Phil Brown Interview – City Magazine

By: Matt | September 3rd, 2009

Phil Brown Interview

Check it out folks, with the international break this weekend, lets check out an interview with Tigers manager Phil Brown, from the official mag of Hull City, City Magazine.

Just note this interview took place before the season.

BACK IN THE HOT SEAT

It’s Monday morning and Phil Brown’s first day back at ‘the office’ following his summer holiday…
Twenty four hours earlier, he’d been relaxing on a beach in Portugal. As he drives into Hull City’s training complex, then for one brief moment he probably imagines he is back on that Mediterranean shore. Two-thirds of the playing area has been dug up. There are huge mounds of sandy soil everywhere. It’s not quite the Algarve. The scene more resembles a lunar landscape, or the beach at Withernsea when the tide is out!
Brown isn’t about to unpack a deck-chair and his trusty old bucket and spade. With a new Barclays Premier League season looming ever larger on the horizon, there’s work to be done.

The atmosphere at the training ground is relaxed, as you’d expect at the end of June. All City’s football management staff are there – Assistant Brian Horton, First-Team Coach Steve Parkin, Chief Scout Bob Shaw and Head of Youth Billy Russell. Plans for the new season – and new signings – are top of the agenda. Yet, in some ways, it seems only yesterday that City were entertaining champions Manchester United at the KC Stadium with their future as a top-flight club hanging by a thread – and a very fine thread at that. Brown steered City to safety. Few would deny him his hard-earned break in the sun.

“The holiday? Yeah, it was very nice, thanks very much, but I don’t think I’ve had a full chance to recover to tell you the truth,” he admits.
“The rigours of the ten-and-a-half months, starting with having qualified for the Barclays Premier League by winning at Wembley, it doesn’t half take it out of you, there’s no doubt about it. You listen to some of these experienced managers – the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Sam Allardyce and Steve Bruce and they say take a complete and utter month off.

“Now, you don’t know whether they are telling you that to get ahead of you in the transfer market or whether it’s sound advice. As far as I’m concerned it’s sound advice. I had two weeks in Portugal with my wife and daughter, Sophie. It normally takes me three or four days to settle down and relax but this time it was the probably the second Tuesday – eight or ten days – before I really wound down. »

“Once I did relax, I had four or five nice days with meals beside the pool, meals out with the missus – that type of thing. I did manage to switch off and now, I’ve only been back a day and there’s a lot of work to be done – a hell of a lot of work – but I’m looking forward to it.”
It’s not just Brown’s long-suffering wife who would tell you the man eats, lives and breathes football. His appetite and enthusiasm for the game – and for Hull City in particular – is insatiable. As you’d expect from someone who has just been on holiday, he looks relaxed and, yes, tanned. There are certainly a few less frown lines on his forehead than in the closing weeks of the season.

As the interview gets underway, he can’t settle. He’s fidgeting with a pen, his mobile phone and finally a paper clip. He’s a bundle of energy. It’s a tell-tale sign he can’t wait to start work.

“I wouldn’t say the batteries are fully re-charged but they’ll start picking up when you start bringing new players in and you see the whites of their eyes and how ambitious and how driven they are.
“Then, you see your staff – with the nice tans – fully re-charged. Yeah, you look forward to getting your teeth stuck into it all again.”
Brown always looks smart. He’s wearing a black suit and open-necked pink shirt.
He’s sitting in his office, the office where he did much of his planning for last season. There is a mountain of paperwork on his desk but you can tell it’s the off-season as most of the spare space is taken up by a couple of golf bags. The clubs inside will have to wait to see any action.
Everyone wants to see him. Just as he settles down in a black-leather chair, there’s a knock on his door. It’s his PA. Apparently, his new car has just arrived and the staff from the garage are hanging around to show him how the ‘all-singing, all-dancing’ on-board computer works.
“Tell them I’ll be out in a few minutes,” he says. “Now, where were we?”
The conversation drifts from holidays and back to last season. Twelve months ago, City’s chances of staying in the Barclays Premier League were rated as somewhere between nil and non-existent. Many people thought Brown would be looking for a new job long before Christmas. He – and his players – proved the cynics wrong.

“Personally, staying up meant an awful lot,” says Brown, his hands clasped tightly behind his head.
“It was by far and away my greatest achievement in football. Playing at Wembley two or three times – and having been back there as a coach and manager on a number of occasions and then winning promotion there against Bristol City – were all levels of achievement, for sure.
“But to pit your wits against some of these great managers and great teams that have been in the Barclays Premier League since its inception was something else. They have a massive headstart on us but to get in among them – to survive – no, not just survive – but to compete, then I was proud of the account we gave of ourselves.”

