Promotion needs team built to fight every inch

I’ve lost count of the number of managers who have used the well-known Al Pacino speech from the film Any Given Sunday as a motivational tool just before a big game. Queens Park Rangers even played it on the giant screen at Loftus Road before they played Swansea City 10 days ago. But for my money, it is the team that buy into the sentiment of Pacino’s war cry for longest that will have the most success.

Reading’s haul of 46 points from the past 51 available has seen them promoted to the Premier League after a four-year absence. From the outside looking in, it would appear that Brian McDermott’s squad of players recognise that together they are far more than the sum of their parts and, having caught a couple of their games on TV this season, they certainly appear to be a squad that have fought their way back to the big stage one inch at a time.

That isn’t meant to be disrespectful, quite the opposite. If you are lucky in football, if all the stars are lined up just right, you may be part of a team that have some hugely talented individuals that are hungry to succeed and are willing, quite selflessly, to go that extra inch for their team-mates.

That is certainly how it felt when I played in a team that won promotion to the Premier League. The absolute confidence that each of us felt in one another was something that I have only ever encountered in that one season. It is a feeling of superiority that carries a team over the line before they have even stepped on the pitch. When a player doesn’t have to worry about whether his team-mate will have a good game, it instils a belief that carries you through matches.

A manager doesn’t need to be a tactical genius to win promotion to the Premier League. If anything, the trick lies in good man-management and putting together the right group of players, who do their job diligently and efficiently and have a greater motivation to succeed than the team they are playing against.

That is the foundation upon which most teams that win promotion are built. Scouts often tell me they would reject a well-known and very capable player because of concerns about a perceived lack of hunger, in favour of a player from lower down the divisions who has everything to gain.

With Reading, it is clear every player is performing to the maximum because a large number of them, including a few who have been around the block, share something that teams relegated from the top flight rarely have: the desire to make their debuts in the Premier League. Swansea and Norwich had something similar last season and look what has happened since.

What is great about Reading’s dynamic is that those players with Premier League experience have fed off the hunger of those who are desperate for a taste. Finding those guys who appear to have seen it and done it but retain the same level of ambition and enthusiasm, such as Jason Roberts, is an extremely difficult task.

A Championship manager can sign a seasoned footballer and fork out big money in transfer fees and wages but until he gets on to the pitch, he is never really sure if that player is there for one last payday, or whether he really wants to fight tooth and nail for those vital inches a club need to seal promotion. While everyone wants to be in the Premier League, there are many benefits attached to playing in the Championship, starting with not having to listen to Alan Hansen getting your name wrong on Match of the Day or pulling your team apart because you’re an easy target. The simple truth is that, in the Championship, the level of scrutiny on and off the field is nothing like the same as in the Premier League, which can be a bad thing if you’re playing well and looking for a move or a blessing if you’re living a nocturnal lifestyle.

One difference I found is that in the Championship, it is far easier to exact revenge on an opponent. Referees get a much easier ride from the media, which is why those Premier League officials who have a bad day at the office often end up dropping down a tier. Once there, it seems they’ll turn a blind eye to the sort of thing that would cause a massive stir in the PL. On one occasion, after I upended a player during a running feud, the referee called us together and simply said: “Listen, lads, if you’re not gonna cut out the shit, then at least don’t let me catch you doing it.” Neither of us had any complaints.

It will be interesting to see whether Reading can carry their momentum into next season. While they are fighting for each other and enjoying the challenge of upsetting a few egos, they’ll have every chance. The problems come when heads are turned and players begin to wonder if they may be worthy of a bigger club. But those are concerns for another time.

When I look back at the team I was promoted with, it was the less obvious things I got the most pleasure from. We fought for every inch to get ahead, we did tear teams to pieces for that inch, we battled for every throw-in, every 50-50, every header and every goal and always for one another because, as Pacino says, “when we add up all those inches that’s gonna be the fucking difference between winning and losing”. And that’s all that football is.

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