Just watched the Sean O'Driscoll interview...

[Premier_Rover]

...on Pre-Season training.

That bloke will not get excited about a chuffing thing!!  

He's a cracking manager but bloody hell, u dont always have to be suicidal coz burnley turned u down! lol

[Valhalla]

Great manager but he reminds me so much of Sven in the way he conducts himself in interviews and around the training ground.

It's hard to belive managers like this can muster up the karisma to fire up a groupe of over 20 blokes to go and give there all but those two do.

I suppose the days of a \"bollocking\" at half time and a loud unhappy post-match interview are long gone in the game.

Boring but truely gifted working with people. Although he could send a glass eye to sleep he must be a great calming influance to the often hectic young lifestyles of the modern overpaid and underworked footballers.

[Lytham Rover]

try reading the rudyard kipling poem \"IF\"

\"if you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs you are a man my son\"

in other words calmness enables you to make more rational successful decisions

QED

[BillyStubbsTears]

bedale rover wrote:

try reading the rudyard kipling poem \"IF\"

\"if you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs you are a man my son\"

in other words calmness enables you to make more rational successful decisions

QED

I thought it were Kojak what wrote that?

[wing commander]

Oh i dont know,sometimes after youve driven for hours away from home when the teams been rubbish,it is strangley gratifying to find out the team have had a bollocking and while your tucking into roast beef,they will be having a beasting on the training ground..
  Sadly thats been proven not to actually achieve much but it made me feel better.lol

[Chris]

Valhalla wrote:

I suppose the days of a \"bollocking\" at half time and a loud unhappy post-match interview are long gone in the game.

Never listened to Blackwell on PoG?  

Also, I don't think he's boring in interviews. Listen to what he says rather than how he says it.

[stockholmrover]

and count the number of times he says \"you know\". His record is 42 which was on RS after the Peterborough away game (that could be wrong)

[Jonathan]

Chris wrote:

Also, I don't think he's boring in interviews. Listen to what he says rather than how he says it.

Agree 100%. If you listen to what he has to say he is far from boring. He has so much more to offer than your average manager-speak. I've always been mystified by the obsession people seem to have with managers that wave their arms around on the touchline and shout in interviews - it's all just empty gesturing.

As a second point, if you ever speak/listen to him in person he comes across far more relaxed and light-hearted than when forced to do an interview.

[Alan Southstand]

Anyone who was at Askern the other night will testify what the half time team talk was like, because it was on the pitch. Every player, to a man, listened intently to what SOD had to say. There was no-one messing around, tying their boot laces or messing about - it was good to see. And it served to highlight how much the players respect him and what he has to say. That's all that matters.

[Colin C No.3]

That's a revealing insight Alan.

I posted weeks ago regarding the way SOD conducts training sessions (as reported in an article at the time in the Yorkshire Post). Billy Sharp commented that he had never been involved before in his career, in training sessions that \"had you thinking about what had been passed on to you from the manager, long after you had left & were back at home.\"

Quite clearly, SOD was the difference between Billy signing for us or not.

Long may SOD's 'wise words' influence players to want to play & win for him.

[WheatleyRover]

I think ROK makes up for that, sean the brains and ROK i can just seem him firing them up, good contrast that works brilliantly

[donnybez]

WheatleyRover wrote:

I think ROK makes up for that, sean the brains and ROK i can just seem him firing them up, good contrast that works brilliantly

SOD and ROK sound like a less arrogant and much better Clough and Taylor....

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Alan Southstand wrote:

Anyone who was at Askern the other night will testify what the half time team talk was like, because it was on the pitch. Every player, to a man, listened intently to what SOD had to say. There was no-one messing around, tying their boot laces or messing about - it was good to see. And it served to highlight how much the players respect him and what he has to say. That's all that matters.

Bang on.  Interestingly, SOD got very animated at half time and was having a fair old rant at his players for not using the space well enough.  Despite plenty of kids wanting autographs etc he continued his talks with the players in a very animated style.  Great to see and quite unique to see him animated like that.