Paolo on... commanding respect from players.

MANAGERS who have had a good playing career at the top level have a bit more of an advantage at the beginning.

But after that you have to prove that you have knowledge and that you can deliver this knowledge in a right way and at the right time because players judge you at every moment.

If you have a good reputation from when you are a player then even if you are rubbish the players maybe follow you for two days but after three, four or five days and it is clear that you don’t have knowledge they will recognise it.

Everyone recognised that when I was a player I would receive the good advice from the manager and pass it on to the other players and not do what I want.

For this reason I had a very good professional relationship with all my managers, occasionally I had friction because I was a strong character but not in terms of commitment and discipline.

But being a big name player does not always mean you will become a top manager. Maradona should have become the best manager in the world based on who he was as a player.

Having knowledge, desire, a strong character and a willingness to study counts for much more than if you were a top-level footballer before.

There was Arrigo Sacchi, he did not have a football career, Jose Mourinho was average but studied hard and in England there are the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.

There are lots of examples of managers who had good playing careers. Giovanni Trapattoni played for AC Milan, Marcelo Lippi with Sampdoria. Fabio Capello was at Roma and Juventus and in England the likes of Roberto Di Matteo and Kenny Dalglish now and Glenn Hoddle in the past all had good playing careers.

So it can help, but it is not a rule and there are plenty of managers who had average playing careers who are good managers because they study.”

Paolo on... travelling to away games.

We travel to almost every away game the night before and for me this is crucial in helping us do as well as we have.

For every team, especially ones like us who did not gel straight away for many reasons, it was crucial because after we travelled together a lot we found that we became more united.

For an evening kick off, they used to travel four hours before the game, two hours to get there and two hours staying in the dressing room.

Now, for late games we arrive there at 12.30pm, have lunch, the players have bedrooms – not me and my coaching staff as I want to save the club money – the players have to rest until 4pm. Then we have a meeting, travel for 40 minutes and play.

But for Saturday games, travelling the day before is crucial. After the first two times they were asking, ‘do we go the night before even when we go to Bristol?’ and I said yes.

But they soon discovered they wanted to go because they could travel together, listen to music, watch a movie and have dinner together and then go have a massage and relax in the bedroom. It helped a lot.

This was one aspect that improved our togetherness and helped us to play more as a team.

After a game, they also all travel together. On Tuesday night Nathan Thompson asked to travel back with his girlfriend and his mum.

This was a special occasion because we won and it was a special occasion for him because he had not been involved for a while, so this was no problem.

After Wembley I told them from there they were free to go because the day after was a day off, but on the whole we absolutely travel back together.

It is a part of the discipline and these are the rules. It is not a strict regime and we are sometimes flexible. If a player’s wife or girlfriend has a scan on their baby then of course, this is life so that is more important.

To ask to stay and see a friend then no, they can see their friends when they want but not when we are focused on a game.

Paolo on... how he spends his downtime.

The only hour I have to rest each week is on Thursdays from 6pm until 7pm when I play five-a-side.

Even then though, when Claudio (Donatelli) or Marco (Paranese) misses a goal we reproduce the mechanism over how it happened to our players.

We take some information and then say, ‘you see the movement we made, you do that and then he will follow you instinctively.’ Similar can happen even in League Two. The other players in the league don’t have the discipline we have in the way we work as a unit and as a defensive line. If we reel a player in like the fish, we can use that to our advantage to create space and attack it.

So we enjoy the five-a-side because it helps us to forget some things for a moment, but straight after the game we would talk about what happened to us and discuss whether we can reproduce it in a bigger space with our players.

In a way it means we still work, a nice way to work but still working.

I don’t feel tired but I started feeling the heaviest I have felt this season. A minimum one or two times a week I am thinking about the beginning of the season – five games and four defeats in a row.

It was hard, but the way we came from that was amazing.

The players were amazing to follow with their quality and desire to become much better than when we first arrived.

There was a fish market here the first time, with 11 players all shouting and running in different directions.

There was no organisation but what we have achieved has been fantastic - to get from the bottom to the very top.

This season, for me, if we go up will be the season that has forged me.

It was not a typical season where a manager starts and has a strong team and goes up quite easily, or a typical season where the team finishes mid-table because the club does not ask too much.

It was very hard, but I don’t like an easy life because if we go up this will count for two Champions Leagues, for sure.

Paolo on... women coaching men's teams.

It has happened in Italy with Carolina Morace. She managed at the same level of League One here in England at a club called Viterbese.

The chairman at that club was Luciano Gauci, who used to be at Perugia in Serie A but ran away because he made some big financial problems.

The chairman wanted to make a big point and also bring in a German female footballer, but the whole thing did not work.

I am not against women in football, as officials like the referee lineswomen, that works no problem.

If you ask me if I am ready to think this is possible, as if I am the chairman of a club, then it is not something I can see happening.

I am not against it but I just don’t see a situation where it would work, especially at the top level where footballers already do what they want.

They do what they want with a top manager because they have a good contract like Tevez.

Maybe a woman can be strong to deal with this if she has the support of the board but there can also be physical confrontations with a player.

It has not happened to me yet but with Harry Redknapp and Ron Atkinson we were nearly to fight each other when I was a player.

It can happen, so it is difficult.

I don’t know if a woman would also be able to motivate male footballers to give their best, fight and challenge.

It does not mean that women don’t have the right character but it could be difficult in some specific situations to stimulate the players, encourage them to give more.

It could be tried and I am curious, but I feel it would be difficult.