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| Bristol City match Chelsea on back of magpies, soft pillows and lucky pants | Bristol City match Chelsea on back of magpies, soft pillows and lucky pants |
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| From comparisons with José Mourinho and the quality of pillows at Marriott hotels to safaris in Botswana and Bristol City’s version of the X Factor, Steve Cotterill has covered a diverse range of topics over a cup of tea – but the only unbeaten manager in the Football League has saved his most revealing insight until last. | From comparisons with José Mourinho and the quality of pillows at Marriott hotels to safaris in Botswana and Bristol City’s version of the X Factor, Steve Cotterill has covered a diverse range of topics over a cup of tea – but the only unbeaten manager in the Football League has saved his most revealing insight until last. |
| “I’m superstitious about things,” Cotterill says. “I used to be really bad. If I drove to a game and I’d only seen one magpie by the time I got to the ground, I’d have to turn around and drive off to try to find another one. I mean, really, how stupid is that in terms of whether it’s going to have any bearing on whether you win that game or not?” | |
| Stupid or not, the Bristol City manager, whose side face Oldham on Saturday, has his rituals and they extend beyond saluting a black and white bird. “The interviewer always has to stand on a certain side of me,” Cotterill says. “The same underpants and socks – the hardest thing is trying to turn your socks and underpants around for Saturday-Tuesday games. It’s not so bad Tuesday-Saturday because you get the extra drying day.” | |
| Cotterill is smiling but also serious. He likes everything to be just right, whether that is the choice of team hotel – “The Marriotts have always got nice pillows, so we try to make sure we stay there, so the boys have nice beds to sleep on” – or ensuring every shirt is hanging the same distance apart in his wardrobe. The 50-year-old chuckles as he reflects on his habits and superstitions. “You’re better off having someone dismiss it for you because you can get a little obsessive with it. In sport, though, because the margins are so fine, you look for every source of comfort. | Cotterill is smiling but also serious. He likes everything to be just right, whether that is the choice of team hotel – “The Marriotts have always got nice pillows, so we try to make sure we stay there, so the boys have nice beds to sleep on” – or ensuring every shirt is hanging the same distance apart in his wardrobe. The 50-year-old chuckles as he reflects on his habits and superstitions. “You’re better off having someone dismiss it for you because you can get a little obsessive with it. In sport, though, because the margins are so fine, you look for every source of comfort. |
| “Someone said a saying to me years ago: ‘Fingers crossed all is lost. Fingers round safe and sound.’ So sometimes if I’m uncomfortable in a game and there’s a corner for the opposition, I might do this [he joins his forefinger and thumb in a circle] – but I’ll do it so no one knows I’m doing it. The minute the corner has gone away, I’ll stop. It’s a stupid thing but it’s a comforting thing that keeps me calm.” | “Someone said a saying to me years ago: ‘Fingers crossed all is lost. Fingers round safe and sound.’ So sometimes if I’m uncomfortable in a game and there’s a corner for the opposition, I might do this [he joins his forefinger and thumb in a circle] – but I’ll do it so no one knows I’m doing it. The minute the corner has gone away, I’ll stop. It’s a stupid thing but it’s a comforting thing that keeps me calm.” |
| Amid much mirth in City’s canteen, there is the realisation that Cotterill is having the last laugh. City are unbeaten in 21 league matches, a superb run that stretches back to March and includes the first 15 games of this season – a start that broke a 60-year-old club record. Chelsea are the only other undefeated club across all four divisions. “José’s got to go a few more games to catch up with us, he’s only done nine,” says Cotterill, smiling. “But two out of 92 clubs is all right.” | Amid much mirth in City’s canteen, there is the realisation that Cotterill is having the last laugh. City are unbeaten in 21 league matches, a superb run that stretches back to March and includes the first 15 games of this season – a start that broke a 60-year-old club record. Chelsea are the only other undefeated club across all four divisions. “José’s got to go a few more games to catch up with us, he’s only done nine,” says Cotterill, smiling. “But two out of 92 clubs is all right.” |
