Everton was the right job. There was a director at Blackpool Football Club and
because I used to go and watch so much football, I used to go to the games and I'd
come to Blackpool quite regular to see them playing. I remember there
was an old Scottish guy, he said to me: "There's only one club for you son and
it's Everton." And I nodded my head and went away and didn't really think much
of it but it stuck with me and it proved to be right. I did have other
offers before before I chose Everton. I'd met Southampton, I'd met Nottingham
Forest but to name those ones there was others as well at the time who were
interesting. I had met Sheffield Wednesday and I thought: "Should I
or shouldn't I?" And I remember I went to
phone Sir Alex up and I said: "Could I see him?"
And he says: "Yeah." And actually it was the new Carrington at the time so
I went to his office in Carrington - which ultimately became my office in years to
come - and then I sat there and spoke to him about Sheffield Wednesday and
Sir Alex was so knowledgeable. He went through all the squad, all the players,
went through them all and said to me: "No David, I don't think it's that good a job."
I went: "Fine." That was that, I went away back to Preston.
I don't think anyone can quite understand and if you're a young coach the
difference in the change, to suddenly try to prepare for a Premier League
game to where I had been in working with the players and I had been a
player at Preston, I had been a coach, I had been assistant manager, I'd been
manager. And now I was going somewhere new and I found that in the first day I was
walking into a dressing room which had Paul Gascoigne,
David Ginola, Duncan Ferguson, Thomas Gravesen and it was full of
international players and I don't think all the coaching badges you do and all
the practice gets you ready and prepared for that moment really and I think
that's a different part of being a coach and a manager that you know, how you deal
with it, how you handle it, how you gain respect. I think you have to earn respect.
I don't think you can be given it. I think you have to earn it. I think the
way you earn it is by coaching, by showing you've got good knowledge of what
you're talking about, you can put practices on with the
players that believe are correct, are good. It can't all be jolly but it has to be
towards the game and I think that's what I was always working towards in a way but
I think also, you have to be, you have to show that you're the boss when
it comes to.
There was great players in the dressing room but I had made my mind up that I
didn't necessarily want players at the end of their career, or coming maybe for
the last year or two for good money, for top money with no resale value and no longevity.
My plan was to get young, exciting, hungry
players and I knew I couldn't do it overnight but the knowledge I'd brought
from the Championship meant that I knew that there was three or four players in
that league I thought were hungry and could step up. Bringing Tim Cahill to the
club set a different type of standard because I believe that he came
with a hunger, determination, a toughness. Also an ego. It was myself and the
chairman Bill Kenwright. I said to him: "I'd like you to come to see Millwall in
Birmingham." It was in the playoff games in the Championship and you have to
remember Millwall had a really good team but Tim Cahill was the one I wanted to
go and see and when we went, I remember we drove in Bill's old Jag and
the car was getting battered on the way into Millwall with a baton
and I'm thinking: "What have I done here?". We invited Tim later to come and speak to us.
Bill thought he was a great character which I didn't know and it's something
which for managers, it's very difficult to find out about players characters. You
try to - you try to meet them, you try to find out about them but I've got to say
we signed a brilliant character.
My first year, we done well at Everton. Second year we didn't, third year better, fourth
year - not so good. That's the process it takes and I nearly feel I hope
this interview goes out to some of the owners and I hope a lot of the owners
are watching because I would say it took time to change what was there. Time to
change contracts round, time to move people on, time for people naturally
to maybe grow a little bit older and have to change club and for also
the time to get the players in because you can't bring them in all at the
time. So, I think the coaches, we all understand that. The problem is
getting the owners to understand that or the CEOs to understand that
but what I will say, if you look at our success at Everton, we
were finishing in the top seven, eight, six, five, and eventually four over a long
period of time and I think that came from a stability at the club, getting to
know how the club works and getting to know the theme of the club and I think to
change football clubs round is not something you can do very quickly. It
takes a long time to do that but I hope that we kept a lot of the real
values at Everton. What the supporters wanted, what they needed but we were also
trying to take it into a modern culture, modern players, modern style and if you
look at their success, I think at Everton it was remarkable what we achieved in
the time with what we had. We were always pushing and actually my last two years
at Everton saw us finish above Liverpool in the league which at that
time, when you look back now, at where it is, you would say it
is a remarkable achievement to finish and Everton really hadn't had a great history of finishing above
Liverpool in the league - maybe only once or twice in the last 20 years, so for
us to do it twice before I left was a really big achievement. We were
improving - we had a very very good team.
For coaches getting to the first point, say
two years and football now. I hear a lot about if you have a good style,
good philosophy - I'd say no. If you can win, if you have a good
winning record you'll get two years, if you can actually keep that up you might
get five years and I hope that some get to ten years. I think we're seeing less
and less of it in football and I I hope it's not because my
time 11 years Everton certainly was one of the longest. If you look back
at British football, you look at the real dynasties in
football. So you look at Nottingham Forest, Brian Clough; Sir Bobby Robson at Ipswich;
Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, the length of period he was there. So I
actually think those clubs in the main have all had a high level of success
through their time. But I have to say, unfortunately, we're in a
completely different era, a modern era where actually changing your
manager quite regular is in fashion and I think if you are a coach coming into
the world today, I think you have to come in with, not a long-term vision - a
short-term view and then a mid-to-short term view of what you can do to win
games, get results, get people believing that you are the right man for
the job. I do believe you should have a philosophy in how you play, how you get
those results. The way your club runs, I think you should have an
influence on it if you can. You've got to hope that you have good owners
and good directors who are going to allow you to do that.