I’ll always do what’s best for this club – Mac
YEP 16/7/13
United boss Brian McDermott is happy with the way things are panning out on and off the field at Leeds as he tells Phil Hay.
At certain points of his Slovenian tour, Brian McDermott has found himself speechless.
Saturday afternoon was one of those moments as Leeds United’s adoring public flashmobbed him and his squad as they drove into a car park in Domzale.
McDermott retreated into the quiet of the stadium and sat down by the press box, drawing breath and shaking his head. “They remind me of the Irish,” he said. “They’re just so into their club.” It will take time for him and others to forget the naked supporter who appeared in front of them.
He has learned this week that devotion to Leeds takes many forms. The tale of his 50 Euro note and the treatment it got has been told to death and McDermott himself described how two of United’s kit men, Chris Beasley and Shaun Ford, drove 24 hours without a break to bring piles of equipment to Ptuj. “The ethos and the attitude – it’s everywhere and I love it,” he says. “That’s how a club should be.”
McDermott created and nurtured a family of his own at Reading, which is one reason why his sacking in March wounded him. Away from the matter of how ruthlessly he was treated, in leaving Reading he left a lot behind – not least a club who mattered to him. Four months on, Leeds are easily filling what might have been a demoralising void.
“It would have been hard to be without that,” McDermott says. “It was hard at first. I didn’t see Reading’s decision coming. There’s wasn’t a great deal of warning. But do I think about it now? Not much.
“When it first happened it was on my mind a lot. That’s only natural. These days I think about Leeds United and there’s plenty to think about. People maybe underestimate that. When you ask ‘does what happened at Reading still rankle’, the honest answer is that it doesn’t have time to rankle.
“I was sure I’d find more work when the time was right but what I’ve got here is truly special. I’ve ended up at a club who are steeped in history and have a fanbase which, quite honestly, you can’t get your head around sometimes. No matter what I thought back then, I feel very lucky now.” The passing of time and four months of living with Leeds United has repaired any cracks in McDermott’s relationship with Reading’s hierarchy. Their chairman, John Madejski, was a long-time ally and honest enough to say that he “would have kept him.” The man who sacked McDermott and appointed Nigel Adkins, Russian owner Anton Zingarevich, sent the 52-year-old a supportive and conciliatory text on the day of his appointment at Leeds. They will be able to share a drink when United and Reading play in Berkshire on September 17.
“Reading are happy with the manager they’ve got and I hope Leeds are happy with the manager they’ve got,” McDermott says. “I don’t see the need for either of us to dwell on it any longer. I’m loving working here, absolutely loving it.
“I’ll never say a bad word about Reading because I was there for 13 years and had a lot of success in different jobs. I’m not going to rewrite history. It was a fantastic part of my life. I’ve no problem with the owner, honestly I haven’t. I said to him that we’ll always be friends because we won a championship together. That’s how I feel.
“I got a really nice text from Anton when I went to Leeds. That tells you something. They decided to go in a different direction and at the time that was difficult for me to accept. But when I step back now, I’ve actually got no problem with that. They went their own way just as Leeds did with me.”
Zingarevich bid for a controlling stake in Reading in 2012, midway through McDermott’s three-year tenure, and was free to make a change which Madejski might not have countenanced.
The experience of seeing power shift and directors come and go will not be wasted at Elland Road. Already McDermott has witnessed a change of chairman at Leeds – Ken Bates out, Salah Nooruddin in – and alterations to the day-to-day management structure. He deals directly with David Haigh, Leeds’ newly-appointed managing director, and is regularly on the phone to Bahrain, the base of Gulf Finance House which, when all is said and done, controls 86.77 per cent of United.
Some managers leave the boardroom to look after itself. Others, like McDermott, prefer to watch it closely.
“Oh yeah, I take an interest in that,” he says. “I’m very mindful of what’s going on and the changes that take place. I think it’s a naive manager who isn’t aware of what’s happening in the boardroom. It’s vital that you know.
