunity there because of where the Club is right now.

"It was easy to make the decision but at the same time I have to say I have had some very successful and enjoyable times at Stevenage and it was a wrench to leave the players, the fans and the football club where I have enjoyed so much success in recent times."
Preston North End fans have probably spent the last two or three days pouring over the CV of Graham Westley, to appreciate there is a lot of success and drive in there but what else can you tell us that you are going to bring to Preston North End?
"First and foremost, what the CV doesn't show is the amount of hard work that goes in to creating the honours.

"I don't think you get anything in life or in football if you are not prepared to put the work in and the fans can rest assured myself, the management team and the players at this Club will work for every blade of grass, work to win every inch that is possible day in, day out.

"We will seek to get better and that is what I am all about! The trophies that I have won as a manager have come through a phenomenal amount of hard work from a lot of people, and I want that spirit and unity of any club I am a part of.

"I am joining a fantastic Club where there is a lot right with the people that I have met so far, they have been so engaging and so supportive and they want to give their all.

"It is my job now to make sure there is a cause that they can really get behind now. It is about uniting and making sure there is a real strength to this football club once again.

"It has had some difficult times but we also know in recent times Preston North End have nearly been in the Premier League. 

"It is my job to revitalise and the first thing to do is get the Club punching at its weight and secondly kicking on from there."
There is a team to do that, not just yourself joining us.John Dreyer and Dino Maamria will be joining Preston as well, what do they add to that concoction of a management team?
"There are ingredients if you are going to be successful, thankfully for me Dino [Maamria] has spent time in the North West and he worked locally at Burnley in their youth structure.

"He is well connected in the area and he is a very good A licence coach who has got exceptional qualities and he certainly breeds the winning mentality within players.

"John [Dreyer] is an experienced Premier League player and he has played at the top level. He is a very steady kind of guy, he is less expressive than Dino but at the same time he is a nice balance to Dino.

"Between the three of us we have a lot of experience and we have had to fight at the bottom as players playing non-league football after a very brief professional career and John has played at the top of the game.

"We have had a fight and we are very hungry for the opportunity in front of us and confident we can come in and do a very good job for this football club."
You have seen Preston North End a number of times this season including the game with Stevenage in December. These are players that you are familiar with in terms of what abilities they have got, but what can you get out of them?
"The one thing people have talked to me about both within the Club structure and looking in from the outside is let's get the fitness, discipline and organisation in order. 

"Let's make sure we get the work ethic right, the spirit and the unity of the dressing room.

"I haven't walked into a single dressing room were there isn't the desire to be successful. Likewise, I have never talked to a professional footballer who doesn't want to put the work in. 

"If you get the demand on a professional footballer for hard work and to get the best out of his talents then he will give it to you.

"You have to just sew the seams and show people you know how to create success and if players know you know how to create success they will give you their effort because they want medals around their necks."
The 12th man, they play a huge part in that, the people who are going to come in and support your team week in week out...
"I am very good friends with Martin Keown and he told me the other day about when he came here with Leicester City to play Preston.

"Martin talked about the Deepdale factor and the how difficult it was as an away team when the momentum built up in the stadium.

"Every club says let's make our stadium a fortress but with the nature of the fans and their passion, if we get the brand of football right and we play with intensity and an attacking momentum then I am sure this place can become a fortress once again."

People will ask the question what type of football the team might play but you will have to play the sort of football that best suits you and the players at your disposal?
"It will be a type of football that suits me, it is a type of football that suits my management team, the players, the crowd and the game because let's face facts you get some difficult opponents turning up.

"Part of their objective is to stop you playing and to give you problems and we have got to all understand as a football club we are not always going to get it our own way.

"I like playing winning football, first and foremost this is about playing winning football and it is all about what it takes on the day to win the football match.

"I love it when my team plays fantastic football and if Preston North End are playing an attractive brand of football you won't see anybody happier than me.

