Football Daily - 72+ EFL Pod: West Brom woes and managerless Leicester

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Ex Bristol Rovers boss Darrell Clarke joins West Brom winger Jed Wallace, Lyle Taylor and Aaron Paul to discuss the latest goings on in the EFL. Jed talks about life under new manager Eric Ramsay at The Hawthorns. Darrell Clarke reflects on his time at Bristol Rovers. It's 10 years since Leicester City won the Premier League and life is looking very different now. Plus Cardiff keep rolling on, signs of life at Norwich and nerves at Coventry.TIME CODES:2:24 Jed Wallace on West Brom's struggles under Eric Ramsay 11:27 Darrell Clarke talks about his departure from Bristol Rovers 13:49 What a difference 10 years makes for Leicester City 22:42 Are Cardiff City the model for how to get out of League One? 28:30 Philippe Clement wants to take Norwich City to the Premier League 31:44 It's a nervous time at Coventry City

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December 2 plus, the home of the NFL from Five Live Sport with us to two through all of the latest developments. West Bromwich, Albion, Winger, Jed Wallace. Evening, Jed. Evening, guys. Great to have you with us, a former championship. Now, Chelmswood striker, Lyle Taylor alongside us as well. Good evening.

And two-time, League 2 promotion winner with Bristol Rovers and Port Vale. Darrell, how are you, Daryl? Good evening, jens. Yeah, I'm all good, thanks, Aaron. Great to see you back out and about with us, Darrell. How have things been since leaving Bristol Rovers? I've only come out of retirement for you, Aaron, you know that. Yeah, it's been challenging.

I think when you lose your job as a manager, you need your time to process. You know, I had a disappointing six, seven weeks at the club where we had an awful running 10 games, but listen, that won't define me. I'll manage nearly 700 games now. I'll bounce back. Just took a little bit of time to get me head round it and reset and then go again, mate. Lyle Taylor also alongside of, in the midst of a mad schedule. Tell us all about it.

Yes. So our home games are played on Monday nights. So we have just played Saturday Monday this week and next week we play Saturday Monday again, then Saturday Tuesday, then Saturday Monday again. So it's a bit of a time at the moment and the legs are going to take an absolute battering over the next four weeks. Well, I didn't play Saturday.

We played away at Horsham and it was on an AstroTurf pitch. So I was given a watchin brief for 60 minutes before the game turned into silly hour and ended up 3-2. So that was okay. But yesterday it was heavy on the legs. Jed, great to see you back out and about, mate. Really, really, really good after a while out with injury. How good is it to be back on the pitch? I mean, affecting games as well.

Yeah, it's been great. I think Lyle will tell you the hardest thing I think. footballed injuries and mentally it's been challenging for me. Certainly when you're the captain of the team, you feel that you want to help the lads as much as you can. That's very difficult when you're in the physio room. So for me to get back and play my role off the bench the last three or four games has been something that I've really missed

and enjoyed being back, to be honest. Got a touch on it, Jed. Really turbulent times at the Albion at the moment. Obviously, the manager losing his job, Eric Ramsey coming in as head coach. First, you're just on Ryan Mason. I know that he had a real good rapport with everyone in the dressing room, didn't he? Yeah, yeah, it's very popular amongst the players, amongst a staff. And I think Albuyan fans that have watched every game the same way that I have this season.

Unfortunately, with the injury, I've watched games. And to be honest, how we've lost some of the games we've lost have been ridiculous, really. I think we've made the most individual whereas in the league. We were so close in so many games, sort of it felt like everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. We'd miss an open goal. They'd go down the other end, Pitwin, in the top corner from 30. but late individual errors have cost us points, thinking of both Leicester games, the Charlton games.

So it's been a really difficult season for us. There's no hiding away from that, especially after a really good start that we had. Our away form has been really, really disappointing. So that was important for us to log that off on Friday night against Derby and build slowly to really improve in our away form because our away support has been fantastic and our performances have been really disappointing, to be honest.

Jed, what is it from the more senior players in your group, obviously yourself, the likes of Carl and what is it that you guys who have been there for a longer period of time are trying to do to kind of drag the team back to where this team should be? Yeah, I think the easy thing to do when it isn't going well is to be really negative. For me, obviously, I've not felt that mental strain as much as everyone else because of the injury. You know how it is when you're playing week and week out. You feel that mental strain when you're injured. You're just mostly focused on getting back fit as quick as you can to help.

side. So for me, it's been trying to be a positive influence. You know the turmoil mentally that footballers go through up and down, even in a week, to be honest. And I think that Norwich at home game was a real turning point for me where it was time to sort of wake people up. We did a meeting the day after the game. And it was as bad a night as I've ever had in football, to be honest. I've played a thing over 500 games. And that's as bad as night as I've had. And that was one where it was time for everyone to snap out of it and wake up in a way and realize the situation that we are in and being brave enough to accept we are in a relegation battle and we have to stand up to that because West Brom Football Club should not be where they are in the championship at a moment.

