Neil’s waiting by phone for next break as gaffer
Alex Neil picks his words as carefully as he assembles his squads.
The former Preston boss uses a managerial mantra when asked about his depar ture f rom Deepdale last month and the harsh realities of facing up to the dreaded bullet.
He says: “When you win in football, you win together.
“When you lose, you lose and leave on your own.”
Neil’s career has enjoyed an upward trajectory since leaving Hamilton for Norwich City back in 2015.
But the 39-year- old provided an insight into being an out-of-work manager in his first interview since his departure from the Championship club.
He said: “The first thing you do is take a bit of a break, come away from it and try to distract yourself.
“It’s going from making 100 decisions a day to deciding when to take the dog for a walk. You discover what else you actually have in your life.
“I’ve been hard at it in management for around nine years so first I’ll have a break then it’s about looking to see what’s available.
“The simple fact with football is you need to wait before something becomes available and anything can happen.
“It’s a unique job – it’s not as though you can actively go and find yourself something.
“For any manager in work, there is nothing worse than seeing other guys hovering over your shoulder if you’re not doing so well.
“I ’ m certainly not one of those guys.
“There’s also the bigger picture – my family and the different interests I have outside the game.”
Neil admits he has never felt comfortable in the limelight and prefers a low-profile approach in his football life.
He has spent the last few weeks doing DIY around his home and running dif ferent scenarios through his mind.
He said: “You reflect on the job you have done, mistakes you may have made and things you may have done differently.
“You reflect on everything but so much about management revolves around timing.
“When you take yourself back into the circumstances you found yourself at whatever club you are at, you look at all of the variables. “A n d the likelihood is you wouldn’t be far away from making the s a me decisions. The dif f iculty is that only myself and a few select others know the variables we were working with. “Sometimes a decision can look odd from the outside looking in but, when you are in the middle of it and everyone understands the dynamics at play, the likelihood is that the decision was going to have to happen.
“It’s the manager who carries the burden on most things. It’s also about having the appetite to get back in to work.
“Getting my name back out there is probably the most uncomfortable bit, it doesn’t come naturally for me.
“You don’t see my name much in the papers unless I’m doing s ome t h i n g specific for the club as I don’t actively try to get exposure.
“I get that when you are out of work as a manager then you need to keep your face and your name alive. No matter how high your profile was in the game, you can be forgotten quickly.
“There have been far more successful managers than me who have been in the game one minute and next they are just off the radar.”
The sl i d i ng doo r s o f management saw Neil resist a switch to Stoke City in November 2019 to stay with Preston – but he has no regrets.
He says: “Stoke was a very good job but my loyalty to my team trumped me leaving.
“We beat Charlton to move top of the league on the weekend when I was approached by Stoke and they’d lost the day before to move bottom.
“I just felt with the group of players we had, and having invested so much into them, that I didn’t want to leave.
“That was over a year ago and it’s funny in football how things can change quickly.
“Football has always been a labour of love for me. You put so much into it, you are invested in it and it becomes a passion.
“It has never felt like I’m flogging myself to do it, I enjoy it.”
Neil’s name has been linked with managerial vacancies north of the border in recent weeks and he believes a return to the SPFL isn’t out of the question.
He says: “I’d certainly manage again in Scotland if I was given the opportunity.
“I keep being asked what my plans are next. It’s a strange one, my plans next will be dictated by someone actively wanting to talk to me about a manager’s role. That then would become my next plan.
“It’s not like being a plumber or a joiner and saying, ‘ That’s a good company. I’d like to work for them so I’ll make contact with them.’
“The simple fact is that you wait by the phone and hope that something interesting comes up and that they feel you’d do a good job for them.
“I have aspirations and wants but if those aren’t available then I can’t control that.”
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