Nobody answer that... it’ll be Stoke! NEIL: WHY I HAD TO SLAM DOOR ON POTTERS JOB
ALEX NEIL moved quickly when Stoke came calling for him... and firmly shut the door on them to save his Preston side from another spiral of doubt.
The 38-year-old Scot has lifted Preston into second place in the Championship, and Deepdale fans are dreaming of a return to the Sir Tom Finney days when last they were among the elite.
Last season, six defeats in the last eight games cost Preston any chance of a promotion play-off place.
And many believe that West Brom’s courting of former Hamilton and Norwich boss Neil created a fatal distraction.
So when it was clear Stoke had decided Neil was the man to replace the sacked Nathan Jones, he took the initiative.
Worried
“With the Stoke situation, I didn’t have any concerns about myself at all,” he said.
“The only thing I had concerns for was that last season when West Brom was mentioned I worried about whether it had affected the team or not.
“That’s why I said to Peter Ridsdale ( above, adviser to owner Trevor Hemmings) that we needed to put this to bed very quickly.
“We sat down, had a chat and, on the Friday evening before a game I spoke to the players to make them aware of the situation and that I was staying.
“I think it’s important that, whatever the outcome, it has to be made swiftly.
“Otherwise people are saying things, often not knowing ing the facts.
“I had to put the record straight. I told the players not to worry about it and just focus on the next game.”
Just as well because, e on the morning of their game at Charlton, a radio station was broadcasting that Neil had agreed to join Stoke.
He recalled: “Whenever an opportunity comes along you look at it for what it is and what you’ve currently got.
“When I looked at what I had in the changing room and what the players were giving me, and the relationships I had built up, they far outweighed the opportunity which had presented itself.
“I couldn’t leave the team in the position they are after how hard they had been trying for me and the club. I’d have been turning my back on them, which would have been unfair.
“Loyalty is sparse, but I was at Hamilton for nine years and I had no intention of leaving until the opportunity to change my life with Norwich City came along, which I couldn’t knock back.
“The way we are at Preston, there’s not a lot of jobs which would turn my attention away from what I’m doing.”
Neil is ambitious, but h hopes that the headlines will surround his team and not his j ob prospects.
He stressed: “Of course, the ambition is to get us into the Premier League.
“Why shouldn’t it be? I think it’s got to be, otherwise what else are we doing?
“Recognition is always a good thing in whatever job you do.
“You’ve still got to take it with a pinch of salt though because everybody knows you’re always just three games away f rom a crisis. In the last t hree games,
HRecognition
we’ve picked up nine points, but imagine if it had been no points... we would probably be having a very different discussion.
“If anyone in football rests on their laurels, they start going backwards and there’s always hungry guys behind you who want to take over.
Managing
“The owner, in his own way, tries to back us. People shouldn’t forget that we run at a loss every year, so he puts in money just to keep us standing still.
“What he doesn’t want to do is run the club so you are needing too much money to be put in each year and if something happened to him it would be hard to sustain – if you’re left having to pump in £20-30million every year just to keep going.”
Neil, the only Scot managing in the top two tiers of English football, added: “There are some big clubs in the Championship.
“So to compete the way we are makes it more satisfying. Hard work, quality players, recruiting well, good coaching – it’s a combination of a lot of things.”