The Big Interview: Tony Pulis

New West Brom boss Tony Pulis believes he has taken on the biggest challenge of his career.

But, despite five enjoyable months spent playing with his grandchildren and broadening his horizons, he insists he couldn't turn it down.

Since leaving Crystal Palace on the eve of the new season, Pulis has thrown himself into family life as well as travelling the world and visiting the battlefields of the First World War.

Yet when Baggies chairman Jeremy Peace came calling this week, Pulis couldn't help but give up his life of education and relaxation in search of his latest football fix, writes Steve Madeley.

However, the manager who kept Palace up last season despite taking on a team bottom of the table with just four points from 11 games reckons his latest mission is even tougher.

He said: "Everybody had written Palace off, so it was backs against the wall and everybody against us, so we had that motivation.

"Here we will have to find a different angle, without a doubt, to get the players motivated. But we will do our best.

"I will do my best and work as hard as it takes and I just hope my best and the players' best is good enough.

"Is it my biggest challenge? Oh yes, because it's such a short period and this has been going on at West Brom for a while now.

"This hasn't just happened, it hasn't just fallen off, this has been going on for a while – since Roy Hodgson left it's dropped off a bit.

"So there's a lot of work to be done and you have to give the chairman a lot of credit because he understands now that that is the situation."

Pulis admits his sleep patterns, which had been regular and comfortable, have already begun to change since he agreed to take charge at the Hawthorns.

And he says he enjoyed his time away from the game, which began when he walked out of Selhurst Park.

He fell out with co-chairman Steve Parrish, on the back of the rescue act that earned him the title of Premier League Manager of the Year.

The 56-year-old said: "It has been lovely spending time with my two grandchildren, Grace and Luca – a wonderful experience.

"I've done loads of things. I even went to France with two old blokes – they'll love me for saying that – my old neighbours in Ferndown (near Bournemouth), Rodney who is 82 and the other who is 75.

"We did all the battlefields. We looked at where they played the Christmas truce game and did everything – places I thought I'd never see.

"I've been to America twice, Malaysia – the Premier League is so big over there – and I have been to Europe to watch games, like Austria versus Russia. And I have done a lot of TV and media work.

"But my wife's delighted I will now be out of the house! And I can't say I haven't missed it. I think you do miss it, but I've enjoyed my grandchildren."

In a decade at Stoke over two spells, Pulis moulded the club into an established Premier League force and led them to an FA Cup final before leaving for a second time in 2013.

Yet his methods earned scorn and disapproving comments, not least from Albion fans and journalists.

They questioned the direct, physical approach and perceived cynicism of the sides who regularly locked horns with and got the better of Tony Mowbray's swashbuckling teams.

In seven months at Palace, he went some way towards changing his image as his Eagles side stayed up with a brand of swift, counter-attacking football underpinned by no-nonsense defensive organisation.

And, while he insists the criticism of his techniques is water off a duck's back, the former Bournemouth and Plymouth boss claims he will style his Albion team to suit the dynamics of the squad he has inherited.

He said: "Criticism from me is something you have to take. We're in an industry where people criticise you and you have to be thick-skinned enough to take that and get on with it and fight.

"There is nothing bigger than winning games. Winning breeds confidence. We need a couple of new faces without a question of a doubt to give the place a lift.

"We need to get the right ones in and, hopefully, results will follow and that will breed confidence.

"This is the shortest period of time I've had at any football club to turn results around. That's why I think it will be as difficult, if not more difficult, than Palace.

"I had two months at Palace to assess it. I knew exactly where we were at Palace after two months. I knew that Joe Ledley, Wayne Hennessey, Scott Dann and Thomas Ince would improve things.

"I hope we can get that instant reaction and go on to win games but it will be really tough.

"If you look at the bottom 12 in the Premier League now, it's never been tighter. You look at what Burnley, Leicester and QPR have done. They've had good results and will be fighting right through to the end.

"We worked in a certain way at Stoke and it worked well. Going to Palace was completely different, we had certain strengths and this is different again.

"We worked to the strengths of the team and this is a different group. You can't just say 'I'm going to do this' and try to get players to do what you want them to if they can't do it.

"You have to work to players' strengths. We have to find a different way of winning.

"It will take me another two weeks to find out about the DNA in the group and how we can get that working together for the good of the group.

"The one thing I said to the players when I met them was at times I didn't think they were positive enough at West Ham on New Year's Day.

"There were times when we broke and had really good opportunities, but instead of taking people on and having that responsibility they were looking for that extra pass.

"I don't want that. I want people to be positive. If they miss the target in the final third who cares, as long as they're being positive.

"I didn't think there was a ruthlessness about the group and there should be because they is good quality there.

"At Stoke, we had a football club that was in the bottom half of Championship, had no training ground and a decaying stadium with 12,500 people watching games.

"We saw things take off and now they have one of the best training grounds in the country.

