The Ability To Inspire- Steve Coppell

STEVE COPPELL

The ability to inspire is a key component in any Premier League manager’s arsenal. Throughout his management career, operating predominantly on modest budgets, Steve Coppell has consistently demonstrated his ability to inspire his players beyond their comfort zones. Sue McCann caught up with Reading’s manager to find out the sources of his own inspirations. Most Inspiring Manager of all Time “Two actually stick out in my mind. Bill Shankly started the Liverpool dynasty and he was a unique human being and there is no way anybody could duplicate him. I was very, very fortunate that when he left Liverpool he came to Tranmere Rovers were I was playing. I always remember the particular season that he got involved when I think we’d gone through to February without winning an away game. The first away game he came to was at Gillingham which was a particularly difficult place to go to. We got the train there, we were pushing the kit skips through the streets of Gillingham from the station to the ground Shankly and all and we won that particular game... our first away win of that season. He had an aura and an effect on the people around him without doubt. “The other person who had the respect of everybody that ever met him either from a professional or personal sense would be Sir Matt Busby. He was just an absolute gentleman and a professional in every way, a fist of steel in a velvet glove I think would be the best way of describing his approach to discipline. Again a unique football brain and you look at his achievements over the years and Manchester United had so much to thank him for.” Most Inspiring Team of all Time “There were certainly better teams than the one that I remembered but it was the one that was the most significant for me being brought up a Liverpool fan. I used to go and watch them for many, many years until I started playing Saturday afternoons myself. From about 4 years old through to 11 or 12 I used to watch Liverpool all the time and the first Liverpool team to win the FA Cup in 1965...they were the team for me that made the biggest impression in the way they played football. They came from nowhere almost, and started the dynasty that was the Shankly regime. It was a momentous day in my household and that team of Lawrence, Lawler, Smith, Yates, Byrne, Callaghan, Strong, Stevenson, Thompson, Hunt, and St John. Roger Hunt and Ian St John scored the goals on that wonderful day to beat Leeds and win the cup.” Most Inspiring Player of all Time “There’s only one answer to that one...I’d have to go for the greatest player of all time which would be Pele. The hardest thing in football is to score goals and he scored over a thousand goals at the highest level in Brazil for many years and at international level. I was around during the 1966 World Cup when he certainly wasn’t at his best and was cut down by various teams and had to hobble off injured in that tournament. The 1970 World Cup tournament was the pinnacle for Brazil and for Pele leading that team from up front, so Pele would be my all time favourite player without doubt.”