“But I’m very comfortable dealing with the owners here. I’m dealing with David Haigh now, I’m on the phone to him constantly and on the phone to other people in Bahrain. They want the club to go forward and at the moment I think the structure’s good. I’m happy with it.”
GFH Capital, the subsidiary of Gulf Finance House which bought Leeds last December, has bobbed and weaved in the fight for credibility and trust. Arguably, the company holds higher public stock now than at any stage of the past seven months. The decision last week to return matchday commentary rights to BBC Radio Leeds was, in the eyes of many, another attempt to address a matter which the previous regime got wrong. The recent movement in the boardroom also appealed to those who were tired of Bates’ methods of football club ownership.
But more than anything, the £1million signing of Luke Murphy on the first day of July gave a riposte to the burning question in Leeds – can GFH Capital give its manager all he needs in the Championship?
McDermott’s appointment in April as Leeds’ replacement for Neil Warnock was immensely popular, as Warnock’s appointment had been 13 months earlier, but by the end of June he began to give the impression that the slow drag in the summer transfer market was testing his patience. After days of discussions between manager and board, Murphy was signed and McDermott felt refreshed. “Signing Luke at the value we did was a big step forward,” he says.
The situation, still, is not so straightforward. McDermott has been chasing his fourth signing for many weeks and is stuck in what appears to be a bit of an impasse. He has players who he would happily move on if Leeds could find takers and directors who have made plain to him the need to keep the wage bill on a leash. It might be too simple to say that McDermott needs to sell before he can buy but he has work to do on both fronts.
“I’ve been supported in my time here but I also know that balancing the books is necessary,” he says. “If you look at my career I’ve always done that. I do what I have to do.
“At Reading we sold Gylfi Sigurdsson, a massively gifted player, for a load of money to Germany. That was hard –hard for me – but it kept the place going and it kept us in the black. So we built again. Then we got to a play-off final and we lost Shane Long, Zurab Khizanishvili and Matt Mills, £10million worth of talent. Then we built again and won the league.
“Was I happy with that? Quite frankly I’d like to be keeping all my players but you have to be mindful of the club and their circumstances. And as that period at Reading proves, balancing the books isn’t a barrier to success.
“As long as everything is done for the best intentions of your club, nothing else matters to me. And I’ll always do what’s best for this club. Always.”
To listen to McDermott throughout the summer, it is perfectly clear that the purpose of his pre-season programme is to be inclusive of everyone and to make the best of what he has.
Maximising the potential of his existing squad is one way of insuring against deals which might not happen and are still unconcluded.
“There’s obviously one particular player I’m trying to get in,” he says.
“I need that to happen. But I’ll tell you now, someone will come from within this squad and surprise you, I’m convinced about it. It happens a lot.
“I had Jimmy Kebe at Reading. When I got the job he wasn’t a fans’ favourite but he turned himself into a fans’ favourite and became a terrific asset. It got to the point where if Jimmy wasn’t fit or able to play, it was seen as a bonus for the opposition. You just never know.”
So onto next season and United’s chances. McDermott claims he hasn’t thought about that.
“Pre-season sets you up for the season,” he says, with United’s players training around him, “so I’m only thinking about pre-season. This session actually. That’s how I work.”
Speak to the players and supporters at large and it becomes apparent that McDermott is winning the battle of hearts and minds. He has several sides to him – serious and considered on camera but dry and witty away from it; evidently driven yet strangely short of ego. He was utterly bemused when the fan who took a 50 Euro note from him in Murska Sobota last week decided to keep it and get it signed. “Why on earth would he want to do that?” McDermott asked. Already, the mood at Leeds is as he wants it.
“We’ve got no egos here and no-one cares who the credit goes to,” he says. “That’s a pretty fundamental situation. I don’t see how you can make a go of things if people are fighting or worrying about who’s getting which plaudits.
“I don’t know what happened here last season. It doesn’t really matter. But I made the point when I came here that the way I work is everyone together.
“If you don’t like that or you can’t cope with that then this isn’t the place for you – although how anyone can have a problem with working together and pushing in the same direction I’ve no idea.”
He almost makes the job of managing Leeds United sound simple. Only McDermott could do that.
