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ID: So how did you get Zola, then? He wasn’t your first choice, was he?
SD: He was my first choice. The club was particularly keen on Donadoni, then I met him [Zola] in Rome. We had a long, long talk, about the philosophy of the football club. He is a very ambitious man but he also knows what his limitations are and if he was coming to a club which gave him a huge cheque book and said we want to be in the Champions League in two years’ time, we want you to spend it on the best players in the world, he simply wouldn’t have come. He knew what he was doing with the Italian Under 21s – develop players, coach. He wants to be on a training field one on one for an hour to improve players. He was really excited by the prospect of coming, working with our renowned academy and the young players there and developing players. It’s back to basics and seeing if coaching and developing and bringing all the elements of a football club together can bring success in this world where it seems the chequebook is king. He was really, really keen and encouraged by that and I was just blown away by the meeting with him in Rome. As I say, Donadoni was in the driving seat, and probably with me if I am being honest, but when I met Zola in Rome it was just unbelievable. I remember flying back and driving to work on the Monday having made the decision. Everybody, and I won’t name names, said I was mad. It was the most ridiculous decision I had ever, ever, ever made.
If everyone was against you in that decision, just from a management point of view, how did you drive it through?
Fortunately at that point I was in quite a strong position. My business plan – the much over-used Project – was the only way forward for the club. I had been at the club ten years and with the financial problems that BG clearly had, he needed me. So he couldn’t really question or go too far against me, so I was convincing in the board meetings as to why we had to do this. But then once we had gone six games without a win there were quite a few people willing to point that fact out and reckoned I had made my biggest mistake and that it was all my fault!
Did you ever doubt yourself?
I think everybody doubts themselves at times. When they go home at night. I can honestly say I didn’t doubt the decision, no. I think if you saw the performances we were superb. Someone said that if football games were 75 minutes we’d have been top of the league. It was really easy to fix. I went to Gianfranco’s house, told him that football matches are 90 minutes, not 75 and then we started winning games. It was easy! [laughs]
When teams ship goals in the last 15 minutes of games your automatic thought is that they must be very unfit. Were they?
In the eyes of Gianfranco, yes. He has quite exacting standards. He brought in a fitness coach who is unbelievable and he has raised the fitness levels.
That was quite noticeable towards the end of the season.
We haven’t had a pre season yet under Gianfranco so we will see a huge improvement. I could see fitness was getting better but the only thing that worried me was that this is a results driven industry. I wanted to get points on the board quickly. The media would turn against us, there were already key people in the club who were turning against me. During that time… Gianfranco is a very, very loyal person and all the talk about Chelsea didn’t concern me. I was at the training ground every day with him. We very supportive of each other to be honest because he saw the pressure I was under as well. But we got through it. I was so glad we had that difficult time because it made the bond a lot closer and a lot stronger. When all this talk about Chelsea coming in for him started, I knew it was never an issue.
What about Steve Clarke’s role in all of this? He’s integral to the setup isn’t he? Zola is only half a Zola without Clarke.
This is where there was a certain method to the madness. I wasn’t just thinking we had to get Zola, he was an awesome player. It was quite clear that when we looked at what we required from a manager, in my view one man couldn’t do it. It’s better if you take various skills and separate them, so Zola is an inspiration, he’s a one on one coach and can really develop players, wheareas Clarke has huge, huge ability with regard to tactical awareness, setting up the team defensively. So if you get the two of them together you have got a pretty powerful combination. The experience Clarke has had with a variety of high profile managers meant that if we got the both of them it would be a lethal combination. Then add Kevin Keen to the mix, who is West Ham United through and through and a tremendous coach, and we had a pretty powerful coaching combination.
Did Zola make it clear right from the first discussion that Clarke was an absolutely vital component to the deal?
Absolutely. He made it clear he [Clarke] was vital. We were led to believe that there wouldn’t be too many obstacles to securing Steve as he didn’t seem to figure in Scolari’s plans. That’s what Gianfranco led me to believe. Once we had secured Gianfranco we then started to negotiate on Steve with Chelsea, who made it clear they didn’t think Steve should leave Chelsea and he was very much part of their plans. This created a problem. Gianfranco flew in to sign his contract and we had the press conference arranged. At that point we couldn’t secure Steve as it wasn’t quite as Gianfranco had led me to believe. With an hour to go before the press conference Gianfranco said, ‘well, I can’t sign without Steve’.
And you said? [laughs]
I said ‘I’ve put my entire reputation on signing you. Everybody is against it, and I am completely for this. You have to sign right now, otherwise I am finished’. If you look at the press conference again carefully you’ll see that I am sat there sweating and not smiling, and Gianfranco is looking at me nervously, because we knew that all this was dependent on Steve Clarke and we still had some work to do to secure him. But fortunately we did.
What would Zola have done if you hadn’t managed to get Clarke?
Let’s not think about that!
What did you notice most in his first few weeks? Presumably there was a complete change of atmosphere from the glass half empty days of Alan Curbishley.
It’s coaching and ambition. He will say ‘we can win the league and qualify for Europe’. There is complete and utter optimism. It wasn’t just the usual honeymoon period with Zola. You could see against Newcastle, the improved performance, the belief, the triangle play off each other. This is why I sit here quite confident about the future. Even if we don’t invest in players, which we will do – we just signed Jiminez – our team will improve and be better than last year because Zola, Clarke and Keen will coach them. It will improve them as players. If we add players who are technically better anyway, such as Jiminez, suddenly our level improves. Collison will be a better player, Cole will be a better player. He will coach them. He will improve them. In my opinion it is a far better strategy than just throwing money at a problem because invariably that doesn’t work.
Is it true that in training very often it’s Zola who takes the defenders and Clarke who takes the strikers?
Yes, it’s completely insane. I keep telling them about this [laughs]. Zola was a superb striker and Clarke was a great defender. We’ll be top four if they get that bit right. No, I don’t want to interfere in their training methods, so yes it’s true. It may seem strange, but that’s exactly what happens.

Part Four coming tomorrow

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