Myself and the rest of the players are very aware that we're the main reason behind that. We can't hide behind managers. We need to improve. I believe we have some of the best players in the league. But for whatever reason as individuals and as a collective, we haven't shown that. Football's football We need to keep clean sheets We need to stop making individual errors

And build confidence from that And I think you saw that Against Derby It was a spirit of performance In terms of the basics of football law That we all know In first contacts

And second contacts As boring as it is This is the championship I think I've not seen In the most respectful way possible I've not seen loads of good teams In the championship this year

But I have seen teams that are very, very good at the basics and you can see that in the playoff picture, certainly with the lights of Millwall and Hull, and we played against those sort of teams. They're fantastic at the basics, and that's why they are where they are in division,

so that's something we need to massively improve them. Darrell, got to ask you, how difficult is it when you are in a rut, and I say it again with respect, Jed, West Bromijabian feel like they are very much in a rut, how difficult is it to arrest that and change that, especially in the Football League, when, I know it's cliche, the games come thick and fast,

it's a proper marathon. Yeah, I mean, from my perspective, and managing those situations, is it's trying to keep as positive you possibly can. You know, you tried everything, you're trying everything, arms around it, man-to-man managing, speaking to players. You go through an old seminar of different things that you want to go through and get your head around it. And to be fair, you know, most of the pros, they struggle at times

just because it's continuous and the pressure of the shirt, heavy on them. And, you know, what I find nowadays is, is that when you're going into a group that is lacking that confidence and not getting that much them results, it just drains the lads. So you can't beat them with a stick. You really can't because it doesn't work the old-fashioned way. You know, you've got to find different ways to get the group galvanise. And sometimes it can be a result that goes really well. You know, you get a deflection that goes in. You win a scruffy game 1-0 and it changes the momentum and it changes the confidence in the changing rooms. Jedd, how has Eric Ramsey come in and approach things?

Because obviously this is a big, big gig coming in from America, from the MLS. It's a completely different kettle of fish. Again, the championship is a division where it doesn't care who you are. It will chew you up and spit you out. That's the EFL on the whole. No, it's been tough for him, mainly because of the scheduling. I think he came in and we probably had two available training sessions and then we're into a free game week.

I mean, Lyle's saying they just played Saturday Monday. I can only imagine the sports scientists and the iPads would be an overdrive at championship level, secondary recovery and all of that. For us, it's like a challenge for the manager to get us on the grass. This is a free week for us now. So I think you'll see hopefully a big improvement in us in a huge game for us at Frat and Park on the weekend. Obviously, look, we've changed formation. So that takes time.

Fortunately, we can use that time in the meeting room. It doesn't always have to be on the grass. Obviously, we've had a couple of big injuries as well in the last week. So it's managing the squad. It's not the biggest squad that I've played in. So it's been a challenge for the manager in terms of pushing us, but also keeping everyone fitting available and making the most of the time on the training pitch.

Max O'Leary is brought in from Bristol City. He started and there was a mistake on his debut. You are a camp full of experience heads. There's plenty of football league experience in there. There's Premier League experience in there. How do you crowd around him and protect him after that mistake? because he's been brought in to try and shore up a difficult position. And he makes a mistake in his first game.

And again, when you're raining, it pours. When it rains, sorry, it pours. And it's so easy for him to go under there. Yeah, that's the way it's been for us, really. It's been difficult, like I said, but I said to him, he's not the only player that's made a mistake for us this season. I've made plenty more than that. Believe you, believe you me,

but obviously when you're a goalkeeper, you get punished. To be fair to him, he'd been in the building a day. He came straight in after the game and sort of, praise the boys for getting a point and the blame for the goal, which I always like to see. I think anyone would tell you, Darrell especially as a manager that if people make mistakes, it's important to me,

they own up to that. And he's done that after the game. And he's made a big impression in terms of personality. And hopefully he can be someone that can make a big impression throughout the rest of the season. He's got a contract at the end of the season. So he's playing for himself as much he's playing for the football club to build his career.

Obviously, we've got Jeddies from West Bromier. I want to get your take on things then. ask if you have someone like Eric Ramsey who comes in as a head coach when you are low on confidence when you're making individual errors. How does a squad take to a head coach that's managed in the MLS that hasn't got any real EFL experience? I think it's difficult from the point of view, from a footballing culture point of view, you go from the MLS where relegation is, it's not thing, us looking at it as English football, British football, it's just a very different concept. So I think, but we're not talking about an American person here. So we're talking about somebody

who was born and brought up on football, was born here and brought up on football here. So understands what football here means to people from here and from this country. So I don't think we're talking about a culture shock or a culture war in that regard. The difference will be the fact that you go to football in England and the fans are out for blood if you don't win. You go to football in America and they're all having a great time and sharing hot dogs and doing all crazy stuff like that. Sharing hot dogs.

