Sheffield Wednesday v Birmingham City – Neil Thompson only committed to helping Owls secure safety
“You’re prying too much,” the caretaker-manager says when asked to divulge more details of why Jack Marriott is away until Monday.
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Hide Ad“That’s something I’m not going to comment on,” he says more than once.
“Whatever you say, you’re not going to put words into my mouth,” he chides a reporter desperate to get him to say he wants the manager’s job full-time.
You can tell Thompson was a dependable left-back, not a flashy winger in his playing days. Just reading his words, you can almost feel the Yorkshire accent in his common-sense, no nonsense, steadiness. The benefit of his 57 years comes across when people try to push him in directions he does not want to go.
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Hide AdSometimes when chairmen and supporters want bright young coaches, the excitement of a foreign accent or a big name, all they really need is a Thompson.
Managing a big club in the heat of a relegation battle, calmness and perspective reap rewards. Thompson has won six of his 10 matches in charge. Between them, Garry Monk and Tony Pulis won four out of 22 this season.
“It’s inevitable that as you grow older you get a little bit more experienced, you’re not hot-headed, you make decisions but maybe you have a different way of doing it to when you were younger,” says Thompson, who had managed Scarborough, York City and Boston United by the time he was 40, but who spent 16 years in youth football before temporarily taking the reins at Hillsborough.
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Hide Ad“You learn from every manager you work with but you’ve got to stamp your own personality, your own way of working. I’m pretty clear in what I want – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
“I’ve been in these battles before. I remember at Ipswich when we had to go to Blackburn to get a point to stay up in the Premier League and we did and I’ve been on the receiving end of it. All you’ve got to do is the right things and give it all you’ve got.”
Birmingham City have been sucked into the relegation zone by the form of the Owls, Rotherham United, Derby County and Nottingham Forest. To be below Wednesday on goal difference puts manager Aitor Karanka under pressure.
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Hide Ad“It’s what we do,” shrugs Thompson. “It goes with the territory. It’s a result-driven business. Managers aren’t stupid, you have to get results.”
But for a team with a 100 per cent record at Hillsborough, as Wednesday have under Thompson, today represents an opportunity not to be passed up.
“They’re all key and the next one is the one you’re going to focus on,” says Thompson, boringly and very accurately. “There’s going to be a lot of interest with where the two teams are in the table but there are only three points on offer. We need to keep really calm and have the motivation to win the game.
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Hide Ad“When we are on our game – our home form has been good recently – we know we are a match for most teams.
“Birmingham are fighting for their lives and they are not going to just come here and roll over and let us tickle their bellies. We know the challenge ahead and we need to relish it.
“You want people to be really motivated and enthusiastic and play at a high tempo when they need to, be aggressive.
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Hide Ad“But amongst all that you do need calm heads to make decisions because they’ve all got the technique, we’ve seen that on the training pitch.
“The skill of it is to do it on demand when it matters in the heat of battle.
“That’s what we’ve done reasonably well in the last few games in the league.”
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Hide AdBecause Thompson exudes that calmness, you wonder why Wednesday do not just give him the job until the end of the season. Then again, is there any need? This is not a young manager craving the validation of a job title.
He is asked if we should assume he will be in charge until May.
“You can assume what you want,” he replies. “At the end of the day, I don’t know.
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Hide Ad“I’m at the stage of my life where the caretaker role landed on my lap at the end of December. I’m enjoying it.
“I’m not going to put pressure on myself or anyone saying this, that and the other. What will be will be.”
Pushing him on the matter is pointless.
“I am not going to say I want it or don’t want it,” he insists, firmly and politely. “That’s not the reality of it.
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Hide Ad“It’s a result-driven business. We have had one or two good ones and we have had one or two kicks up the backside as well.
“I’m not the one to decide this, that’s for someone else.
“I’m not someone in their late 30s or 40s that has just retired and has a really burning ambition to (be a manager).
“As you get older, you know what the game is about and the pitfalls. You know what role you are good in. I feel I’ve got a good experience in everything I’m doing and the decision on being manager of this football club is not for me to make.
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Hide Ad“There are lots of people that I have played with and known along the way that can’t get into football whether that is as a coach, assistant manager or whatever.
“It’s a privileged life and I am well aware that I am getting a little on in years. You have to treasure every season you have in this industry, whatever position you’re in.”
There will be choppy waters ahead for Thompson as he tries to guide the club to safety. Do not expect him to bat an eyelid.
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