‘Character, work and graft are just as important to O’neill as talent’

GUIDING HAND: Michael O’neill congratulates his Stoke players after their midweek EFL Cup win over Wolves.

STOKE City are going places under Michael O’neill and that hasn’t happened overnight. There is a method in place and it started from day one when he walked through the door.

He came into a club on its downers and has been sifting through it all and is starting to come up with results and performances we are seeing now.

There won’t be many tougher games this season than Millwall away and Wolves away so it is no wonder, having come through them, that there is growing confidence, optimism and expectation.

He has been assessing players day in and day out in training. He has put a cross against some, a question mark against some and a tick against others. It’s taken time to get ticks with a circle around them but once you’ve got that, you’re in, boyo.

Yet even with that circle you still have to keep proving yourself all the time. You’re only as good as your last match, only as good as your last training session.

The win at Wolves on Thursday night was a message to the players who might think they are near automatic starters that there are people waiting behind ready to seize their chance and take their places if they slip up. Keep up your high standards.

He has traits that he demands from players and they are really shown up away from home. That’s where you see the real character, as well as the talent.

You can’t push them to have that. That has to come from what’s in your own heart. Players can have fantastic ability, but the ones who combine that with work and graft, have a never-say-die attitude and a will to win are the ones who come good.

If you’ve got a squad full of players like that you’ll go places.

If you’ve got a team of consistent performers – never less than six out of 10 – then you ain’t going to go too bad at all.

Trust is a two-way thing. You need a manager who can trust his players to do what he asks and players who know what is required. That’s when against the odds you can find that extra yard to get forward, find that extra yard to get back.

It can be a lonely place on that touchline and there are always big decisions to make but if you’ve done your hard work during the weeks and months behind the scenes then the players will look after you and more often than not you’ll get it right.

Look at the type of player he has brought in; reliable, hard workers, high energy.

Energy bounces off everyone when you get the right type together. It does take time but with the training work they do, the hours put in on the systems, challenging players in different areas, they come up trumps and away they go.

At the same time, he will not suffer fools gladly. If players don’t prove themselves, they’re out.

He’s been ruthless without fear or favour. Benik Afobe has gone, he wasn’t up to it for him, while Tom Ince and Jack Butland were not even in the squad at Molineux. We haven’t seen Tom Edwards.

Yet look at Josh Tymon, who had been out in the cold but showed his potential in one sub performance when he changed the game, jumped into O’neill’s thinking and now looks like he’s really in the first team picture.