Steve Coppell reveals that Newcastle manager Alan Pardew showed great potential to be a coach while he managed him at Crystal Palace.

You became a manager at a very young age because your playing career was sadly cut short through injury. Was it always your intention as a player to go into management?

No, to be absolutely honest. I think if I had had a full career as a player then I would have been quite happy with that. I got my injury when I was 26 and eventually had to retire when I was 28 (in 1983). I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

I went to live in Amsterdam for three months just to get away from everything in England and find a fresh approach for what I wanted to do with the rest of my working life, as it were. The highlight of my time there was going to Dam Square every Sunday morning to get the English newspapers and read all about English football. From there I concluded that there was something in me that just wasn't finished with football, and as I could no longer play I decided that coaching was the next best option.

I came back and let it be known that I wanted to get into management, and three months later I was offered the Crystal Palace job by Ron Noades.

Was Ron someone that you had known from your playing career?

No, I actually met him at the Football Writers Association dinner for the first time. At that moment he had just appointed Dave Bassett. We chatted for about 20 minutes before the dinner, and then a couple of days later I heard that Dave hadn't taken the job. I just had one of those feelings that Ron was going to call. He did, I came down to London to have a look around and he offered me the job.

It must have been quite a big deal for a club like Palace to hire a 28-year-old manager.

It was typical of Ron Noades. He's always been brave in his decision-making. That's been evident right across his own football career with Wimbledon, Palace and Brentford. He's a bit of a maverick in his own right.

It was brave, sure, and in a way a bit stupid! I always recall my first year in management as the blind leading the blind. We didn't have a very good team, although they were very committed, and the manager didn't really know what he was doing. We managed to survive by the skin of our teeth in that first year. But, if anything, it only made me more determined to do the job I had chosen to do.

How did the senior players at Palace react when you became their boss aged just 28?

I think because I'd played at the highest level, which very few of them had done, I had their respect. I was very fortunate in that my assistant there was Ian Evans, an ex-Palace player who knew a lot of the older members of the squad and had played with them. He was invaluable in those first couple of years before he moved into management himself with Swansea.

'Big Taff', as he was known, was just terrific. He was the engine room of the club in those early years. I was the captain on the bridge, as it were, but I was very serene while he was the one getting his hands dirty.

There are several very young managers in league football now – Karl Robinson (31) at MK Dons, Andre Villas-Boas (34) at Chelsea, Eddie Howe (34) at Burnley, Michael Appleton (36) at Portsmouth for example. What do you think is behind chairmen giving more chances to young managers?

I think you are guaranteed commitment and endeavour. For a lot of chairmen, you are able to mould a young manager a lot better than an older one who is set in his ways.

The relationship between a manager and a chairman is, without doubt, the most critical at any club. If you've got a young manager who is accepting of the fact that he is learning the trade then the relationship can grow. It's not set in stone, it's permeable and it can adapt and develop in many different ways.

A lot of established managers say 'this is the way I've always gone things, I'm not going to change now, take it or leave it'. A lot of chairmen want to see a different kind of development, more of a partnership than some older managers are prepared to give.

Your first spell at Crystal Palace saw promotion to the top flight and an FA Cup final appearance (in the 1989-90 season). Apart from your relationship with the chairman, what do you think were the foundations of that success?

Looking back, the foundation was the fact that I had time. It took us five years to get promotion. I doubt very much now if too many managers would get five years to achieve that.

Myself and Ron Noades were both very mindful of the financial situation at the club. He was not an independently wealthy man at the time. His main business was the football club and we didn't have lots of money to spend.

But we eventually did get promotion to the top division, and the catalyst for our future success was probably going to Anfield and being beaten 9-0 (in Palace's second away game in the top flight). A harrowing experience though it was, it certainly was a crossroads.

After that game we made a decision that we were going to gamble in the market and buy better players. By the end of that season we were well on course to developing a team that got to the FA Cup final and a year later finished third in the top flight.

Not a lot of people remember that Crystal Palace finished third in the top division. It was at the time of the European ban and we didn't get access to a place. I often think of how if we had gone into Europe and done reasonably well how things might have been different. We might not have lost Ian Wright and we might have been able to develop the club a bit quicker than we eventually did.

The reality was that given the size of the club that Crystal Palace was - and is still – we hit the glass ceiling and we bounced down and got relegated (in 1993).

It was a great journey, and I think Ron Noades and all the Palace fans would never have changed it.

How much of a risk did you see signing Ian Wright from non-league and putting him into the first team in the top flight? Could a manager in today's game take such a gamble?

Well necessity is the mother of invention. We didn't have any money. Ian came on trial for a few days and then we signed him on a three-month contract, so it's not as if we were breaking the bank to make sure we had his services. He was desperate to prove himself, and we were quite happy to take the gamble on somebody who fresh and so enthusiastic. He gave the dressing room real life.

People just assume that he came in from non-league and was an instant success. For a good 18 months he was known as a super-sub. He would very often come on and make an impact. He got very frustrated by the fact that it took him so long to get a starting place, but he paid his dues and eventually became the goal machine that he was for the next 10-15 years.

How many players like him do you think slip through the cracks every year?

I would say that more and more you are reading about players that have come from non-league to be successful. Given the finances of a lot of clubs now they really do scout the lower leagues well, and if a player does well then they soon progress into professional football.

Look at some of the players in the Barclays Premier League. Steve Morison at Norwich springs to mind, or Chris Smalling. There is now a well-trodden path from non-league into top professional football. I think it's still a hot-bed of development for young players, and it's one that's widely focused upon by a lot of league clubs.

