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Iain Dowie's first press conference - full transcript
Iain Dowie's first press conference - full transcript
Wednesday, 21st May 2008 22:12

Iain Dowie has been speaking to the media for the first time since becoming manager of QPR.

Clearly we’re all familiar with Dowie the player, after watching him at Loftus Road, Dowie the coach, after his time with QPR during which he had a caretaker spell as well as serving as assistant manager, and Dowie the manager, after facing his Oldham side in some monumental battles in League One. Everything we’ve heard and seen about him in the past shines through in this interview for me – emphasis on competitiveness, fitness, organisation, high tempo etc etc. With due respect to Luigi De Canio we lacked a number of these things last season, particularly away from home where we only won four times and, looking back on the season now from the comfort of the summer, blew a criminal amount of leads and point winning positions.

Dowie’s teams are known for being direct, but not unattractive, and if he can marry this high tempo, high fitness, ultra competitive stuff up with the attractive football, style and attacking play that Luigi De Canio brought in then we could have one hell of a team. The fear is that he replaces all of that rather than trying to blend the two. We’ll see though, that’s a debate for another time.

You’ll forgive me, or perhaps you won’t, for not quite hearing some of the questions but the answers are all there.

How has the move to QPR come about, how was the club sold to you?
It’s terrific to be back, I’m excited about the challenge and very much looking forward to getting out on the training ground come 30 June. I had a very positive meeting both Gianni and Mr Briatore and I think what’s refreshing about them is they want to do it in the right way. They want to build a club the proper way with good foundations and I think they’ve done that since they came to the club it hasn’t gone, they haven’t come in and spent ridiculous money and that’s the right way to go about it.

When did you first hear there might be an interest in you?
I got a phone call asking if I could come and have a chat with Gianni which went well and then we had a further chat when Mr Briatore came and that went well. Then a day or so later we got to a situation where we talked turkey and they said they’d like me to do that and obviously I was only too happy to accept that. There’s a lot of good people who aren’t in work, it’s a very good job, there’s a lot of excellent managers not in work so I think sometimes you have always got to be thankful that you are in work. You sometimes forget that, you can reel off a list of notable names who aren’t in work. I’m very excited by the challenge, it’s a big one, but nonetheless it’s a club that’s ambitious.

Do you think your status here as a former player and assistant manager helped?
Yeh I think so, I was incredibly fortunate in my time here. I came in under Ray Harford, the late great Ray Harford, who must have seen something in me because he signed me as a player for Luton and then on my first day here he made me take the forwards in a coaching session. I came as a player, I had no inkling of that, then I took the reserves and had a little brief spell as a caretaker and was then very, very fortunate to work with Gerry who came in and kept me as assistant and it was a wonderful learning curve. I have an enormous amount of time for him. So I did my apprentership here in terms of coaching, I’d always been interested in it but this is where I cut my teeth. They had good players at the time like John Spencer and some good characters as well who would have something to say if you weren’t on your metal so it was a good grounding and something I really enjoyed.

Were you surprised to get the call given the names that were linked with this job – the likes of Zinedine Zidane for example?
I always think that we are somewhat remiss in England in that we don’t quite judge what we have in this country, I think we have a lot of good coaches and a lot of good managers in this country. Sure, Zinedine Zidane has been one of the greatest players there’s ever been and I understand about that, in terms of the profile of the club and the profile of the owners they are going to be linked with that but I think even Zinedine Zidane would want to have an experience of learning his way and learning the ropes like they all do. You very rarely find a great Italian player going straight in at AC Milan, it just doesn’t happen, they learn their trade and they have to go through the proper procedures, it’s mandatory there. They certainly do it the right way. I can’t affect who was linked with the job, all I can affect is I’m delighted to have been asked to come and take this challenge on.

