Pat's Interview
The Pat Nevin Interview
With all the recent rubbish written in the press recently about the Club, I thought it would be about the correct time to contact Pat Nevin to give his side of the story! He agreed to do this as he felt that we would be able to give him the chance to air his views without them being twisted and mis-represented. Pat agreed to do this on Sat. 20thMarch immediately after the Aberdeen game and below are the results of this conversation.
GLF: Much was made at the time when you came here about leaving Kilmarnock. What was the prime motivation for you to come to Motherwell especially when you seemed to be comfortable at Killie?
PN: This is one of the best questions I have been asked actually! If I hadn't fallen out with people at Kilmarnock I wouldn't have left them, even though John (Boyle) wanted me to come. John's a brilliant guy to work for; I've known him a long, long time I like his business ethics and his business ideas are brilliant. We had a very set plan when we came here, the initial stage was to stay in the Premier League this year and build slowly but surely as we go along this year, and then next year have a right good go at it.
The problem was that by the time that we got here we were bottom of the League and had given everybody a start, it was always going to be that bit harder for us. But at the end of the season if we stay up we'll fix that park and go out and play some football!
GLF: Having said that what was the state of the playing staff when you took over?
PN: There were a lot of players, putting in a great deal of effort but not of a level that we would be looking for. Instead of having 30+ of a squad, where a number of them are just average doing a job for you, you're better having 18 and make them right good players of you can. You can't change that overnight, over 6 months, if you look through that team today and the cost of it and the quality that's there, I mean we have been as good as our word and got those guys in; Spencer, Goram, Thomas and Brannan.
GLF: This has meant that the core of the side is good.......
PN: There are other good players as well, Simo is going from strength to strength, as is Doesburg. You have to take it slowly, I know people talk about John's millions...
GLF: He's not a Jack Walker......
PN: He doesn't want to do it like that, his cash injection has been great for this club, I believe. The biggest problem we've got just now is that we've got some good players and want to play is a specific way but we can't do it on our own pitch, it's a nightmare - that's the biggest problem we've got right now.
GLF: Does that mean we are talking about levelling or flattening the pitch or what??
PN: Doing it all would cost about half a million pounds and I'm sure that the fans would rather see this spent on a centre forward. There is no point in getting this if they cannot play, look at the times John Spencer tried to turn and he's not a bad player!!
GLF: It happened to you a couple of times today as well....
PN: Its happened two or three times, each time I play at home over the last four weeks. Then you go away and play at Rangers for example and every touch is fine, perfect - there's nothing wrong with the pitch there. It sounds like an excuse, you have to cope with the circumstances, but I played against Dunfermline the other week, I had the most shocking game of my career. I thought afterwards that I wanted to retire, I don't want people to see me playing like that, it was a windy day and they don't play much football. I'm thinking I've lost it and maybe I'm not good enough, then I get back to training on the Monday and everything feels great again and I'm thinking what the hell is going on! Then I'm watching the next game from the bench and every body else has got the same problem. If we get the pitch in good nick, we need to give our players a good pitch but we can't do it before the end of the season, so we've got a battle between now and then.
GLF: If the goal this season was to survive = what happens if our worst fears happen and we go down?
PN: We're trying not to think of that, you look around at the wage structure here, which is double, treble what it was. You bring in good players - you have to pay for them.
GLF: That's exactly what happened when Ally McLeod was here and it nearly ruined the club but John Chapman took tie to build the club back up...
PN: We took over at a low point but you take a chance but I look around here and the good players that we've got. You never know that before the transfer deadline there might be another one. Somebody to replace Owen Coyle, that's quite clear, there's no hiding that..........
GLF: Young Nicholas looked good when he settled in today..
PN: These were exactly the wrong conditions to put him in BUT I've been training with him all week - You'll like him!!! P> GLF: There has been a lot of talk about other ground improvements - what's the true story on the Main Stand and the East Stand.....
PN: You need to make decisions, everybody wants to see it on the pitch first - that's the bottom line. Alastair (Barron) wants to do other things - we've already made improvements; toilets in the Main Stand, new offices etc. But we are going to have to make a massive investment on that pitch, which we weren't planning but we'd rather get the players and get them settled there and get that structure right. If you've got good players playing good football, wrong day to talk about it when you're involved in a dog fight, but the reason I do the job I do is that I am not here to work day to day, week to week I need to have an overview..
GLF: What is likely to happen with the East Stand?
