Calming influence at the tiller

Interview with Steve CoppellDonald McRae finds Reading's manager in typically philosophical form as he attempts to consolidate the club's position in the Premiership

"I've always said December is the biggest test for any football club in this country," Steve Coppell murmurs intently, "and while I don't want to wish my life away I'll be glad when we get through this month. The next couple of weeks, for all sorts of reasons, are going to tell us an awful lot about this club."

Reading, who won promotion with a record 106 points last season, stand eighth in the Premiership, surprising many with the way in which they have adapted to a far more onerous division. There is little doubt that a largely anonymous squad owe much to the cool intelligence and methodical preparation of their manager.

And, for a man routinely described as unemotional, an encounter with Coppell in the depths of December provides a penetrating insight into Premiership football as well as revealing his more secret fervour for management.

Those concentrated feelings are being exposed during a month in which Reading play seven league matches, the final three of which are crammed into a week. After Saturday's home game against Everton, Reading will visit Chelsea and Manchester United in the space of four days.

Their arrival at Stamford Bridge on St Stephen's Day is certain to be subjected to fierce scrutiny. In October Reading lost at home to Chelsea in a match that will be remembered for the near tragic collision between Stephen Hunt and Petr Cech.

When the Reading midfielder's knee smashed into Cech's head the impact was so severe that the Chelsea goalkeeper suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and underwent emergency neurological surgery. Chelsea's manager Jose Mourinho, who had seen the hospitalisation that same afternoon of his substitute goalkeeper, Carlo Cudicini, knocked unconscious in another challenge, angrily denounced the match as "a disgrace. Petr Cech is lucky to be alive." Mourinho also lambasted the local ambulance service.

Yet now, at the start of a difficult fortnight, Coppell finds the right note with sincerity. "The incident with Chelsea is a real example of how intense the Premiership can be but our main concern, even now, is still Petr Cech. We watch his progress and we hope and pray that he'll soon be back in goal. That would be the final proof that he's back where he wants to be - and where we want him to be."

Cech's slow recovery continues. But while stressing that the comparison should not be misconstrued Coppell suggests that his own player is already locked in a psychological battle. "It's nothing compared to Petr's injury but it would be a mini-tragedy for Stephen Hunt if his whole career is defined by that terrible moment. He's handled himself well but it's clearly still affecting him. And, while I hate to say it, whenever he goes near a goalkeeper there is still a reaction to it. I think it will be another year before he gets over it completely..

"Only Stephen really knows (the extent of his guilt). But I know his character. Enthusiastic? Yes. Malicious, vindictive and vicious, as he's been labelled in some quarters, 100 per cent no."

Coppell's immediate task is to prepare for a potentially bitter reception at Chelsea. "I think their fans will make a point of it - sure. I wish we didn't have to talk about it as a team before the game but inevitably we will. It's not something I relish but we have to face it."

Might Coppell choose to spare Hunt his looming ordeal. "No," he says. "It would be wrong to leave him out for those reasons. If he's fit and playing well enough to be in the team or on the bench, he's definitely going to Chelsea."

Coppell took some of the heat out of Mourinho's vehemence at Reading when, noting their hug at the end of a distressing match, he quipped "Jose probably didn't want to mix it with me. He knows Scousers rule . . .

"He's bright and inventive but after our match a reaction poured out of him. It's wasn't preconceived because they were in shock about Petr Cech - as we were."

Reading, meanwhile, are closing in on their main objective of surviving a first Premiership season. If quietly thrilled by his haul of 26 points, Coppell remains wary. "There's still something tenuous in our seemingly healthy position because it's such a stern weekly test in the Premiership. In the end money will out and the final table will reflect the wealth of the clubs - with only one or two exceptions. I hope we're still one of those exceptions but this is a big month for us."

Coppell's authoritative calm will be vital. In charting the ways in which he has matured since he first managed Crystal Palace, when only 29 in 1984, Coppell recalls his early difficulties. "It was the blind leading the blind. I'd go into a dressing room after a game we'd lost and the players would be looking at me for the reasons why and I'd sit there thinking how did we get beat? But you get better as the years pass and there's also more understanding of the vagaries. When you win, great, but don't get carried away. And when you lose, shit, but don't kick anyone."

It is tempting to believe that Coppell's withering collapse at Manchester City, when he lasted only 32 days as manager before quitting, is the underlying reason behind his studied equanimity. It was 10 years ago last month that he abandoned City and "even now I regret that I left them with a hole but I was just the wrong person in the wrong job. Ego made me take it but I soon worked out I'd made a mistake and rather than hang in there and take my money while making a real mess I thought it best to get out quickly."

Coppell, however, insists that his famously deadpan pragmatism has more to do with the premature end of his playing career. "I've always thought I wouldn't have become a manager if I'd played until 35 - and that was the expectation because I prided myself on my fitness. But injury taught me that it's pointless to plan anything long-term in football. That's why I only sign one-year contracts now. I can't get my head round looking further than that."

Despite his fatalism Coppell is utterly absorbed by management. "I can be in the cinema or theatre and still end up thinking about football. You're thinking of coping with another team's style, a player's injury, scouting, the January transfer window, how much money have we got and whether we're going to need short-term bolstering or anything more ambitious. It's total immersion."

"If anything I'm more in love with football - because we're in the here and now and it's all-consuming. I take great satisfaction from management and for 20 minutes after you've won a game there is real euphoria. And at the end of the season, when you're lying on a beach thinking, 'that was all right, we did better than we should have done', that's a very good feeling."