You say it’s a steady process so does that mean we can expect more signings like Radek Cerny rather than a really big name signing this summer?
I think it’s a case of the right player at the right time, I don’t think this squad needs a massive amount of alteration. Clearly there are one or two issues I’d like to address and they will stay with me and the rest of the staff but I do think you have to be thoughtful about this. You want to bring in some people who will not only get you towards the upper echelons of this division and maybe out of it but also looking towards the future. It’s very important to get the young element, I think that’s the way to build it. I don’t think you can come in ‘short term’, I can’t do it I don’t think it’s the way to run a club. It may work for a short hit but it can lead to a lot of problems, I think you have to take a long term approach.

After your last two jobs, are you keen to settle down for the long haul here?
The Charlton thing was a difficult scenario. I had great times there, a friend of mine was saying to me the other day that my win percentage while I was there was 33%, I won five out of 15 games. But that can happen, I’ve no axe to grind, I had great times there and I wouldn’t have changed it looking back with hindsight. Coventry, I think I had a 41% win percentage there and Tony Mowbray got a new deal on that earlier in the year.

It was a bizarre thing for me because we went through a very difficult period with transfer embargoes, zero money to spend, people not being paid. We kept them up the season before, we’d gone to Man Utd and won, Blackburn and won, if we’d won again we would have been in the quarter final of the FA Cup, I think I’d signed two of the best players coming into the Championship in Fox and Danns so much so that they’re in the Under 21s now so I’d stand by my record there, particularly with signings – Leon Best we bought for £600k/£700k and they had a £2m bid from Forest turned down. The decision at Coventry came after a change o owner and that can happen but I’ve had virtually every Coventry player wish me success so that says something about my time there. I’ve always believed in long term and I wanted to be there longer, I never envisaged spending such a short amount of time at both clubs so yes hopefully this will be a sizeable amount longer than it was there.

Obviously everybody wants to manage in the Premiership and you want to test yourself there, everybody is aware of the wealth at QPR, how soon are you hoping to test yourself again in the Premiership?
Obviously as soon as I can, we’re not coming into this season not expecting to be very competitive. I think it’s foolish to set targets, we got relegated with Palace and everybody said we were favourites to go straight back up. That we made the play offs the following season was no small achievement if you look at Watford this year and look at Charlton who didn’t get in it. Come first game of the season I want us to be very competitive and I want us then to continue, I don’t think there’s any point in looking any further. We’ve got to make sure that this club is very, very competitive – the fabulous wealth that surrounds it, well they haven’t got that by being foolish with their money, they understand about building businesses and that’s exactly what it is, it’s about building a business. There’s been a lot of times at QPR that have been difficult times, now it’s about slow progress but I will be very surprised if we’re not competitive this year.

The owners have said maybe top five in three years, have you been given assurances that this is the time you will be given?
Listen, I’m no naïve enough to think this is not a pressurised job. It’s run by very successful people who want success and that’s what I’m here to do, I’m not here to not bring success, so my assurances are I have a two year deal and I’ll do the best I can in that time. Hopefully we’ll continue on that programme and if we’re in the Premier League in two years then great and that’s what we’ll aim to do. At the moment my aim is to get the squad very, very competitive, and certainly improve on the finish last year and I think we’re very capable of doing that but as I say I don’t see, with one or two additions to the squad, any reason why we can’t be amongst the real challenging sides this year.

One of the reasons QPR have bought you here is because you know how to get success in the Championship. Can you outline how you go about managing teams at this level?
I think there are lots of ways of doing it. My way of doing it is getting the ball down and passing it. If you can dominate possession as much as you can, you generally win 80% of your games. Europe is a little bit different and that can change a little bit – I remember seeing Bayer Leverkusen at Arsenal at Highbury where Bayer Leverkusen had 64% of possession and got beaten 4-0 or 4-1 by Arsenal. So that’s a little bit different but we’ll play the passing way, you’ve got to have pace and power in the team, and you’ve got to have a goal threat. I think creativity is important, natural width in the team is important and the record is you’ve got to try and concede less than one a game and score more than two. You look at the successful sides and that’s generally the rule, it may sound contrary because you think ‘oh you concede less than one and score more than two you’re going to win every game’ but I mean throughout the season that’s the rule.