Yeah, I've seen it. So it's just a very different culture. But what I will say is that we're not talking about an American person here. So his mindset will be very much along the lines of, we have to win, this is a relegation scrap, and I have to prove my worth. If I can prove my worth as a football coach, then the players will come with me regardless,

as long as my message is right and my message is clear and concise. I think in that squad and Jed will be able to tell you this and confirm this, there is enough football in IQ where they'll be able to take on information, the information the manager is given out, and they will be able to put that into practice.

It's how quickly you put, that into practice will be the deciding factor on which league West Brom playing next season. I was going to say to Darrell, we heard from Jedday, who said a few minutes ago, West Brom and Jarbion should not be involved in a relegation scrap in the championship. And on paper, that squad is too good to be involved in a relegation scrap. You had a similar sort of thing at Bristol Rovers. Everyone's turning around saying, on paper, that Bristol Rovers squad should not be involved down the bottom end of the table.

It must be really hard to keep up with that sort of expectation on a squad. Do you know what, Aaron, going on to Bristol Rovers, I'm a realist though. You know, like you go in the summer, you get a group of players that are contractors in the club and then you're obviously, there's cuts for relegation and then you're working on things

and you get a planning place. But the pine place involves still working with the vast majority of the budget of the players that are already in, you know, Bristol Rovers spent over a million pound on Promise on a Cherry, Shaq Ford, Sartario, and the attacking options at a pitch. And, you know, great lads as they are, haven't produced what we've been wanting to as a football club. Now, to be able to change that round in the lower leagues, you need those windows.

You know, a bit similar there to the West Brown manager at the minute. You know, he needs training time. You know, he needs those hours on the training pitch. But as we all know, the championships relentless, the games come thick. can fast. You know, the best thing you probably have is a couple of weeks with your boys, Jed, if you agree, you know what I mean, where he can get his, get his points across. But you get shoved into it, you're straight in the heat of the battle, you're straight already trying to pick lad's confidence up, you're already going into an injury crisis as well. So, you know,

it's very difficult to see the wood from the trees when you're in it in the mid-season. A big issue for us has not been, and I include myself and obviously been injured for three months. And regardless of who our manager is, you have to look at the quality of our players. front players haven't scored enough goals and our defenders have made too many individual errors. And that's regardless of who the manager is. I think it's too often now people hide behind the manager. I think we've miss gaping opportunities, all the players and as individuals, we've made way too many errors. So we should be seven or eight points better off than we are because of those errors and too many times, like Lyle touched on there, we can't hide behind

the manager. We've got international players in our squad. We've got players like myself that have played 300-odd games in the championship. We should know better to do better. But it's easy for me to sit here and speak hollow words. I think what we need now and what we spoke about a lot is we need action. Let's talk Leicester now. We're going to marry this up with what were you doing in 2016. Well, the trend that's flying around right now.

So around this time in 2016, Leicester were beating Liverpool 2-0 and Manchester City 3-1 to go five points clear at the top of the Premier League. Jumped to 2026. They've just lost home to us. Oxford sacked their manager, Marty Sifuentes, after six months in charge. And the club seemed in turmoil sat in 14th in the championship. So what has gone wrong?

Let's bring Kate Wattam from the Leicester Till I die fan channel. Kate, great to speak to you. Leicester's return to the championship hasn't gone as many would have expected, has it? No, but that's the Leicester City way, I think, unfortunately. You never know what's going to happen. They surprise you in the good ways, in the bad. genuinely from the summer it just felt disjointed didn't it with regards to the appointment of the manager the time taken to appoint marty syphwentis i think a lot of supporters were underwhelmed with the appointment and then the dealings with PSR overspending the fact that you've had two relegations in three years a potential points deduction it's mounting up yeah it is mounting up and it's been it's been going that way for a little while really we you know the first ask of relegation we saw Enzo Moreska appointed, which you can't argue was an absolutely great

coup for us and unfortunately he left us for Passengers News. So after that we were kind of up against it. You're recruiting later on in the window. You get someone like Steve Cooper in because there's rumours of a points deduction that actually never materialised last year, which I do think hampered our managerial appointment somewhat. We were heavily linked with Potter and he didn't come. So, you know, roll forward another 12 months and another relegation and we just seem a bit stuck in a vutt at the minute and it's tricky to get out. Hi Kate. Jed Wallace. Just wanted to ask you on obviously some supremely talented players there