You have returned to Palace on no less than three occasions. Do you think there is any truth in the adage that a manager should never go back to a former club?

I think there are quite a few exceptions to that rule. In my case, when you've been somewhere and you have a certain kind of reputation of doing well it's daunting to go back. You don't want to harm that reputation.

I'm not making myself out to be any kind of martyr or anything, but the club were in trouble. They were one of the first clubs to go into administration. It's not a claim to fame that anyone at Palace is really proud of, but it's a fact. When times were hard we had to scrabble around.

Because it was my first managerial post I had – and still have – a huge affection for the club and the people who work there. There are an awful lot of people at football clubs who are unsung heroes and have been there for 20 or 30 years working behind the scenes. Do they get paid? Yes. But they do not get paid their value to the club. They work long, hard hours to make sure their club survives and can be as prosperous as possible.

When we went into administration a lot of people lost their jobs. A lot of other jobs were under threat, so it just felt natural to go back and try and help the situation. Thankfully Palace fans have not forgotten that. I think they really appreciated the fact that others were leaving or being forced to leave but I hung around and did my best.

There are several of your former players who have gone on to become managers. Do you think you had any influence in guiding them in that direction during their playing days?

Well, Chris Coleman I certainly didn't think would be a manager. He's one of those larger than life characters and I didn't think he'd go into it. Maybe if he had completed his footballing career then he might not have gone into management.

There is something about players getting injured and still feeling they have something to offer. That maybe explains his entry into management. He has of course gone on to do well and earned Fulham a top half of the table finish in the Premier League.

Gareth Southgate was only a young player when I was there, but he was very serious about his football. That is evident now in his position at the FA. He wants to take coaching forward to find the best coaches and players in the future. I think he is well suited to the role he has now.

The one player I always thought would be a good manager is Alan Pardew. He managed when he played and he was so down to earth, and he has proven himself to be a top manager now.

I signed him from non-league, from Yeovil, when he was about 25 and he played in the cup final for me. He always managed his own Sunday team and was very interested in everything to do with the job. He was a leader. Even though he came from that non-league background he had a seniority about him which gave him a presence. It was no surprise to me when he went on to management and is now doing so well at Newcastle.

Do you think that managers are under more pressure than ever, with more money at stake and a far greater media interest, or has the job always been as intense?

The main pressure in management comes from what you put on yourself. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or writes. The self-pressure is what counts, and always will be.

The thing that is massively different now is that everything you do and say is recounted in the media. Whereas before you could perhaps not say the right thing on occasion.

You used to be able to have a laugh and a joke with journalists. Certainly on my first couple of England trips you used to go out for a drink with them. Now, of course, that could never happen. Everybody in football now is so mindful of saying the right thing, of trying to give an opinion without putting your foot in it. Every Premier League manager leapfrogs after every game trying to talk about the officials without getting into trouble. It's diplomatic mind games I suppose.

That's the biggest change, to my mind. But the actual job itself – wanting to win, and the self-recriminations if you don't – will always be the same.

You managed to earn Reading promotion to the Premier League as champions and led them to eighth place in your first season. Why do you think so many promoted teams do so well in their first year and then subsequently struggle?

I think, ultimately, the Premier League is a power league. Success in football is simple: have the most money, buy the best players and you've got the best team. Look at the history of the Premier League and it is dominated by the teams with the most financial clout.

There was Blackburn with Jack Walker's money all those years ago. Man United have been ever-present with the income they get from huge crowds and their brand right across the world. The Arsenals and Liverpools have been there or thereabouts. Along comes Mr Abramovich and Chelsea become dominant, and now we have Manchester City with Sheikh Mansour and his resources. It is a power league.

Promoted teams come up on a wave of euphoria. They are used to winning in the Championship and they carry that enthusiasm forward. For the first year you can get away with that, but after that it comes down to the quality.

The Premier League finds you out, and so you have to have quality in abundance. The only way you can acquire that quality is by purchasing it. If you don't have that purchasing power, then you are going to get caught.

It has happened so many times that promoted teams do so well until Christmas, or maybe just beyond, and then they get found out and it's hard work from then on. At Reading we fell in the second season. We were relegated on goal difference. If we had managed to survive by the skin of our teeth that year then it would have been interesting to see where we would be now. I know for a fact that things would have been a lot different from how they eventually turned out.

Swansea are riding high in the table at the moment. Do you think they will have enough to survive where other clubs who have stuck to their own philosophy like West Brom under Tony Mowbray or Blackpool have failed?

Swansea play the most unique style of any team that has come up. It has emanated from Roberto Martinez, he established the football philosophy there and it has been continued by Brendan Rodgers, who has emphasised that style even more.

I think Swansea's problems might occur towards the end of the season when suitors come calling for their better players. Can they replace them? Do they have a conveyer belt of young talent coming through? They may have, but there are questions they are going to have to respond to, because I think they would find it very hard to resist offers.

You were named LMA Manager of the Year two years in a row during your time at Reading. How much value did you place on those individual awards compared to team achievements?

I think at the time I didn't pay a great deal or heed to it. But now, looking back, given the quality of the managers around and the fact it was voted for by the managers – not by a committee - I do really appreciate the achievement.

Did I do it by myself? Absolutely not. You are at the helm that you have mainly put together – and that includes those working off the pitch as well as on it – and you are the one trying to keep it all going.

So I look back now and see them as two magnificent years born out of 20-odd years of experience. It's something I value more now than I did when I actually received the awards. But I think that happens with most people in all walks of life. At the time, you're just doing your job, but when you look back you realise you are very fortunate.

Steve Coppell was speaking to Yahoo!'s 'The Dugout' through its partnership with the League Managers Association

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