United boss Brian McDermott is happy with the way things are panning out on and off the field at Leeds as he tells Phil Hay.
At certain points of his Slovenian tour, Brian McDermott has found himself speechless.
Saturday afternoon was one of those moments as Leeds United’s adoring public flashmobbed him and his squad as they drove into a car park in Domzale.
McDermott retreated into the quiet of the stadium and sat down by the press box, drawing breath and shaking his head. “They remind me of the Irish,” he said. “They’re just so into their club.” It will take time for him and others to forget the naked supporter who appeared in front of them.
He has learned this week that devotion to Leeds takes many forms. The tale of his 50 Euro note and the treatment it got has been told to death and McDermott himself described how two of United’s kit men, Chris Beasley and Shaun Ford, drove 24 hours without a break to bring piles of equipment to Ptuj. “The ethos and the attitude – it’s everywhere and I love it,” he says. “That’s how a club should be.”
McDermott created and nurtured a family of his own at Reading, which is one reason why his sacking in March wounded him. Away from the matter of how ruthlessly he was treated, in leaving Reading he left a lot behind – not least a club who mattered to him. Four months on, Leeds are easily filling what might have been a demoralising void.
“It would have been hard to be without that,” McDermott says. “It was hard at first. I didn’t see Reading’s decision coming. There’s wasn’t a great deal of warning. But do I think about it now? Not much.
“When it first happened it was on my mind a lot. That’s only natural. These days I think about Leeds United and there’s plenty to think about. People maybe underestimate that. When you ask ‘does what happened at Reading still rankle’, the honest answer is that it doesn’t have time to rankle.
“I was sure I’d find more work when the time was right but what I’ve got here is truly special. I’ve ended up at a club who are steeped in history and have a fanbase which, quite honestly, you can’t get your head around sometimes. No matter what I thought back then, I feel very lucky now.” The passing of time and four months of living with Leeds United has repaired any cracks in McDermott’s relationship with Reading’s hierarchy. Their chairman, John Madejski, was a long-time ally and honest enough to say that he “would have kept him.” The man who sacked McDermott and appointed Nigel Adkins, Russian owner Anton Zingarevich, sent the 52-year-old a supportive and conciliatory text on the day of his appointment at Leeds. They will be able to share a drink when United and Reading play in Berkshire on September 17.
“Reading are happy with the manager they’ve got and I hope Leeds are happy with the manager they’ve got,” McDermott says. “I don’t see the need for either of us to dwell on it any longer. I’m loving working here, absolutely loving it.
“I’ll never say a bad word about Reading because I was there for 13 years and had a lot of success in different jobs. I’m not going to rewrite history. It was a fantastic part of my life. I’ve no problem with the owner, honestly I haven’t. I said to him that we’ll always be friends because we won a championship together. That’s how I feel.
“I got a really nice text from Anton when I went to Leeds. That tells you something. They decided to go in a different direction and at the time that was difficult for me to accept. But when I step back now, I’ve actually got no problem with that. They went their own way just as Leeds did with me.”
Zingarevich bid for a controlling stake in Reading in 2012, midway through McDermott’s three-year tenure, and was free to make a change which Madejski might not have countenanced.
The experience of seeing power shift and directors come and go will not be wasted at Elland Road. Already McDermott has witnessed a change of chairman at Leeds – Ken Bates out, Salah Nooruddin in – and alterations to the day-to-day management structure. He deals directly with David Haigh, Leeds’ newly-appointed managing director, and is regularly on the phone to Bahrain, the base of Gulf Finance House which, when all is said and done, controls 86.77 per cent of United.
Some managers leave the boardroom to look after itself. Others, like McDermott, prefer to watch it closely.
“Oh yeah, I take an interest in that,” he says. “I’m very mindful of what’s going on and the changes that take place. I think it’s a naive manager who isn’t aware of what’s happening in the boardroom. It’s vital that you know.
“But I’m very comfortable dealing with the owners here. I’m dealing with David Haigh now, I’m on the phone to him constantly and on the phone to other people in Bahrain. They want the club to go forward and at the moment I think the structure’s good. I’m happy with it.”