You said there was a lot of what you want in place here already but there were one or two areas that needed to be addressed…
I’ll bring what I think is important. There’s no question the tempo of my training is very high, I like to train as I play so the tempo of the training is something I address. I will never come into a club and criticise anybody that has been here before by the way, I think that is remiss of anyone and I have met Luigi De Canio and found him to be a very, very decent man who knew his football so I would never criticise him, but I will impose my way and that’s high tempo training, we’ll be organised, we’ll be disciplined. There are one or two areas that need strengthening. I’ll identify them but to talk about them would be remiss when I haven’t spent one day training with the lads yet so that’s something I wouldn’t do. As and when we sign players you’ll see what I think we need.

Over the past couple of years this club has signed players on loan and worked quite closely with Chelsea, is that something you’ll be looking to continue?
I think it was Graham Turner who was heavily criticised at Hereford for using the loan market and I couldn’t understand that. The market he’s in is the market he’s in. Clearly you need to be able to use that and use it well. Hull have used it well with Fraiser Campbell, to ignore that would be silly. Certainly the Premiership reserve league is something you need to pay very close heed to, particularly with the size of squads now. I would hope [the link with Chelsea] would very much continue.

Is your job first team coach or manager? Is your job going to be overseeing the club or very much based totally on the training ground?
Well I’ll be managing the football side of it for sure, the contract I got said manager but it’s just names for me. A chap down stairs asked ‘what do I call you?’ and I have to say I don’t care what you call me, it’s not an issue as far as I’m concerned. I’m here to run the football side of it. The other people are much more expertise in running the media side of it like Ian or the business side like Flavio and Gianni, that’s what they will do. My job is about picking the team, the tactics, organising the training, the diet, those are the things I do and organising the day to day running of the club down here [at the training ground] and that’s getting to be a bigger and bigger job but one that I’ve always embraced. I think there is good character here, the people I know around the squad are good characters and that’s very important.

In some of your previous job you were a little hamstrung financially and that’s not quite the case here, do you think there’s more pressure because you’re not hamstrung like that?
It’s always the way. If anybody doesn’t think this is a pressurised job should look around in the world and look at my recent times in this job. It’s a pressurised job. That’s the madness, many people have asked me why but it’s ‘in you’. I’ve come the non-league route through my playing career, football is a love of mine. I loved Harry’s [Redknapp] comment ‘what would I do without football’ and that’s exactly the case with me.

Will there be major transfer activity this summer?
I don’t think it will be major, I think there will be some and we’ve got to be very thoughtful. Hopefully there will be one or two who are very good for the club and that’s very important. I don’t think personally it’s the right thing to go and spend millions and millions at this stage where QPR are.

The aim is obviously promotion to the Premier League, are you going to be looking to players who have achieved that already?
I’m going to look for hungry players. I always think players who have achieved that, that’s great, but are they comfortable where they are? I like hungry players who come and want to work as hard as they can and are prepared to be leaders. Men who want to come in and be a part of what we’re about and add their strength of character to it. Any successful side has a lot of strong characters in it – young players who are driven, players who’ve seen it and done it, I think it’s important to get a balance of all.

Can a club of QPR’s size and stature expect to move forward and make an impact on the now established order of things?
Well, I think there’s no reason why they cannot compete at that level. As I’ve always said the plan is to get to a situation where you’re in there and then there has to be an infrastructure to allow you to compete on a long term basis. That’s for people more learned than me to deal with, I’ve got to make sure we’re in the shake up. But of course they can, I mean look at Fulham. Fulham have been in there and stayed in there, I played at Fulham when I first signed for Luton in 89 and there were two or three thousand there, now look at them, they’re competing in the Premier League and ruffling a few feathers, alright not competing in the upper echelons but certainly competing and it is a very fine balance doing that. No question given the right circumstance QPR can compete at that level.