| As Steve Lansdown, City’s owner, points out, sitting top of League One is some turnaround from where the club were this time last year, when they were rock bottom. By the time Cotterill took charge in December, after Sean O’Driscoll had been sacked, City were 23rd and at risk of sliding into the fourth tier. “The club was on its uppers and morale was very low,” Lansdown says. “But Steve brought enthusiasm and discipline and a will to win.” | |
| Cotterill is quick to praise the players for the unbeaten run but his own part in City’s revival cannot be overlooked and probably owes much to Nottingham Forest’s decision to dismiss him at the end of the 2011-12 season and the way he reacted to that setback. “I think the sacking at Forest was probably the making of me as a manager, if I’m totally honest,” says Cotterill, whose managerial career started at Sligo Rovers and has also taken in spells at Cheltenham Town, Stoke, Burnley, Notts County and Portsmouth. | |
| “It was the first time I had been sacked as a manager and after that I spent a lot of time abroad with a good friend of mine. I went to watch Lille training, so I got to meet René Girard, who’s probably one of the top managers in Europe. I watched France, Belgium, Colombia, Japan, the Netherlands, and I think that Bristol City are getting the benefit of that.” | |
| Hard work on the training ground and shrewd recruitment has also played a part. Losing Sam Baldock, the top scorer in League One last season, to Brighton in August was not the blow it could have been because City had already done their business, bringing in seven new faces, including Aaron Wilbraham and Kieran Agard, who have already contributed 15 league goals between them. | Hard work on the training ground and shrewd recruitment has also played a part. Losing Sam Baldock, the top scorer in League One last season, to Brighton in August was not the blow it could have been because City had already done their business, bringing in seven new faces, including Aaron Wilbraham and Kieran Agard, who have already contributed 15 league goals between them. |
| “We could only do that because of Steve Lansdown,” Cotterill says. “I haven’t been able to do that at any other club, I’ve had to wait for a player to go and then be reactive. I actually think it’s about time Steve Lansdown got some credit. He’s put £50m into this football club. This isn’t derogatory against any other manager who has been here before me but to put £50m in and to be relegated and potentially on your second relegation, no wonder his nose was dented. He’s an absolute top bloke, a gentleman and a winner.” | |
| According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Lansdown is worth £1.45bn. The 62-year-old, who co-founded Hargreaves Lansdown financial services, also owns Bristol Rugby Club as part of his Bristol Sport group but it is the football team who have taken up so much of his time, energy and money. | |
| Lansdown’s dream has always been to see City in the Premier League, something they came agonisingly close to in 2008, when Gary Johnson’s side lost to Hull in the Championship play-off final. Since then it has been a story of heavy losses off the field and steady decline on it, leaving Lansdown to pick up the bill as well as face some harsh criticism. | Lansdown’s dream has always been to see City in the Premier League, something they came agonisingly close to in 2008, when Gary Johnson’s side lost to Hull in the Championship play-off final. Since then it has been a story of heavy losses off the field and steady decline on it, leaving Lansdown to pick up the bill as well as face some harsh criticism. |
| “Have I had moments when I could have given up on it? Yes. I think everyone goes through that phase,” says Lansdown, who lives in Guernsey. “There are times when you think: ‘Why am I putting myself through this? I could be sat on a beach somewhere, sipping a nice glass of wine and not worrying one iota about what is going on at Ashton Gate.’ But I think I’d get bored with that fairly quickly – and I’m persistent. By nature I want to see something through, so therefore I might get annoyed and angry but I don’t give up. | |
| “I still believe we can achieve the ultimate aim of getting into the Premier League. I think Bristol as a city, with its population and its catchment area, can support a Premier League club. The enthusiasm, as we’re seeing now, is there for football and we just need to galvanise it.” | “I still believe we can achieve the ultimate aim of getting into the Premier League. I think Bristol as a city, with its population and its catchment area, can support a Premier League club. The enthusiasm, as we’re seeing now, is there for football and we just need to galvanise it.” |