"The stadium is full all the time, they have been to a Cup final, been to four quarter-finals, one semi, Europe.

"They have some top young players that have come through like Asmir Begovic, Ryan Shawcross, Marc Wilson and Steven N'Zonzi.

"I think I built quite a solid football club. As Dave Kemp (Pulis's No 2) said the other day, the great thing is that we have left and things have just carried on.

"Sometimes at clubs things fall away, but we have put something in place that is very solid. If I could do the same here I would be very pleased."

Having worked solidly for years at Stoke, Pulis's time at Palace was very different.

He rescued the club from a seemingly doomed situation in a matter of months, earning himself the admiration of his peers with the League Managers' Association and a reputation as football's latest expert firefighter.

Yet Pulis rejects the notion that he specialises in miracles and insists the Baggies cannot take survival for granted.

He said: "Am I comfortable with that tag? No. This is just my job. I'm just a basic, hard-working, honest guy and I think can coach.

"I think I motivate players very well and organise them and get them set up very well and I think players enjoy playing for me.

"There is nothing plastic about me. I think it's amazing. You look at what we achieved at Stoke over 10 years, then we go to Palace for seven months and become a completely different animal.

"But that is perception and that's most probably what life is about. There's a danger of complacency and I think complacency is one of the worst words in the dictionary.

"You've got to be relentless in your pursuit to do anything in life if you want to be successful. Just because I have walked through the door doesn't mean this football club is going to stay up.

"And a lot of those people who are saying that haven't been involved in trying to do it.

"It's not easy. It's a compliment, fine, brilliant, but I'd rather have the compliment at the end of the season.

"I think the most important thing for myself is just to do what I've been doing over the years.

"I will not get involved in 'just because I'm turning up', or 'because I did that last year' and because 'I did that the year before', it's just going to fall into place.

"The sleep has dropped off a little bit. I'm not sleeping as well the last couple of nights as what I had been the previous three or four months, so I know I'm back at work and I've got stuff on my plate."

He has already set about forming a solid relationship with chairman Jeremy Peace – a man famous for fall-outs with previous managers including Pulis' close friend Gary Megson.

And the new man revealed he had already spoken to Megson as well as other Albion old-boys including current England boss Roy Hodgson and his immediate predecessor, Alan Irvine.

Pulis said: "I've spoken to Gary Megson, Alan Irvine, on the day he left, Roy Hodgson, Dan Ashworth and loads of people who've worked here.

"And I know the chairman has spoken to loads of people about me. You do your homework.

"This is a very good club, if you can get it going and on the right footing you can have a good time here.

"People said Gary left under a cloud but he loved this club. I think Roy is a coach like me and I think Roy likes being out working with players.

"We are 50s children brought up the right way! We have different principles and ideas on life.

"People talk about three games in six days, having two days off after a game but you compare what people go through in life to the players and it is laughable!

"I spoke to Alan after the club had contacted me to see what the situation was and how he saw the club.

"He is one of the great gentlemen of football, an absolute dream of a person, a wonderful man.

"I've got tremendous respect for him. Both Gary and Roy had good times here. Alan? You leave a club and you're disappointed. He wanted it to last forever, like we all do.

"But he was very complimentary about a lot of the club. The relationship between a manager and the chairman is the most important relationship of any football club.

"There has got to be that communication and you have to understand you are both working together. There will be times when we have differences.

"Everyone knows how much I respect Peter Coates and the family at Stoke. They are a wonderful, wonderful family.

"I will try to build up that kind of relationship with Jeremy."

One of the main issues focused on in the media in the build-up to Pulis' appointment was Albion's 'continental' model, with the new man given the title of 'head coach' and Terry Burton remaining in his role as technical director.

Yet Pulis has played down the significance of the structure, insisting he will have the final say on transfers but that he is comfortable with both his role and his title.

He said: "I worked with John Rudge at Stoke for 10 years, he was director of football there and was never a problem for me.

"I've known Terry 20 odd years – I've no problem. I'll speak to Jeremy, I'll have a week assessing things then we'll decide which way to go.

"I will have the final say on transfers. A lot has been said on how the club has been run in the past and now with me coming in how it will be run in the future.

"The most important thing at a football is that everyone works together. Having spoken to Terry and the chairman, everyone understands the position we are in and what we are trying to.

"Everyone understands we have to be together to make sure the club stays up. Irrespective of my record, everyone is fighting to stay in the Premier League.

"A lot of work is going to have to be done to make sure we do and we need the support everybody. I have been here quite a few times and this place rocks when the fans are behind the team.

"We need to get that going again, desperately. I am under no illusions it's going to be really, really difficult with every team in the bottom half fighting for it.

"Someone said to me do you mind being called head coach. You can call me head bottle washer if you like.

"The title makes no difference so long as I know there are specific responsibilities I am in charge of."

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