You’re not depressed by this cycle of teams going up and down, particularly teams going up through the play offs?
No. I know what you mean but I think it’s exciting. I would do it different from how I did it last time. When you look at it we got 33/34 points which wasn’t a bad effort given what we spent but I’d do things differently. I probably made mistakes back then, I maybe tried to change things too much rather than basing myself on the side that got us up there unlike Steve Coppell last year who went with basically the side that got them there and then this year they didn’t change things quite enough. It’s very exciting though, it’s a great challenge, every game is an occasion and there’s no question when you look in the premier League there are teams in there that QPR can more than compete with in terms of history and stature.

When you left QPR last time you were disappointed not to have been given a chance as manager. Was it always in the back of your mind to come back?
I did two games here initially, I think Grimsby at home and Wolves away when Ray left. I was fortunate enough that we got our first away win in 18 months up at Wolves 2-1. It was a God send for me when Gerry came in because I wasn’t ready. I loved the job at the time but I was very wet behind the ears. The second time when Gerry left I thought I had a chance but Ian came in and he had plans for his own people and that’s absolutely right and I get on well with Ian. As soon as they made the decision that Ian was the man no problem, you move on that’s life. Before Ian came in I would have liked the job but it didn’t happen, now it has so maybe a little bit later than I imagined but I’m just delighted to be here.

Do you think the way to get out of the Championship is, perhaps “A-list” isn’t the best way to go?
There’s no reason why you cannot do A list, I think they’ve got one or two A list players in this division in the squad already in my opinion. A list players will always be linked with the profile and the personality of the people that run the club – stories are going to be written, and you can’t change that. We’re going to have links with players as famous as Figo and nobody is going to stop people writing that. My view is that if the right players is available and he fits with our criteria then whoever he is whether he be A list, B list, or C list as long as he’s hungry and wants to achieve then that’s the key element. You have to look no further than tomorrow night’s game, at Giggs and Scholes. They’ve achieved everything there is to achieve in the game but you cannot tell me they’re not hungry. That’s winners, that’s what the best players are. I don’t see a better centre half in the world than Rio Ferdinand and look how he’s developed, he’s changed himself over the years, he’s now the consummate player. Good professional players, be the A list or B list, are always welcome at this club that’s for sure.

It must have been a frustrating period for you not being in management, how have you been feeling over the last year or so?
Clearly I had an opportunity to go two ways when I went to Coventry and chose one way, but I think I’ve found that it’s much easier to talk about the game and write about it than actually do it. I’ve been a pundit for a little while and I’ve rarely made a mistake, I’d never have made a substitution that was wrong, but it’s amazing how it happens. I’ve been on a sideline I remember with Lee Duxbury, classic old pro at Oldham, we’re getting beaten 1-0 by Plymouth despite dominating, a most one sided 1-0 we’re getting beaten, minutes to go in the game and I said to Lee Duxbury warm up. He was the club captain at the time and just coming back from injury, as he got up he said to me ‘gaffer, don’t forget you’ve already made three subs.’

Your mind can go sometimes, you can’t be afraid to laugh at yourself sometimes, but this is a very serious game for me in terms of doing it properly, getting in, making sure the staff are organised, we’re disciplined, we’re very organised, the coaching is organised. When the lads come in here on June 30 this place will be a football club. There will be everything associated with that in terms of all the aids helping them to be better players and they will know their programme for the first week through every hour and every minute.

We’re going to be organised and disciplined, and that’s going to be an exciting time. Can’t wait for it to happen. You’ve got to evolve, if you stand still in football, if I was still doing the same drills I was doing at Oldham you’d lose yourself. You’ve got to evolve and broaden your horizons, it has given me a chance to read about different people in different sports and try and develop the mind and make sure I stay young, and fresh and new. You have to redefine yourself every session, not every year.