| One of the most chastening experiences for Lansdown has been City’s failure to move to a new stadium. “Seven years of hell” is how he described trying to relocate to nearby Ashton Vale. In the end, City were left with little option but to redevelop Ashton Gate. The building work, which started at the end of last season and is scheduled to finish in 2016, will result in two new stands being constructed and the other two refurbished at a cost of £45m, with capacity increasing to 27,000. Lansdown sighs when asked why Bristol, unlike so many cities in the UK, including Cardiff and Swansea across the Severn Bridge, has been unable to build a new stadium. “I think Bristol is a comfortable place to live and I think people get very set in their ways and don’t want to push on, they are quite comfortable sometimes being second best. So when cities like Cardiff do up the Millennium Stadium and then the Cardiff City Stadium and their arena and so on, we look at it and say we should have them but we’re not prepared to go out and make it happen – and that’s the problem. | |
| “Frustratingly, we had a great opportunity with Ashton Vale to develop something that was really going to be special for the city of Bristol and the West Country but that’s fallen by the wayside now. But Ashton Gate is going to be no mean stadium when it’s finished. We’ll have a first-class facility.” | “Frustratingly, we had a great opportunity with Ashton Vale to develop something that was really going to be special for the city of Bristol and the West Country but that’s fallen by the wayside now. But Ashton Gate is going to be no mean stadium when it’s finished. We’ll have a first-class facility.” |
| Lansdown’s influence stretches far and wide and it was the Bristolian’s business interests in Botswana that led to Cotterill taking his players on a pre-season tour with a difference this summer. In between the fitness drills and a couple of matches in Botswana, City’s players and staff visited orphanages and went on safari. “We crammed everything into those two weeks, a lot of football, a lot of team building, a lot of life experiences. It was a great trip,” Cotterill says. | Lansdown’s influence stretches far and wide and it was the Bristolian’s business interests in Botswana that led to Cotterill taking his players on a pre-season tour with a difference this summer. In between the fitness drills and a couple of matches in Botswana, City’s players and staff visited orphanages and went on safari. “We crammed everything into those two weeks, a lot of football, a lot of team building, a lot of life experiences. It was a great trip,” Cotterill says. |
| After initially flying into South Africa, they also found time for a bit of fun at the Royal Marang Hotel in Rustenburg, which is where England’s players were holed up and bored out of their minds during the 2010 World Cup finals, when Fabio Capello was in charge. City created their own entertainment. | After initially flying into South Africa, they also found time for a bit of fun at the Royal Marang Hotel in Rustenburg, which is where England’s players were holed up and bored out of their minds during the 2010 World Cup finals, when Fabio Capello was in charge. City created their own entertainment. |
| “Steve Allen, the crazy physio I brought with me, decided he wanted to do an X Factor night,” Cotterill says. “All the new boys had to get up and sing but to flash it up like they do on X Factor when they’ve been working in a supermarket or whatever, they’d filmed the new players and none of the existing squad knew about it. A couple of players helped to host it with girls from the hotel and we had judges as well. It was a great evening.” | “Steve Allen, the crazy physio I brought with me, decided he wanted to do an X Factor night,” Cotterill says. “All the new boys had to get up and sing but to flash it up like they do on X Factor when they’ve been working in a supermarket or whatever, they’d filmed the new players and none of the existing squad knew about it. A couple of players helped to host it with girls from the hotel and we had judges as well. It was a great evening.” |
| Everything has pretty much gone to plan for City ever since, with or without the help of the odd magpie. “I do salute them,” Cotterill says. “The only thing is, when you go to the game and you see loads of them, you think: ‘That’s all right, we’ll win today.’ Then you think: ‘What a load of nonsense. As if it’s going to make any difference.’” | Everything has pretty much gone to plan for City ever since, with or without the help of the odd magpie. “I do salute them,” Cotterill says. “The only thing is, when you go to the game and you see loads of them, you think: ‘That’s all right, we’ll win today.’ Then you think: ‘What a load of nonsense. As if it’s going to make any difference.’” |