Inside Narcis Pelach's first Stoke City press conference, his verdict on transfer business and style of play
Narcis Pelach arrived at Stoke City two-and-a-half weeks after the summer transfer window had shut so it was interesting, as he talked about wanting to build a versatile team, to know if he then thought he had the tools at his disposal to do so. The answer was pretty emphatic.
“Of course I came just after the transfer window but when I saw the movements that the club did in the transfer window I’m more than happy,” said the new head coach. “If I had been here before I would have supported it. I think the club did an amazing job. It is squad that is ready to fight, it is young, it has energy, now it’s just about creating the fire to take the next step. I know that is going to be hard but it’s day by day.”
Versatility and hungry were the two buzz words during a 25-minute chat with the local media as Pelach was unveiled at the bet365 Stadium, flanked by the men who had appointed him on Wednesday: sporting director Jon Walters and chairman John Coates.
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Pep Guardiola is believed to be one of the more famous people in football who have sent him good luck messages over the last couple of days and Pep is obviously a hero and role model to any ambitious young coach, especially when you’re from Catalonia.
But if the long-term aim for most teams is to play like Barcelona – Pelach gave a twinkly chuckle to talk of Stokelona in his broadcast press conference, deftly turning to talk of his pals Bojan and Marc Muniesa rather than make any big promises – the bottom line is substance over style.
Style is important, he kept insisting, but that sounded like more in terms of the team having a clear identity than trying to win points for number of passes.
“The style needs to be versatile,” he said. “I think that what represents me is something that competes in all areas. I don’t want to see one thing that is excellent in one phase and really bad in another because you are just training one of them. I don’t want to be attached to that, I want to be attached to a team that competes. We were talking about West Bromwich before and that’s something I would really like to achieve, so we are good in defence, so we are good in attack, so we are good in defensive transition – maybe not excellent in any part but we go to games and we make sure we stay in them, we find a way to get points, we find a way to win.
“It’s not just about playing nice aesthetic football, which I know in my country happens a lot. Of course I think we will see that influence over time but I am more focused on making the team compete, making the team be in games, getting points, getting points, getting points.
“And it’s not just style of play, it’s how we come into the training ground every day. I want to see commitment, I want to see togetherness, I want to see fight, I want to see personality. We need to have the right characters for this to create a strong dressing room. I believe in human beings, I believe in energy, I believe in being hungry. It’s not just the football stuff, the human stuff is very important. We had a first chat about that today and I think they are conscious about this.
“Jon did a very, very good job in the transfer window in my opinion. Unfortunately I couldn’t affect it because I was not here but all the decisions they made, in my opinion seeing it from the outside, I rate because it makes us go in one clear direction. We are going to create something that is bigger than one individual and that is very important.”
Perhaps, then, he would have to ask supporters for patience, suggested Radio Stoke’s Matt Sandoz.
“No, I don’t want to ask for anything,” he said. “I said to the players that we need to earn the right and do that by showing attitude, how much we care about the club, how much we care about every game. We are not in a position to ask, we are in a position to give. This is what our mentality needs to be. Let’s behave, let’s make everyone see we want to do it, we want to compete, we want to be strong and solid but with fact, not with words. Fans have the right to say what they want to say. That’s why they come to the stadium and pay for membership. I’m quite ok with this and I just focus on things I can control, which is the players and the staff.”