You were seen as one of the brightest young managers in the country at Palace, things have gone slightly awry since, do you see this as a chance to restore that reputation?
It’s a wondrous gift to see you as others see you. People have a conception of what I am or who I am and I would always temper that with ‘well have they seen me coach?’ That’s where I think my strength is on the coaching field and the feedback from the players is that they enjoy it. I think your point is valid and I’ve got to try and make sure I am back up there as one of the brightest and most up and coming coaches in the country. That’s the job, you come in, you’re aware of it, you understand it – it shouldn’t mean you make knee jerk reactions, you’ve got to contemplate long and hard your decisions, you mellow as you get older in terms of your decision making but the passion is always there, it won’t stop me ranting and raving that’s my nature.

Do you think this might be your last chance o make it as a manager?
I’ve certainly not come here thinking it’s my last chance, I’m only 43 years old, a young looking 43, but I don’t think like that. I think that’s the modern world where people love to be negative, I’m not a negative person, people want to write negative stories and I don’t understand that but it’s just the way we are. People want to write about poor stories, they don’t want to write about the positive things and that’s not my nature. I don’t come into games to make sure we don’t get beaten and that’s my thesis in life, I want to be positive with it. I’ve had one or two things in my life that have changed my mind, changed my philosophy, my Dad dying was one my Mum being terminally ill at the moment is another, so if you see her spirit and desire to be nice and bright and awake for when her grand children come in trust me you’d be a positive person.

I have to say I can’t stand the negativity that’s around it at the moment, you lose a game and you’re a villain, you win one and you’re a hero. My job is to bring the smiles to QPR, I feel the same as the supporters – they want to come and enjoy football and they want to win, but they want to win playing well, I think we want to win playing stylish football, I’ve always tried to do that and I’ve never tried to play any other way and I’ll be judged on that. If that means it’s my last chance then that will be for other people to say.

How is your Mother Iain?
It’s just very recently, we had her up a few weeks ago and it’s come very suddenly. She’s been without my Dad for ten years and I think that’s long enough for her. It’s difficult, you see the wonder in people how they cope and we’ve spent some time dealing with that over the past two weeks. One thing you do realise is how much worse some people have it than you, when you walk into a hospital or somewhere like that, it’s a levelling experience. It’s another challenge and we’re coping with that, the house has become a mini-hospital, I’m now expert in all the things that go with medicine and the delivering drugs. The wonderful thing is her spirit lives through, he spirit is effervescent it doesn’t change. I’m very fortunate to have the parents I’ve had whatever happens, however long she’s in this world for my childhood couldn’t have been better and if I’m half the parent they are then I’ve done well.

When you were here under Ray Harford you spent a brief time playing with Vinny Jones. Did you learn a lot about how not to coach players from Vinny?
I think that’s a very harsh statement Paul, I’ve got a lot of time for Vinny. Vinny was brought in here for a purpose and I believe that and Vinny will tell you the same. Vinny was a motivator and to be fair that’s the way Ray wanted it – me to do a little bit of the coaching and Vinny to do that. What I would say about Vinny is he made the most of what he had and continues to do so in whatever he does and I’ve always had a lot of time for him. We got on very well, we had a few punch ups on the playing field, but he was a character. For me it was interesting because he came as the assistant and I was the coach and it was all about how I handled somebody who was above me in the food chain so it was a learning curve for me. I think he’s enjoying what he’s doing now, it’s less pressurised. I love my choice, much as I’m a movie buff I don’t see me starring in the 3.10 to Hiroshima much as I’d like to. I’m delighted he’s doing well and I’m happy where I am, I’ve felt it’s my calling in life, I’ve always felt that.

Are you convinced by Dowie? Talk about his appointment on the Message Board

One user has commented on this story, click here to add your thoughts

After initial doubts, his enthusiasm sounds infectious. I fully expect him to address the issues that plagued us last season. A lack of fitness, concentration and organisation, at times, cost us dearly. I think he'll do a teriffic job - can't wait. - Graham

 

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