‘Stats show my teams are never the dirtiest’

Tony Pulis stops (briefly) to set the record straight with Luke Edwards as Boro chase promotion

It is not a subject Tony Pulis wants to discuss but he knows the question is coming; that an accusation like this cannot be ignored. The Middlesbrough manager stands up straight, unfolds his arms and, as calmly as he can, strenuously denies that he has ever encouraged any of his teams to hurt an opposition player.

As soon as the subject is raised, the conversation is coming to an end. It is a question that cuts too deeply. Pulis is edging towards the door even as he answers it. He understands why it had to be asked but even so, he still cannot quite believe he is having to defend himself. There is anger, naturally, because Pulis feels betrayed, but mainly there is indignation.

According to one of his former players, Dave Kitson, writing in a newspaper column, Pulis’s desperation to beat Arsenal when he was Stoke City manager was so ferocious that the players were too wound up when they faced them; that the overzealous tackle by Ryan Shawcross that broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg in 2010 was, effectively, the manager’s fault.

“Football is a physical game, but we’ve had one player sent off this season and that was for pulling somebody’s shirt,” said Pulis, speaking at the end of a hospital visit by Middlesbrough players.

“We’ve not had anyone sent off for bad tackles or violent conduct this season. If you look at my record, I’ve had more than 1,000 games [as a manager] and if you look at the stats, none of my teams were the dirtiest in the division. We didn’t have the most yellow or red cards.

“As for the accusation I would tell my players to deliberately try and injure someone, I won’t dignify that question with an answer, that is just a ridiculous statement.” Pulis is not easy to interview. He refuses, several times, to sit down while we talk, but he is engaging company. The 60-year-old has always supposedly been on the wrong side of football fashion, a pair of flared jeans when style dictates you wear tailored ones.

He has always been labelled old school, while his teams tend to be described as defensive and physical, shorthand for difficult to watch and dirty. But his longevity as a manager means there is far more to him than that.

Having first achieved success in the lower leagues with Gillingham, he won promotion to the Premier League with Stoke, turned them into a top-10 side, reached an FA Cup final and played in Europe.

He saved Crystal Palace from relegation and did the same at West Bromwich Albion, before deciding to take on the different challenge of trying to get Middlesbrough promoted from the Championship.

“I wanted that challenge after spending so long trying to keep teams in the Premier League,” Pulis said when asked why he had taken the job in December last year.

“I’ve enjoyed it, it’s a wonderful area. The thing that struck me straight away was how warm and friendly the people are. Whether they will remain friendly if we don’t get promoted…

“But the speed with which you are expected to deliver things in football now is ridiculous. To think somebody was going to come in and turn it around in a heartbeat is amazing really. Everything in life these days is about instant success and gratification, there is no patience. Everybody wants things now. If I hadn’t been given the time at Stoke, or at other clubs earlier in my career, I don’t think I would have ever been successful.”

Pulis is no longer irritated by people who complain about the way his teams play, he has heard it all before and, unlike some, is not interested in changing perceptions just to be more popular.

“People have a perception of you and that’s very difficult to change,” he said. “If you look at the stats, which these people never want to do because it’s easier to just stick a tag on someone, we play less long balls at Middlesbrough than virtually any team in the division. There is no point me wasting time and energy worrying about that.”

Pulis is 11 years younger than Harry Redknapp, who has enjoyed a surge in popularity after winning

I’m a Celebrity. They are good friends. Pulis played for Redknapp at Bournemouth and they live close to each other in Dorset.

“Harry is a football man, but he is also a lovely human being, an excellent communicator. That is what football management is about. I could pick seven or eight managers who have been in the game a long time and they would have exactly the same impact Harry has done on I’m a Celebrity.”

It is difficult to imagine Pulis would be one of them, there is too much sitting down for his liking.