GLF: It's very limited what we can do due to its strange construction, you can't build below it and you can't go on top of it. The best thing you can say about the East Stand is the prices, if you want to come and watch a good Premier side playing cheaply this is the place to come. We need to accept the East Stand as "Cheap and Cheerful".
GLF: Another bone of contention with some people has been the 15% Season ticket discount which didn't come across as well as it could've done....
PN: The real benefit is that it's still cheaper to watch us and it will be cheaper to watch us that any other team. Think about it, its still going to be the cheapest place to watch fitba and that's what we want. If you're sitting in the Premium part of the ground then you can probably afford it and people will hope fully pay the money if you look at what we are giving you on the pitch - that's the whole argument.
We're not here to make a profit, we're certainly not making a profit - any money was to go back into the club. It was interesting as one of the options in the letter was for the 15% to go to youth development but not many took up that option.
GLF: So how do you handle the fans expectations that are mainly short term, rather than long term. Which has been demonstrated by reaction to recent on field set backs?
PN: We're big enough to handle this, I've been in football long enough to take all that. The biggest problem in Scottish football is short termism, that's why John's got me doing specifically what I am doing, I've not to get bogged down in short term things. The direction is the key, but in the meantime we've got to scrap through it and is we stay up - at the start of next season we'll be flying - watch us go!!
GLF: At a recent supporters meeting it has been widely reported that the club hoped to sign three big name players in time for the start of next season - what progress has been made on this front.
PN: We've bought Stevie Nicholas, another young player, we wanted him to come to us rather than go anywhere else. We have made attempts to bring three centre forwards in but none of them would come as they still see Scottish football as a backward step. We can't make people come but we'll offer a good wage, but we are still comfortable with what we are doing.
EVERYBODY KNOWS WE NEED A CENTRE FORWARD but we need to get it right - we can't afford to spend £5000 per week on a player who doesn't fit in.
GLF: Another source of complaint amongst Well fans has always been the club shop, and when we heard of a move into the town centre this was a step forward but not where the location actually ended up!
PN: Looking at the whole side of this we had the Xara contract in place when we arrived here. A lot of things were in place and we can't do anything about that yet! We keep on looking for good things to do but we could spend a lot of money in this area but we don't want to take this money away from other more important areas. When I am at a Board meeting I'm in a battle. I know where I want to spend the money and I think the fans would love me in a Board meeting, my priority is players and John's great about it as I'm impatient to get things done right away but I can't be ridiculous.
GLF: Another major problem for the club recently has been the transformation from Press Darlings to almost being the centre of all evil in the football world! What steps have the club taken to deal with this in the future?
PN: To be honest we expected the change in approach, it doesn't affect us at all, its only been 4 or 5 weeks, it's a short term phenomenon and we can't afford to think short term. I got my head down and know I am doing the job correctly and I'll keep doing that until it starts going the way want it to go. It went all right for a while then I was supposed to have sacked Harri which was CRAP, Harri comes in and tells them he's leaving through his choice but that doesn't make a story. We can do nothing else but keep on doing the right things. It just doesn't get through to me I know, and John knows, we'll make mistakes, as we are all new at this Masterplan thing! But if we've got it the right things at heart the fans will accept this.
GLF: this is what has brought about some of the short term thinking from some of the fans....
PN: I'm not complaining, I'm not going to moan about it. I've had worse, believe me I've had much worse, in England after 15 years of good PR, they really liked me down there..then I come up to Scotland!! The real problem is that there are too many newspapers chasing too few stories and I approach it that if you can't hack it don't do the job.
GLF: How can the club improve communication to the ordinary fans, as we are not all that well served by the National Press?
PN: We give everything to the press but they only print what they want to print. I've got an idea for the Web site as the key for us, we've got the Computer system being organised right now - the amount of money spent on this!!
The Web site is a big thing for us, we could put one up right now but I'm not going to put up an amateurish one. We're going to put up a good one, it should hopefully be available for the start of next season. This will also be used for tickets and merchandising.
The number of season ticket holders is important to us as this means we can build with confidence knowing we've got a certain level of finance in place.
GLF: What about Clubcall as a communication tool?
PN: Let's say I'll need to look into this one a bit closer - it's under review!
GLF: What about the matchday programme?
PN: We also need to look at this a little closer, they stuff in a programme can be a little unimaginative (I am sure he wasn't meaning my contributions - GB) as you end up doing the same thing year after year. We've got to take a look at a lot of things for next season and the programme maybe needs an overhaul. This is really a time thing, we've got to prioritise some projects over others. We could have fixed this centre forward thing if it hadn't been for the fact that we spent two weeks solid dealing with the Goram situation. You've constantly got to keep your eye on the ball but sometimes thing slip, its all part of the learning.
