Kempy was five years older and wiser than me and I valued his experience hugely. That kind of knowledge was exactly what I was after when Stoke reached the promised land of the Premier League in 2008 and I managed to convince Gerry Francis to join my backroom staff.
Gel was 10 years older than me and, again, that much wiser too. Like Kempy he was an amazing silent partner in helping the clubs we worked for.
I was never concerned at any time about appointing experienced staff like that, and I was always open to all lines of communication from them too because I always believed in my own ability and my own methods.
If I were a young manager going into a job now, I’d make sure I had an experienced head like that with me, to help advise with the team but also to help me look after what is going on above me, with the chief executive or director of football – in the gap between the manager and the owner that did not exist when I started out.
During my long journey as a manager, Peter Reid and Gary Megson also joined me and provided great advice and know-how, but as squads started to grow and more senior players were added to our roster, I also appointed two younger coaches to engage and entertain the players with passing drills, keep-ball and shooting sessions.
This has become more and more prevalent in the game, now that many clubs have more players in their squad who are not starting games than ones who do.
As that trend grew, I realised that promoting unity with the players who were not starting was vital for the dressing room, so it was important that the two younger coaches would provide challenging sessions and also be the type of personalities capable of listening and understanding the grievances players would have for not being involved.
It’s different skillset and two ex-players who had played under me, Mark O’Connor and Ady Pennock, were mainstays at it for me in my years as a manager.
They were fantastic at providing that important part of glue that kept everything together in the dressing room. You can be sure that Carrick will have made sure he has got it too.
Tony Pulis was speaking to Sport’s Chris Bevan.
