PLAY-OFF HOPE FOR NEW BOSS
Heckingbottom says Leeds could still get promotion
NEW Leeds United head coach Paul Heckingbottom last night pointed to his promotion success with Barnsley as justification for believing the play-offs are still attainable this season.
The 40-year-old will head to Sheffield United tomorrow for his first game at the helm since calling time on his two-year stint in charge at Oakwell to succeed Thomas Christiansen at Elland Road.
Leeds sit seven points adrift of the top six after a run of half a dozen games that yielded just two points, but Heckingbottom insists this is not an unbridgeable gap.
He takes inspiration from the near identical situation facing the Reds when he took over two years ago this week following Lee Johnson’s sudden departure for Bristol City, the South Yorkshire club having been eight points adrift of the play-offs with 16 games remaining.
A place in the top six was secured on goal difference via a 4-1 final-day win at champions Wigan Athletic as a prelude to the clinching of promotion when Millwall were beaten at Wembley.
“It is a target definitely,” said the new Leeds chief when asked if a tilt at the play-offs was still on.
“Two years ago, when I sat in this chair at Barnsley, we were 14th and we went up. I know it can be done. It is something that is definitely achievable.”
Heckingbottom’s move up the M1 caught many at Oakwell by surprise, not least because it came just a few days after he had signed a new one-year rolling contract.
A strongly worded statement from the Reds’ new owners on Tuesday laid bare their upset, speaking how “shocked” and “disappointed” the club had been that their head coach wanted to leave after the £500,000 release clause in his contract had been met.
Much was also made in the statement of how “tirelessly” Barnsley had worked, in tandem with Heckingbottom, to make six new signings in the transfer window.
Asked if there were any regrets surrounding the handling of his departure, Heckingbottom replied: “No, because there were other things in place regarding the contract.
“The contract was first mentioned to me in March (2017) and then nothing was spoken about until July so, straight away, there is a big gap.
“We started discussing it and then the new ownership came in so it was a real issue to get me a new contract.
“But I had lots of responsibilities there and I literally did put it on the back burner for the good of the club and the team.
“And then we had the sad news regarding Patrick (Cryne, the former owner who passed away last month). I had already signed a contract the week before. We were trying to get the timing right, but then there was the sad news about Patrick so we decided to delay it even further.
“So for everyone, if they want to hide behind the fact that the contract was signed – or announced, shall I say – a couple of days before I left then fine. But, in all honesty, it was nothing to do with it.
“If you look at it really, there is only me that has missed out on the money of the new contract. Barnsley have received more compensation than they would have got if I didn’t sign (the new contract), while Leeds have ended up paying more. So, Barnsley have been the winners out of it.”
Heckingbottom, who also lifted the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in his first season at the helm of a club he supported as a boy, added: “I had an unbelievable time (at Barnsley). Not just the two years (in charge) but the time I had as a fan, then a player and a coach.
“Some great times, some really tough times, but also some emotional times, on and off the pitch.
“I do think this is a real fresh start for the club now. With the sad news of Patrick passing away and now I have gone, yes, I can understand because we all had some really good times there and I had some good times there.
“It can be sad, it can be tough, but the football club is bigger than me and, hopefully, they find someone who can be just as successful for them.”
As that search for his successor at Oakwell continues, Heckingbottom’s focus is on lifting Leeds out of their current slump.
Improving the disciplinary record that has seen four United players sent off in the last five games is a priority, as is instilling the beliefs and principles that served him so well at Barnsley.
Reflecting on a whirlwind week that began with preparations for a derby against Sheffield Wednesday at Oakwell, but will end with him instead tackling their Steel City rivals United at Bramall Lane as Leeds’s new head coach, Heckingbottom said: “Monday was a strange day. I knew before training on Monday that things were happening, but, as it stood, I was still Barnsley manager.
“I carried on there as normal, no one knew, and then things started really moving on Monday night. Timing is everything, as they say. I had opportunities as a player, a coach and a head coach to go, but I didn’t really want to leave. But, this time, everything was right.
“There is some good talent here, we have some real strengths. But I have been brought here for a reason. We need some consistency and there is no reason why we can’t find that between now and the end of the season. I know this division and I know tough it is. What I want to do fits with what the owner wants to do.”
I knew before training on Monday that things were happening. Paul Heckingbottom, on becoming Leeds United’s new manager this week.
