When I took over I think
we were second from bottom,
we were only four or five games into
the season so that can happen
but I think Graeme Souness had left for Newcastle,
had resigned and gone up the road.
So it's still a difficult circumstance
and difficult situation because
the club wasn't as prepared
in terms of the managerial change.
I came in and I would say the group of senior players
that were at Blackburn during that time,
the likes of Garry Flitcroft, and good young players -
the likes of Matt Jansen and we
had a good core that I felt comfortable with,
we had an outstanding keeper in Brad Friedel as well.
And I knew I had a group of players that I could work with.
Their work ethic was exceptional.
I worked them really, really hard I have to say
in my first year and a few of the older guys
blame me for finishing their careers a little bit sooner
just because the training was so hard.
But I felt that was important
because I wanted my teams to be strong
right to the end of games
and we certainly were that.
So we got confidence and we always felt
if we were behind in games the last 20 minutes,
we always felt that we had a real chance
because if we if we were within one goal of any team
then we always felt we had a chance to win.
I think from my point of view,
whenever I went up against United it was,
I was wanting to do well only because I viewed
Sir Alex as the best manager
and I wanted to test myself against the best.
So whenever I went up against him,
I didn't ask for any favours,
he wasn't going to get any from me either.
I was there to try and beat his team because
I viewed them and him and himself as the manager
as the best that was around and I wanted to beat them.
That was my attitude to it.
That was never going to change.
I think sometimes it was misinterpreted
maybe looking back, I think people thought:
"Oh he doesn't like United anymore.
"He's got an issue with Ferguson."
Never about that.
It was always about the fact that I
wanted to put myself up against
what I viewed as that the best club
and the best the best manager of that time.
And when you are able to
overcome a club of that stature
and a manager of that stature,
then clearly that's going to resonate around football
and people might acknowledge that
maybe that you're doing a good job.
People made assumptions and
in my view though, they were wrong.
I think it all stemmed from one game if I'm honest.
We played with Chelsea at Ewood Park
and it was it was a great game.
Unfortunately I think it was Arjen Robben got injured,
a mistimed tackle, and he got injured and
had to go off and it was a physical game.
I mean no bones about it.
Chelsea could look after themselves in those days as well.
We matched them up in the end.
They beat us 1-0 I think.
And remember Jose going to the crowd and
whipping everybody up in his in his grey flannel coat if I recall.
And even though we got beat at that time,
I was actually proud of my players
in terms of they'd matched Chelsea
in that physicality but in the game as well.
Unfortunately the headlines after it weren't great
and there was a lot of focus on the injury to Robben
and how our approach led to the injury
and I thought that was unfair on the night
and unfortunately people start throwing mud
and some of it sticks and we took a long time
to shake it all off.
The decision to go to City wasn't shaped, in my view,
because of my playing career.
I didn't attach any relevance to that.
In my view, I was a professional football manager
and I was going on to the next project
of the next level of club that I needed to move on to.
I looked at the situation; I looked at City,
they had got a brand new stadium.
They had, apparently, owners with lots of money,
which wasn't the case
when I found out when I actually got there.
So I made a decision to go to City
because I felt I was going from Blackburn,
a very stable, well-run club,
and Man City would be a step up and the next level.
As it was, I found out when I actually got there,
the reality wasn't that
in terms of the level of standard of the club.
Actually, Blackburn were in a better place than Man City.
They had a better training ground;
they were more stable;
the ownership was better at that time.
Those were all assumptions that I made wrongly,
because I felt maybe Man City
would have been better in that regard.
But I made the decision.
I was there; I was going to make the best of it.
Unfortunately, the Shinawatra era
was closed in a little bit of mystery and intrigue,
and I never really got to the bottom
of why players had to be sold.
I think we had the situation with Vedran Corluka,
who arguably was one of our better players.
He had to be sold because there was no money.
[We] made a good deal because
there was a player I'd seen – I wanted to sign him
for Blackburn but we couldn't afford him,
and that was Pablo Zabaleta.
We were able to bring him as a replacement for Corluka.
So it was one of the better deals,
but there was clearly a lot of turmoil,
and obviously the club was taken over by Sheikh Mansour,
and then overnight it just changed completely as a club.
The reality was I wasn't their guy,
and you always know if there's a change of ownership
that you might put off the stay of execution,
but at some point they will make a change,
because you're just not their guy
and there's an acceptance of that.