In the end, survival came down to one single point. While City lived to fight for another season, Newcastle, Middlesbrough and West Brom weren’t as fortunate. They will be playing in the Championship next season. Brown rightly takes enormous satisfaction from the fact he is still a top-flight manager.

“The profile of the football club was raised and people were impressed with the way we addressed the Barclays Premier League from the very start. Then, of course, they were massively interested in our fight towards the end of the season, culminating with three big teams getting relegated.

“West Brom have been christened a ‘yo-yo’ team and rightly so having gone up and down three times in the last six years. The two north east teams – well, obviously I feel for them because I’m from that neck of the woods. But their relegation was at the expense of our survival which was a fantastic achievement.
“You can cast your mind back to the individual games and weekends. There are still very vivid and very fond memories. But the be-all and end all is that we stayed up. That’s what matters.”
Brown is not the type of person to rest on his laurels. His next task is to make sure City stay in the top flight for at least another 12 months. Happily, he’s ready to tackle the new season – and whatever it throws at him – head-on.

The news that he’s back in this country has obviously started to spread. A couple of journalists are waiting outside to talk to him. His mobile never stops ringing.
He ignores the first couple of calls. He answers the third. It’s just as well as the person on the other end of the line is chairman Paul Duffen. The pair didn’t know each other when Duffen took control of the club and Brown was hoping to get a chance to become manager. That was two years ago. Now, they’ve forged a strong and successful partnership. It’s doubtful whether there’s a better manager-chairman relationship in the entire Barclays Premier League.
That strength – and mutual respect- shone through in the final few weeks of last season and undoubtedly helped secure another season of Barclays Premier League football. Now, they are working together to build for the future. It is a ‘catch-up’ call and Brown is soon back in interview mode. He admits a fair number of calls are from agents pushing their particular player. Others are from long-time friends who are already wishing him all the best ahead of the new campaign. And, he believes City will be well prepared for their second season of top-flight football.
“When the fixture list came out, you look at it and you go: ‘I’ve been there now, I’ve seen it and I’ve done it’. Whether you’ve won those games, lost those games or drawn those games, you’ve got experience of it at this level. I can’t emphasise to people how important that is.
“Last season, we had no idea what was going to be coming out of the opposition dressing room. Now, we have an idea. We know what grounds feel like, what they look like and what they smell like. We know what games look like, what they taste like – the whole Barclays Premier League campaign, we’ve now got experience as a Hull City team.
“To be 104 years out of it – but one year in it – then it’s amazing. It’s almost a comfortable feeling now that we know.”

Brown – and City – might be another year older and another year wiser. However, the very first game (at Chelsea) highlights the size of the task they face.
“Chelsea,” reiterates Brown. “This is what I mean. We know what it looks like, we know what it feels like. We know we gave a good account of ourselves at Chelsea last season when we drew 0-0. Will it be different?

“Well, they’ve got a new coach, they’ll probably have a whole new team and if not then 75 per cent will be a new team, coupled with the players already there. They are all world class, international players but we know what it feels like and that’s the main thing. Last season, we were going into the unknown so to speak. Now we’ve got that experience, then it will stand us in better stead.”
It might be a year down the line since all the uncertainty of last summer but Brown knows the same cynics are expressing exactly the same views about City’s prospects again.
City supporters would argue the experience gleaned from last term should at least put their club ahead of the three promoted sides, Wolves, Birmingham and Burnley. Not that Brown sees it in such clear-cut terms. He believes the three promoted clubs could make an impact… like City and Stoke did last season. However, he’s more concerned with ensuring City avoid another relegation battle.

“This time last year, people were claiming we wouldn’t win a game. Now, they are saying the same about Burnley. Who knows how things will work out? The fact we know what to expect means that we should be doing better than what we did last season. That is the challenge.
“It’s not about doing better than Wolves, better than Birmingham or better than Burnley. It’s about doing better than what we did (last season). I’m sure everyone will be making reference to the start we made last year and how we were doing after ten games.
“If we can make the same kind of start again then fantastic, well done. If we don’t, then we’ll meet that challenge. But at least, we’ll have a reference point and that is the main factor. We have got something that we can actually tangibly feel.”