AN HOUR or so after clinching the first of two promotions as a player, Paul Heckingbottom took a traffic jam that had brought the M4 to a standstill in south Wales as his cue to open the fire escape of the Sheffield Wednesday team bus and leap out.
The League One play-offs trophy, which the Owls had just lifted at the Millennium Stadium courtesy of an extra time victory over Hartlepool United, went with the defender as he danced off down the motorway to the approving toots of car horns from celebrating supporters.
When finally relocated by a couple of his team-mates a few minutes later, as the gridlock seemed to finally be about to clear, Heckingbottom was in one of those same cars, tucking into a can or two, with a group of fans he had just met.
Now a head coach and into his second job, such behaviour would, of course, be frowned upon. Examples have to be set, and discipline has to be kept.
But that episode in 2005 speaks volumes about the character of the latest man to be handed the task of leading Leeds United back into the promised land of the Premier League.
Heckingbottom, as the Barnsley players discovered during his two years at the helm, is not a man to be taken on without expecting to come off second best. Nor is he afraid of making the big calls or tackling problems head on.
As was confirmed yesterday by his first public outing as Leeds head coach, however, the 40-year-old is also a relaxed character. This much was clear in his response to an enquiry as to whether the stress levels at Elland Road would be that much higher than at Oakwell.
“This story puts it in perspective,” he replied with a smile. “My kids were getting a bit of stick when (Barnsley) were getting beat. My two middle girls came home and asked if I was getting the sack. I said, ‘No’ but they still looked worried.
“So, I told them, ‘Don’t worry –when I get the sack we are going on holiday’. I get home now and my eldest boy asks how the game was. Same with my youngest girl.
“But the two middle girls just ask when I will be getting sacked because they want to go on holiday. That is how it is, keeps things in perspective for me.”
Such a level-headed approach to management and life will serve him well at Elland Road, which has seen a bigger turnover of managers in the past five years than at any other club in the country.
Only Watford, with nine managerial changes during the same period, come close to the ten departures that began with Neil Warnock on April 1, 2013. Heckingbottom, though, is not fazed by either the rapid turnover of personnel or Leeds offering an 18-month contract, when the vast majority of player signings during Andrea Radrizzani’s reign have been on deals stretching to three or four years.
“A contract, to a manager, is worth what the severance package is and what the compensation payment is,” he said. “That is not to say I will be gone in 18 months or if I stay for 18 months. I know if we are successful here the club will want to keep me. If I am unsuccessful the club won’t want to keep me.
“An 18-month contract could become a three-and-a-half year contract. Or it could become one where everything is suddenly over in ten months.”
Heckingbottom clearly took the job with his eyes wide open, as is to perhaps be expected from someone whose character was formed in the pit village of Royston.
Certainly during a Football League career that featured ten transfers, eight clubs and an early curtailment at the age of 31 through injury, playing was what mattered and not the “white noise” that can attach itself to the life of a footballer. It is why he sometimes walked away from contracts when money was still owed, in the days before he had a young family to support.
This desire to follow his instinct has continued in management, a role he initially did not fancy only for Lee Johnson’s decision to quit Barnsley for Bristol City a couple of years ago to force his hand somewhat.
At first, the players were told it was fine to still refer to the former Reds youth coach as ‘Hecky’ rather than the more conventional ‘gaffer’. Only later the following summer did that change and then only because the turnover in personnel meant many of the squad had not known him in the previous role.
This same instinct was why approaches from Nottingham Forest and Sunderland were both rebuffed before he finally said ‘yes’ to Leeds, a club about whom he had made a few light-hearted jibes ahead of last November’s derby at Oakwell.
He explained: “I am from Royston, which is north of Barnsley and if you live there you are either a Leeds fan or you are a Barnsley fan. I was a Barnsley fan and we used to play on a field behind my mum’s (house).
“The Leeds fans were older than us and they used to kick lumps out of us. So, that is where this stems from – not Oakwell, not Elland Road, but the field behind my mum’s.
“To be honest, all that was them always taking the mick, trying to shove down our throat the size of the club and the stature of the club. Funnily enough, those lads were actually the first to ring and congratulate me. They will be in the stands for the first game at Elland Road. So, they are probably as excited as I am.”
Don’t worry – when I get the sack we are going on holiday. Paul Heckingbottom, answering his children’s queries about his position at Barnsley.