"However on a Saturday night I want to count the points. If a team comes here and tries to be awkward and we have to work at it and edge away at the game and win with a late goal, we have to make sure we have clubbed together and played our part in the victory."
Part of that is the tremendous work ethic that is clear for those people who have been reading your CV that you install in the people around you...
"The greatest golfers in the world such as Jack Nicklaus talked about the 'harder you try the luckier you get'.

"I have always believed in putting in the hours and doing more work than anybody else. If you are good enough and you put the work in then you are going to get more out of yourself.

"I want to get better everyday, I have sought over the 600 plus games I have had in management just to get better and better.

"If I can do that as a manager then the players that I lead will do that aswell - I will lead by example. 

"The players will see me putting the hours in and they will see me sweating the blood and I just expect them to do that with me and hopefully I will be able to inspire them."
An important relationship is that of the manager and his chairman and you have already spent plenty of hours this week in negotiations and that relationship is already something which is starting to create the next chapter for Preston North End.
"I have known Peter Ridsdale from the outside and it has been a pleasure getting to know him fro the inside.

"He is an inspirational man and he has got an a vision and ambition for the Club that I understand. I know it is not going to be easy living up to the expectations but I didn't come here for an easy option, I came here to take on the challenge.

"I enjoy the pressure of a big challenge and I am looking forward to this one! The chairman has got his vision and we both want success and he is prepared to support me as the manager to bring a team together that will create that success.

"I am looking forward to the challenge, I think there is going to be exciting times ahead."
Twenty-two games left going into Saturday's game against Wycombe and 21 by the time you take over for a match. Are you a goal setter and do you have in your mind what you want to achieve this season?
"I am a goal setter, and my goal is always to win the next match and I like to keep my focus on that.

"We are not in great form here right now and you look back at recent results and we are where we are in the league because of our early season form. We are not where we are because of what we have been doing recently.

"We have got some big players out injured and the squad will be feeling that and you can't lose players of Neil Mellorand Iain Hume's quality and not feel that.

"One of the things I have got to do is train the squad into the mind set of is getting used to the fact that the 11 players that we put on to the pitch week-in-week-out, whoever that is within our squad, are good enough to win football matches.

"We have to make sure we can get that confidence into the players and we have to make sure we overcome this recent run of form.

"Let's concentrate on winning the next game, we have to get some fitness and organisation in and the players have got to understand my ideas.

"I will also have to understand their ideas because it is as much as me listening and understanding them as to me bringing my own style in.

"I don't want to start installing a new way which confuses and loses everybody, I want people to come with me and know the disciplines and ideas that I have will serve them well.

"Let's put ourselves together in the best way possible to win the next football match on a consistent basis and fight for every inch in every game and make sure that people once again live in trepidation of the Preston fixture."
Finally it is fair to say that this week, with everything that has gone on, there has not been much sleep for yourself, the chairman and everybody else involved. There is probably not going to be very much sleep from now until the end of the season as their will be lots of stones turned over to make Preston North End a successful team once again...
"There is a lot of hard work ahead, we are not sitting in the position we are in the league for no reason. Being big gives you no right to win football matches and being small doesn't mean you have to lose them, which we have just shown at Stevenage.

"At Stevenage we have been winning games despite our size and the thing we had a lot of was heart, fitness, togetherness, spirit, fight, desire, hunger and ambition. 

"I think those are the things you have to build and you don't get those things if you don't put the hours in. 

"There will be lots of hard work and lots of stones turned over but we need to have fun as well because I am sitting here hard faced and players are at their best when they are enjoying themselves. 

"Hard work can make you a little bit afraid of what is about to come but we are going to have some smiling players aswell.

"I don't mean that in the wrong way because they are going to sweat and bleed but they are going to enjoy themselves and when they are enjoying themselves the fans will enjoy the football with them."
Good Luck
"Thank You."



http://www.pnefc.net/page/NewsDetail/0,,10362~2576551,00.html

Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference

Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference

Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference


Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference


Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference


Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference

Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference


Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference

Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference


Gallery: Graham Westley Press Conference

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