Look at the situation with Owen Coyle, I've listened to his comments, not the Headlines, and I've no problem with what Owen has said - he did want another year on his contract not long after we had given him a big pay increase. We have to make decisions based upon staying in the SPL and Owen wasn't prepared to wait for this. It's a perfectly moral way to behave, he's trying to look after his family. In truth Owen and Willie McLean never got on, and I've never got the bottom of that - Oweny mentioned that as an aside and its been twisted. I've also asked Willie directly and he assures ma that he didn't tout Owney about. In the end it was Billy's decision and he doesn't shirk from these decisions - this has all been part of the massive learning curve for us.
Also, no one else would print this. I hope you will at no point in time has anyone dug in about this Chief Executive thing. I am called "Chief Executive" but I'm not, have never been, I was brought in as Vice Chairman, an overseer when John's not here. But because of a silly rule I couldn't be called that but John said take it. I don't need a title so Chief Executive it is, as soon as the rule is changed I'll be Vice Chairman. I've told the TV, press and Radio but they don't say it!!
GLF: Have you considered introducing a monthly magazine dedicated to Motherwell?
PN: This is certainly something we've considered, in fact a week on Tuesday we've got a company coming in who are experts at this type of thing. We need to look at how many it would sell, we wouldn't want to put out a piece of rubbish that people would know was a piece of rubbish its easy enough to do - nobody buys it and we lose money again! We don't want to go like Celtic or Rangers where the news is sanitised - what good's that.
GLF: A magazine of this sort would give Well fans a chance to read something they can trust about their club and also help improve coverage across Lanarkshire..
PN: Definitely it will happen, I've worked with this company before, and they've produced excellent magazines for Euro 96 and France 98
GLF: What are the plans for the next two years in general?
PN: initially to stay in the SPL, we're not counting any chickens at Fir Park. If we stay in, we'll sit down in the summer and look at the number of players in the squad, ideally 18 or 20 players, possibly 23 or 24 made up with good quality kids. We'll look round Scotland for them, that's a deliberate policy, we want to help Scottish football. In fact Scottish football needs to help itself, no point in every one being short term in approach and not thinking of anyone else, not thinking about bringing in one or two youngsters out of our Leagues where they are going to struggle with Celtic or Rangers. You may have noticed the Nicholas deal, well WE suggested the sell on clause. They found him, nurtured him therefore they deserve something out of it.
Our big hope is that in the future there will be no more relegation struggles...
GLF: On that point what is the extent of the ambition at Motherwell, is it to be a "third force" behind the Old Firm or can we one day seriously challenge for the title?
PN: We won't do this with journalists either, no big claims as you dig a hole for yourself by doing that. Its dead easy to say, its not clever to talk big - we're just going to do it, and do the best we possibly can. If I had said at the start of my career that I was going to spend 15 years at the top in England and play for Scotland I would've sounded like an arse. We've done it this way deliberately to prevent snide remarks.
Lets put is another way we want to go to places like Ibrox and Parkhead and not be frightened, maybe that's as bold as I'm prepared to be!!
This was really the end of the formal interview, but we then spoke for a few more minutes about some of the recent additions to the playing squad. It was known, for example, that when Tony Thomas signed he was carrying a long-term injury. But it is the belief of the club that if the injury is managed properly (a la Paul McGrath) then we will have managed to buy a £1 million player for about a 1/10 of that price.
We also chatted about how the players were recommended, Spencer recommended Thomas and Nevin told Billy Davies about Brannan, and I think Spencer let Davies know he was available!! Although all three have played with Pat at either Chelsea, Everton or Tranmere he has only been responsible for recommending one of them!
I think as can be seen from what Pat has to say that the club has not lost sight of where it is trying to get to, and to quote Bon Jovi, we just need to keep the faith.
During the 45 minutes or so that Pat and I chatted for there was a definite intensity in his speech. This proved for me his commitment to take this club forward, and when we clinch our SPL place for next season I am sure we will start to see the first phase of the "Masterplan" start to unfold during the summer.
Finally, I would like to thank Pat for taking the time to talk to me, particularly after a game that ended in a particularly fraught manner. It could have been easy for him to have walked away or skimp on the time.
Graham Barnstaple - for GLF!!
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