Q - Are players hurt more by media criticism, pundits’ opinions and fan chants than they make out?
A - Fan chants I've always hated. I never read papers unless I play well. That may sound egotistical but, psychologically, it is a tremendous boost reading great things about yourself. It helps me greatly. When I don't play well, I don't read the papers. Simple.
I have never read fans' forums. Ever. Totally pointless. I know more than any fan in the country about how football should be played and what it takes to win matches, so I am not going to read anything that they say about what happened in a match or how I or my team-mates are playing. I know when I've played well and what went right, and I know when I've played badly and what went wrong. If I need help, I'll ask my coaches. That's what they're paid for.
It is the kids who are affected more than any other set of players. Young first-year pros can be seriously hurt by criticism of their performances and, stupidly, they read anything that they can find about themselves. I always preach the same philosophy to them: you know when you've played well and when you've played badly, so when you play well, read the headlines. It will be good for your confidence. When you play badly, watch the DVD back and learn from it. Spend a week on the training pitch putting it right. There is no other way.
Q - Do players genuinely care about pleasing their supporters or is it just an act?
A - Well, that's not the primary objective. It's a by-product of playing well or playing badly. A player goes onto the pitch with one objective, which is to play well. If he manages to do that on a consistent basis, then all of the other parts of the game - fan adoration, sponsorship deals, big wages and material possessions - will arrive as a result.
The players who other players really despise are those who try to win over the fans by making big tackles when they can stay on their feet, or heading the ball a mile when they could just take it down on their chest. We hate it. Players like that only play in that way because they are scared of the ball. It is far easier to clean somebody out in a tackle than it is to take the ball down and play a one-two or a simple pass. And the worst part is that fans look at these guys as if they are the only ones trying. In reality, they are killing the team.
They don't care if the team wins or loses so long as just one fan on the comments section of a fans' website says that "he wears his heart on his sleeve" or "at least he tries". Meanwhile, the player who has the guts to get on the ball and play defence-splitting passes, which can be cut out, gets booed from the stands. Eventually, he gets it right, but it is such a hard thing to do. You have to be brave to play there. You have to not care what the fans think of you, you have to be confident that eventually somebody will make the right run and you will find him. And then you have to be prepared for the striker to get all the glory from the fans. Those are the players I want in my team.
Q - Do footballers hate diving, cheating and play-acting as much as the fans do? Or is it something you have been expected to get involved in?
A - It's very simple. We hate it when it's happening against us. But when players on your own team do it and get free kicks and penalties, and roll around to get players booked, and it all results in a win, you realise that it is a large part of winning a football match. I'm not talking about blatant diving. Personally, I think that blatant diving is oversold by the media. It really isn't happening as much as people think it is. But gamesmanship wins matches, there is no doubt about that.
If my team is 1-0 up with two minutes to go, I will probably walk to the sideline to pick up the ball for a throw-in and I'll make sure that I don’t control it when it's thrown back to me so that it rolls onto the pitch. When that happens, I'll walk onto the pitch to get it and then walk back. Then I'll wait as long as possible to take the throw, pretending that I can't see anybody to throw it to. It might kill 30 seconds from start to finish. That's a quarter of the time used up.
You'll be thinking about what I've just said from the point of view of a fan on the end of that behaviour. But if I'm playing for your team and I throw the ball back in straight away and the opposition score, what would you think then? We call it "managing the game" and it is absolutely vital to winning matches.