Brown has freely admitted that City’s explosive start last term surprised everyone and not just Arsenal who were beaten 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium on one particularly memorable Saturday evening in September. The Tigers also defeated, Fulham, Spurs, Newcastle, West Ham and West Brom. In October, they were third in the table. Surely, though, it is expecting too much to think City will catch sides unaware again.
“There is no reason why you can’t but it’s not just about the first nine or ten weeks. It’s about the Barclays Premier League in its entirety, as we found out last season. Now, as I said, we have got some sort of feel for it. The individual teams will be as prepared and well-drilled as us.
“Will we hit the ground running? That is our intention. We’ll go away to Italy – and to Beijing – and have a pre-season that will bring the level of fitness that will make us very competitive.

“You look at the fixtures and we can all make reference to the games that we should win, that we can win, that we could win, that we could get a point from. It’s that reference point that is the key.”
Brown does not lack confidence. He’s a proud man. He stands up for what he believes in. Some would say he can be pushy, brash, even arrogant at times. Those people don’t really know him. He cares for his staff, his players and his club. If City show the same passion and enthusiasm as their manager next season on the pitch, they won’t go far wrong.

There again, Brown is the most successful manager in City’s history. Okay, others before him boast a better win ratio. Others before him have won promotion. Others – like Warren Joyce – will forever be remembered for their Herculean efforts against all the odds. No-one, though, ever took City into the top flight – and kept them there.
As last season unfolded – and the battle for survival intensified – Brown kicked every ball and made every tackle. The pressure on his shoulders was immense. Even when the criticism was at its worst – and, at times, very personal – he never wavered. He never lost hope and that belief did get through to his players. So, how did he cope in the closing weeks of the campaign?
“I’ve been getting a lot of nice letters from people all around the world, let alone the city of Hull. They all want to know how I coped. It was quite simple. I have always coped with pressure by looking at the players and if the players look good, feel good and don’t feel under pressure, then it takes it (the pressure) away from me. I know I’ve done my job.
“The last two games were very important and the fact we got the one point (at Bolton) was particularly important. The decision to go away to the Lakes before that Bolton game was a key. We really developed a togetherness and a camaraderie. We didn’t train. We turned our mobiles off and we got into each others psyche’, as it were.
“We got the point. We should have had three, no doubt about it, but that was the Barclays Premier League for you.”
A wry smile lights up Brown’s face as he recalls that Craig Fagan equaliser at the Reebok Stadium. Without that goal, Brown would now be planning for a season of Championship football. That one goal – that one point – was the difference between success and failure.
Brown adds: “I remember being asked at various stages last season – would you take 17th place now? Come the last game of the season the answer was definitely yes.

“At the start of the season, then the answer was » probably yes. But looking back at the season as a whole, then the answer is probably somewhere between yes and no. But we know it was all about being in the Barclays Premier League for a second year running and when it was in our own hands then that was the most pleasing factor for me.
“I couldn’t sit back and relax – by any stretch of the imagination – but the knowledge that our fate was in our hands was something I will be striving to maintain throughout my career.”
No-one will forget the celebrations after that final game against Manchester United or the sight – and sound – of Brown belting out a song or two at an emotionally-charged KC Stadium. However, there were also plenty of disappointments, particularly in the second half of the season when City slipped down the table in alarming style.
Brown always remained upbeat and defiant but there were times when he seemed powerless to halt the slump. Must win games came – and went – without reward. Although he always thought City would stay up, he admits there were times that immense self-belief was tested to the limit, not least after a 3-1 defeat at Middlesbrough in the closing weeks of the campaign.

“There were a couple of low points and Middlesbrough away was definitely one of them. There were a few reasons for that – the manner in which we conceded the first goal, the manner in which we handed the impetus to them and the 33,000-odds fans who turned out to back them and the manner of the third goal – and who scored that third goal in particular.”
That goal was scored by Marlon King. The striker had played such a key role in City’s impressive first half of the campaign but then left the club amid reports of a bust-up with his manager.

“I knew he (King) had a point to prove. I didn’t think he proved that point that day, albeit he got the goal and goal-scorers will tell you he proved his point. I always like players with a point to prove. How you get to that stage, or whether he’s for or against you, is another matter.
“It wasn’t that it hurt because it was Marlon King, it was more the manner in which it came around. Because of that result – and because of our performance – we’d dragged ourselves into a last two or three game dogfight.”

There were other controversial moments in the season not least Brown’s decision to berate his players on the pitch following a nightmare first half display at Manchester City. Don’t expect him to regret that, though.
“I absolutely stand by what I did,” says Brown. “It was the key to our season. If I’d lost the dressing room after that game, then I’d only myself to blame. But I knew the strength of character in our dressing room.
“I speak to everyone on a regular basis but I speak to the senior pro’s probably more regularly and if I’d had any kind of sniff that I’d lost the dressing room, then I’d have had to do something about it.