GFH Capital, the subsidiary of Gulf Finance House which bought Leeds last December, has bobbed and weaved in the fight for credibility and trust. Arguably, the company holds higher public stock now than at any stage of the past seven months. The decision last week to return matchday commentary rights to BBC Radio Leeds was, in the eyes of many, another attempt to address a matter which the previous regime got wrong. The recent movement in the boardroom also appealed to those who were tired of Bates’ methods of football club ownership.
But more than anything, the £1million signing of Luke Murphy on the first day of July gave a riposte to the burning question in Leeds – can GFH Capital give its manager all he needs in the Championship?
McDermott’s appointment in April as Leeds’ replacement for Neil Warnock was immensely popular, as Warnock’s appointment had been 13 months earlier, but by the end of June he began to give the impression that the slow drag in the summer transfer market was testing his patience. After days of discussions between manager and board, Murphy was signed and McDermott felt refreshed. “Signing Luke at the value we did was a big step forward,” he says.
The situation, still, is not so straightforward. McDermott has been chasing his fourth signing for many weeks and is stuck in what appears to be a bit of an impasse. He has players who he would happily move on if Leeds could find takers and directors who have made plain to him the need to keep the wage bill on a leash. It might be too simple to say that McDermott needs to sell before he can buy but he has work to do on both fronts.
“I’ve been supported in my time here but I also know that balancing the books is necessary,” he says. “If you look at my career I’ve always done that. I do what I have to do.
“At Reading we sold Gylfi Sigurdsson, a massively gifted player, for a load of money to Germany. That was hard –hard for me – but it kept the place going and it kept us in the black. So we built again. Then we got to a play-off final and we lost Shane Long, Zurab Khizanishvili and Matt Mills, £10million worth of talent. Then we built again and won the league.
“Was I happy with that? Quite frankly I’d like to be keeping all my players but you have to be mindful of the club and their circumstances. And as that period at Reading proves, balancing the books isn’t a barrier to success.
“As long as everything is done for the best intentions of your club, nothing else matters to me. And I’ll always do what’s best for this club. Always.”
To listen to McDermott throughout the summer, it is perfectly clear that the purpose of his pre-season programme is to be inclusive of everyone and to make the best of what he has.
Maximising the potential of his existing squad is one way of insuring against deals which might not happen and are still unconcluded.
“There’s obviously one particular player I’m trying to get in,” he says.
“I need that to happen. But I’ll tell you now, someone will come from within this squad and surprise you, I’m convinced about it. It happens a lot.
“I had Jimmy Kebe at Reading. When I got the job he wasn’t a fans’ favourite but he turned himself into a fans’ favourite and became a terrific asset. It got to the point where if Jimmy wasn’t fit or able to play, it was seen as a bonus for the opposition. You just never know.”
So onto next season and United’s chances. McDermott claims he hasn’t thought about that.
“Pre-season sets you up for the season,” he says, with United’s players training around him, “so I’m only thinking about pre-season. This session actually. That’s how I work.”
Speak to the players and supporters at large and it becomes apparent that McDermott is winning the battle of hearts and minds. He has several sides to him – serious and considered on camera but dry and witty away from it; evidently driven yet strangely short of ego. He was utterly bemused when the fan who took a 50 Euro note from him in Murska Sobota last week decided to keep it and get it signed. “Why on earth would he want to do that?” McDermott asked. Already, the mood at Leeds is as he wants it.
“We’ve got no egos here and no-one cares who the credit goes to,” he says. “That’s a pretty fundamental situation. I don’t see how you can make a go of things if people are fighting or worrying about who’s getting which plaudits.
“I don’t know what happened here last season. It doesn’t really matter. But I made the point when I came here that the way I work is everyone together.
“If you don’t like that or you can’t cope with that then this isn’t the place for you – although how anyone can have a problem with working together and pushing in the same direction I’ve no idea.”
He almost makes the job of managing Leeds United sound simple. Only McDermott could do that.