Saturday Interview: Feeling too close to players is no longer a problem, reveals Peter Houston

Published on Friday 5 March 2010 22:33

PETER Houston got a double-edged sword for Christmas, and for a time he didn't want it in the house.

It was on 23 December that Craig Levein left Tannadice to become Scotland manager, presenting Houston with a situation that was at once threatening and promising. After being assistant to Levein at Hearts, Leicester City and Dundee United, the 51-year-old Houston at last had a chance to take charge of a team. But it was a chance that at first he declined to take, accepting the post of caretaker manager while saying he did not want to be considered for the job long-term.

When his first three matches in charge yielded just one point and included a 7-1 humiliation at Ibrox there were more than a few Dundee United supporters who agreed with Houston that the club should be looking for someone else. But then the picture brightened: United beat Partick Thistle, Hamilton and Hibernian in an eight-day period which also saw the club fail to agree terms with Bohemians to make Pat Fenlon their new manager.

After an impressive 4-1 win at Falkirk late in the month, Houston softened his stance somewhat. Just as significantly, the players hardened theirs: they were confident he was taking them in the right direction, and they wanted to remain under his leadership.

A few days later, he was confirmed in the job until the end of the season, but it was what the players were doing on the pitch rather than what they were saying off it that made him change his mind. "I think it was their performances, and the way they were able to pick themselves up," Houston said this week when asked the main reason he decided to give the job a go.

"They kept saying to me 'Take it, take it', because they trust me as well as they trusted Craig. They know how I work."

Looking back on a packed few weeks, Houston has been convinced by his team's recent form that the poor results which followed the loss of Levein were born of insecurity. "They were wondering what was going to happen. They were in fear of maybe not being in the team, or not liking the new manager that was going to come in."

There is an old school of thought which says fear of not being in the team could be a good thing; that players' worries about not liking a new manager should not be a factor in any appointment. But Houston has always been one for ruling by consensus, not by diktat, and experience has taught him that players who are positively motivated are more likely to be successful.

His detractors would counter that such an approach may be desirable for an assistant, but that the boss himself has to have a harder edge. Good guys can't be good managers, they would argue – and Houston is certainly regarded as one of the good guys, a friendly, obliging and smiling character who is at ease with himself and with the world.

He has heard that analysis before, and has two arguments against it. First, coaches and players can and should work on a basis of mutual respect.

And second, he is perfectly capable of adapting his behaviour. The Peter Houston people saw as assistant manager is not exactly the same as the Peter Houston they see now. Assistant coaches Paul Hegarty and Gary Kirk take care of his old role now.

"I said early doors, after the Rangers game and things like that, we maybe needed somebody fresh coming in. I felt sometimes I was too close to the players.

"But as I've gone on and taken that wee step back, I think there is a difference now. They are looking at me when I raise my voice in the dressing-room if I have to at half-time or anything like that, and I know I'm getting the reaction that I want to get.

"I don't feel they're shrugging my comments off and thinking 'We'll get a new manager at the end of the season'. They're too respectful. There's respect both ways.

"I've taken a step back, and I'm probably not in the dressing-room quite as much as I was during the course of the week. I'm not saying I've become stand-offish – my door's always open, and I've had players chapping on it wondering why they're not playing – but there has certainly been a wee bit of distance.

"The players have got over the upheaval that we did have for a couple of weeks, and they are continuing to do good work, hard work, on the park. Craig and I always tried to mould them into a hard-working team who were hard to beat.

"Nothing has changed that way: they still work extremely hard. There have been games that we haven't played well in, and you've got to accept that happens sometimes, but they've never come off the park when I've felt they've cheated me.

"I know their characters. In fact, having been the assistant I probably know their characters better than Craig did. They've shown a lot of desire to do well, and hard work isn't a problem to them."

It is clearly not a problem to Houston either, as he has also agreed to assist Levein on a part-time basis. The midweek win over the Czech Republic got the duo off to a winning start in their new posts, and was also conveniently timed – with United's league game against Hearts not taking place until tomorrow, Houston has had more time to return from international duty and resume his domestic role.

"The good thing about it being a Sunday game is obviously that I'll have an input on Friday and Saturday. It makes it better for me, because I like to be in about the players.

"I went away with Scotland and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was happy with the result, and with the way the guys worked for the new manager and played decently in the second-half. But now I'm fully focused on the Hearts game, which is going to be difficult because they're on a good run."

Having said that, he is quick to point out that he has every confidence in his assistants, who would in any case have done much of the hands-on work with the players during the days he was away. "Although I was away from the club Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I gave the players Monday off anyway because of the extra day before the Hearts game.

"Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, although I wasn't here I was in full contact with Paul Hegarty and Gary Kirk. I spoke to them every day in the afternoon to make sure everything was okay.

"It's been reported back to me that the players are in great spirits. Although I've been away, I've still been fully focused on what's going on here.

"Paul is a fantastic coach. Everybody talks about him being a bit of a jinx because he lost his jobs elsewhere, but that doesn't take away from the fact he's a very, very good coach. I've worked with him and seen it at Hearts.

"He's a Dundee United legend. He was out of a job. He deserves to be here and it was an easy decision to make for me.

"Gary is a good friend as well as a colleague. I know for a fact these two guys are working as hard as they can for me. They've done a fantastic job in settling the place down."

Houston has played his part too, of course. When Levein left, United were five points behind Hibs with a game in hand. Last weekend they overtook the Edinburgh club to move into third place, and if they are there at the end of this season, he believes he could still be in his post by the time the next one kicks off.

"Things have been going well this season. We're better off points-wise than we were in the last two or three seasons. If we can maintain that to the end of the season we'll get where we want to go to.

"I'm quite happy and quite comfortable to wait. I'm not going to pressurise myself into thinking 'I better get this manager's job'. I love taking training sessions and being out there with the players, and I've done less of that since becoming manager, so it wouldn't worry me to go back to doing that. However, self-pride makes you want to do as well as you can whilst you're in a huge, responsible role.

"I know where I want to be at the end of the season, and that's better than we were last season. (United finished fifth, behind Aberdeen on goal difference, and failed to qualify for Europe] I'll see that as improvement, and probably if we achieve that I might get offered the job.

"So that's the way I look at it. If we were to finish fifth or sixth, I think it would be unlikely. I'm not stupid, I'm 51 years of age, and I recognise that the chairman might think 'We didn't improve on last season, maybe the best thing to do is bring somebody else in'.

"If he decides that, no problem with that," he continued with reference to Stephen Thompson. "That's football. Sometimes you don't always get what you want in football.

"But as a manager just now I'm acting like a manager. I'm working hard at that side of it, and if it comes we'll look at it at the end of the season.

"I don't look too far ahead. A lot of people have been asking me 'Now you're in third place, what's next?' I don't think it's that important being in third or fourth place just now. At the end of the season it'll be huge where we finish.

"I want to get there. I want to improve on last season, and if Craig Levein was the manager he'd be the same. When we go into the last five games, that's when the crunch comes. I want to be in third position and people chasing us then."