I tried to, obviously, make my tenure as long as I could.
I felt there was a thinking
in it as we went into the second year –
which was their first full year as the new ownership
– I always felt that there was that underlying feeling
that maybe they were just waiting for the moment,
and I've been told subsequently that
I was probably very, very close on three occasions
before I was actually sacked.
So I did well to last, probably, as long as I did,
because there was always that feeling
that at some point they're going to make a change.
Vinnie [Kompany] was a player that,
from the first time I saw him –
actually saw him on a pre-season tour of Germany;
he was playing for Hamburg,
and I was with Blackburn – I thought:
"That's the guy at the back."
He was actually playing in midfield in those days –
and just clearly [a] big, big presence.
He was directing people;
he was telling them where to go,
what to do and [was] very clearly
a leader of the men around him.
I thought: "Well if I ever get a chance
"of getting in a room with him to sign him
he'd be one that I would want to sign."
Just because of that initial observation of him.
But we had the opportunity to bring him to the club.
It was actually before the change of ownership,
and I caught wind that he was available.
His club were willing to look at letting him go.
Man City, if we're honest,
weren't an easy sell in those days.
It's quite easy for Pep [Guardiola] these days to say:
"Right Man City want to sign the top players."
But for [a] lot of time,
and certainly in the initial period when people
didn't understand what the ownership were going to do
with the club and how successful they were going to be,
we were viewed as somewhat like interlopers
trying to gatecrash the party of the top clubs –
because it was Man City.
They weren't viewed as a top club in Europe
when we were flying out to try
and buy all these top players,
and getting laughed out of town, if we're honest.
But I sat down in front of Vinnie,
and just explained what I felt
the direction of the club was going to be.
But very quickly he understood.
I was trying to tell him this club's going places;
we were going to do this; we're going to do that.
I need players that are leaders.
I needed players to manage that dressing room,
and I'd seen him before – he acknowledged that
he was pleased that I wasn't just picking names out of a hat,
I actually wanted him personally.
That was the start of a relationship that's continued.
He's an outstanding individual,
notwithstanding his ability as a football player.
So his manner, and his behaviour and his standards –
those are the ones that I wanted at the club.
The circumstance I think everybody knows
is that City needed a win –
we needed to obviously better or equal
the result of Bolton, who were playing at Stoke,
funnily enough, at the same time.
So we're in the game and clearly we were thinking:
"Well, it's, it's the last throw of the dice for us."
We'd done really well to get in that situation
in the first place, if we're honest.
We had a terrible run-in.
We had games against Liverpool, Arsenal,
and we'd beaten those clubs just to get ourselves
into the position where we found ourselves
just with the chance of staying up.
A lot people didn't think it was much of a chance –
it was more dependent on the result of the other game.
But the game itself was quite bizarre.
There's so many incidents in it.
We were behind in the game, from memory.
Then we got back; all of a sudden
news from the other game started coming through.
Joey Barton gets sent off; we're down to 10 men.
We got our noses in front.
We're still leading with six minutes to go – something daft.
Then they made a couple of changes.
I think [Edin] Dzeko came on and made a difference.
They got back on level terms,
and I always remember at that point we knew we were safe,
because the other result came in.
So at that point I wanted to make sure,
because United were up the road obviously
waiting on the result. I'm thinking:
"I wouldn't mind United winning, if I’m honest."
So I'm thinking:
"Right, we've just conceded the second goal, it's 2-2."
I think it was Jay Bothroyd [who] looked over and said:
"What do you want us to do?"
Because the players had obviously understood
that the game was over and we'd stayed up.
We just said:
"Just kick it as far as you can,
"right in the corner, the game's over."
So it was set back,
Jay hit a long ball into the corner, didn't make it;
Joe Hart, if you remember,
run like a bat out of hell to keep the ball in.
He kept it in, got it out of his feet,
banged it forward, and all of a sudden,
people started falling over, missing tackles.
[It] gets to [Sergio] Aguero,
and as you expect him in that situation,
he scores the winning goal.
I have to say, of all the games I've been involved in,
that noise at that moment
when that goal went in is different to anything I ever heard,
or heard before or since.
It was just unbelievable sound –
different sound to a football crowd.
It was a mixture of screaming and noise,
and it was just an unbelievable moment.