Steve Coppell has joined in only one training session during his time as Reading manager. On that morning he told the players he wanted to take part so they would be able to sit down with their grandchildren one day and say they had trained with him. His remark, made with a deadpan expression, brought ridicule and laughter from his players, but it was Coppell who wore the widest grin after the session. He was the best player by a mile.

"We tried everything to get him in the middle of the keep-ball circle," said Reading's captain, Graeme Murty, "pinging balls at his kneecap, lashing it at him from a yard away, but he dealt with everything."

The players should have expected nothing less. Control and Coppell go hand in hand. The teacups have never needed to be replaced in the home dressing-room at the Madejski Stadium, and nor are they likely to as long as the former England international remains in charge.

It was three years ago this week that he arrived at Reading after managerial spells at Crystal Palace, Manchester City, Brentford and Brighton. Reading's director of football, Nicky Hammond, recalls how the club courted a "safe pair of hands" and Coppell was the obvious choice.

His touch has been inspired rather than protective, however, propelling Reading to promotion last season and within three points of the Premiership summit this term before today's meeting with the champions, Chelsea.

Coppell is Premiership manager-of-the-month, but maintains he does not pore over league tables and prefers to look only as far as the next match. That approach might not provide journalists with soundbites, but there is method behind his circumspection. "He always makes sure that we have the right messages coming to us," said Murty. "It's not for the press or the pundits, it's for the players.

"We came in after the Manchester United match (three weeks ago) and everyone was slapping each other on the back saying well done, 1-1 with United, and he said: 'Well done, lads, but let's put that one to bed. Let's make sure a weekend in September isn't the highlight of our season'."

Coppell maintains that despite collecting 13 points from the first seven matches his side can play better. His personal search for improvement is relentless: first in to training, last one to leave.

"He lives, sleeps and breathes football," said the Reading chairman, John Madejski. "When everyone else is packing up and going home, he's packing up and going home but not just to go home - he goes home and watches copious amounts of football videos. He reminds me of a schoolteacher. He's very thorough and a thinker, and I just like the way he goes about his business. He's totally dedicated and very aware of what's going on."

In a university graduate, that penchant for studying ought not to come as a surprise. He is also something of an anorak and has an elephantine memory.

"It staggers me sometimes the amount of things that he knows," said Murty. "He will remember to the minute when you gave the ball away in an area that he frowns upon, or when and where you did something well. Even random things like how wide a pitch is at a ground or who the referee will be, he just knows."

He has another asset, too, that might not be so obvious given his dour demeanour in interviews: a sense of humour.

"He's got a dry sense of humour and he's very cutting as well," Murty says. "Some of the lads look bemused by him at times and I think that adds to his amusement. If he comes out with something that none of the lads get he looks delighted."

His messages about football tend to get through, though.

"He doesn't overcomplicate things," says Reading's goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann.

The formula has worked. Not that Coppell is reading too much into the impressive start with fixtures against Arsenal, Portsmouth, Liverpool and Spurs to follow. He would no doubt draw more conclusions from his performance in a training session some time ago.

"It was soul-destroying," said Murty. "You had to realise that the best player was someone with one knee."

Guardian Service