“The way we performed in the first half was unacceptable. The way I performed at half time certainly wasn’t unacceptable. It was totally acceptable and I think the players responded to that.”
The very public dressing down was certainly a brave move by Brown. Other events were out of his direct control like the injury to Jimmy Bullard. The club’s record buy was injured after less than 20 minutes of his debut at West Ham.

There’s no hint of a smile on Brown’s face as he recalls: “I remember we stayed down in London at ‘The Grove’ after the West Ham game. It was a Wednesday night.
“Initially, the extent of the injury was very much unknown. Then, there was a two week period where it was a case of is it (serious) or isn’t it? Having finally decided it was a cruciate ligament – albeit a different one to his previous injury – then to lose £5m-worth of player – a record transfer fee – then it’s hard to take.
“Then, there’s the realisation that you can only deal with what is on your desk on a Monday morning. The realisation was Jimmy was going to be out for six months so you get on with it.”

Happily, Bullard is on course to return in September. Whether he will still be the club’s record buy by then is another matter. Since the final ball of last season, Brown seems to have been linked with every player worth a mention in the football’s ‘Who’s Who.’
While he was away on holiday, it was Fraizer Campbell and Marc-Antoine Fortune. On the day of the interview with CITY Magazine, there is intense speculation linking City with Michael Owen. Next week, it will be someone else. But, does the fact City are a second year Barclays Premier League side make it any easier attracting big-name signings?
“Ask me in a few weeks,” quips Brown. “Seriously, I wouldn’t say it gets any easier.

“We have a history now in the Barclays Premier League. We’ve been seen on a world-wide stage. Players will now have an opinion on Hull City, on Phil Brown. They will know Steve Parkin, Brian Horton, the chairman.
“With that in mind, it can become easier, because they might like what they see. There again, it can become harder because they might not like what they see. The bottom line is we are trying to bring in a new batch of players who share the common dream, the common vision.
“If we get those players, then with what’s already in the building, we’ll be a very competitive side. We know we need to strengthen, freshen things up. Whenever you bring in a new player, it brightens everyone up. Everyone gets more competitive. The players already here want to prove to the new players how good they are. The new players want to show how good they are.

“I’m looking forward to the new players. I know the players I’m looking for. I know the areas we need to strengthen and hopefully the shopping list will be successful.”
Brown will be central to any attempts to sign players. Listen to some people – and not all of them work in the media – and you could be lured into thinking there were times when the manager over-stepped the mark last season like at Manchester City or in his outspoken comments after the infamous ‘Spitgate’ incident at Arsenal. But does Brown feel he got a fair press?

“A lot of people have asked me that question. It suggests I didn’t get a fair hearing. The banter, for want of a better word, was excellent. Yes, I knew I was upsetting a few people in the media. Yes, they were deliberately going out to try and upset me. But that’s the cut and thrust of any conversation I get involved in, let alone talking to the media.
“But I enjoyed it and hopefully I’ll enjoy it next season as well. I’m certainly not going to shy away from it. I suppose the experiences of last season then yes, sometimes it teaches you to slow down before you answer a question. It teaches you not to jump in two-footed.
“There were probably instances where I saw some of the biggest and best managers in the Barclays Premier League and how they have reacted to particular things or particular situations. Could I have handled things differently? I’m proud. I’m passionate. I’ll stand up for what I think is right. I’ll defend my team, my players, my club. I might not always get it right but I’m not going to change. I will always try to be pro-active.”

Brown admits he learned some harsh lessons in the top-flight last term – and not just when it comes to dealing with the press. Ask him if there’s one thing in particular he would change and he replies: “Yeah… grey hair. You can’t change it, unless you dye it and I won’t be doing that!
“Listen, there were mistakes, all the way along. I’m not too proud to admit I made mistakes, for sure. Sir Alex Ferguson bases his whole managerial career on getting seven out of ten right. That suggests he gets three out of ten wrong. If he can make mistakes then so can the rest of us!”
Brown recently celebrated his 50th birthday. It goes without saying that he hopes to celebrate his 51st as a Barclays Premier League manager.
“I’m not setting targets but the whole deal when I took this job was to improve every game, every day and every season. I think we have. How far we can take it is a massive question and one that I can’t answer at this moment in time. I just want to keep improving, to keep building.

“What will I be happy with next season? If I say anything above 17th then that can mean anything from 16th to first. That’s all I’ll say.”
Brown is happy to leave predictions to others. He knows many pundits will write City off but nothing will give him more pleasure than proving all over again that the Tigers deserve to be a Barclays Premier League club.