that we've unfortunately seen the wrong side of the people. Like Fata Wu this season, obviously, amazing finish against us to beat us a couple of weeks ago. Mavidi, another Pereira. Where do you see it as a fan with the cycle of PSR and obviously those sort of level of talented players? Do you see them being there next season? Or do you feel it's going to be a rebuild

and try and make the squad a little bit younger? a few more homegrown players like a lot of the championship clubs are trying to do now? Yeah, I think Lester's successful model was always to sell your prize possession each summer. That was the model that we're in and that was the model that was successful. So I can see us probably doing that again. But, you know, Fathu is really tailed off and we've not had any players that have really outshone anybody else. They've not lived up to their potential. And that's part of the reason why we are like we are, you know, Fattahue has scored Worldies this season.

But he hasn't done some of the easiest stuff that we'd expect him to do. But we saw Marty try and bring through the youth from Seagrave and we've had a 16 year old start for us in Jeremy Munger and we're having players like Louis Page starting to real make a push for the first team he's replaced Jordan James in the 8 at the moment whilst he's out injured. So he looks really full of promise as well. So I think it's going to have to be relying on some of the kids at Seagrave but it's got to be slowly does it with them

because you don't want to rush these kids because you can overplay them for sure. Kate, is the issue that yesteryear's success of the last nine, years at Leicester, 10 years at Leicester. It is the issue that now there is an expectation to be in a much better position in the pyramid than they are. Because let's be honest, they've got an incredible facility in the training ground. They've got a good academy system that brings through promising young players. So is it the success that has come before that has caused this kind of rut that they now

find themselves in? Yeah, potentially the higher you climb, the greater the fall, I guess, is how it feels a little bit. But I would say that the early parts of the successful years, it was a pinch yourself moment. And then as time went on, you genuinely felt after the two fifth place finishes in particular under Brendan, that looking behind you and worrying about getting to 40 points was a thing of the past. And then, you know, Brendan and that team failed miserably in the season that we got relegated. So I don't think it's a bit of kind of expectation, I think, but also a bit of we thought there was genuine stability

that Leicester had finally become a mainstay of the Premier League and we would be happy with mid-table or top eight going forward. And we gambled, we paid some big players, some big wages, and like humans can do, they underperformed and we ended up getting relegated quite dramatically. So it's a mixture of, yeah, expectation and just wanting stability for the club and being a Premier League team. and it just didn't turn out.

Darrell, we've heard from the owner, Cun Top, in the past few days, in a very, very revealing interview where, I mean, there was a wide range of talking points with BBC Radio Leicester's Owen Palmer Atkin in a baffling interview. And I sit there and wonder,

I know it's Leicester City, and Lars talked about the incredible facilities and the grape stadium. Is it still an attractive job to take for a manager because of what's going on with respect the circus upstairs? Very much so, but everything's timing.

You know, for managers going into clubs and those managers, you can't go and pick and choose and go right, this is the right time to go overtake Lester. You know, I think Brendan Rogers, when they struggle with that division and he was trying to get out, he was trying to get out the door,

I think he's seen that was coming, foreseen what was coming, and I think whatever managers then have followed that, and found it more and more, difficult as time's gone by. And with a club like Lester, it's always going to want top managers and good managers

to get there. You know, maybe someone has failed somewhere with somewhere in the champ, but it's been successful before as well. So there'll certainly be a lot of managers and want to get the Lester job, but also got to understand that, you know, there's a lot of financial troubles what it looks like at the football club and it's going to take a bit of time

to turn it around, you know, I feel a little bit for Marty because I think, you know, you go into that environment, you need your three windows. It's a simple as, and, you know, the... Three windows when they're spending nothing. Yeah, we still need your three windows because then you're assessing everybody in your squad, what you've got, you can tweak along the way.

Although you haven't necessarily got fees, Aaron, and you can still start looking, swap deals and whatnot, start spraying up some wages to then get the squad that you need to be in. It's very difficult to do it in, you know, one window, two windows. But that's the modern day game now. It's no good as managers moaning about it. you know, six, seven months is probably the average now and then in championship.

You know, it's getting on the borderline and being a little bit ridiculous and the cycle keeps continuing. But, you know, owners have a lot of money and they can do whatever they want with the football clubs. Kate, with a potential points deduction hanging over you, how concerned are you about being drawn into a relegation battle? Yeah, it is quite concerning.

But the problem is with PSR. No one really knows, do they? No one really knows that if you break the rules by X amount of million, that this equals a certain amount of points. It's such an unknown. And there's part of me that still thinks we were so heavily rumored, 99% nailed on to get a points deduction in the summer of 2024. And it never ever materialised.

So, you know, it's really hard to plan. I think we could get dragged into a relegation scrap if the points is anything more than six. And it's just something you've got to deal with. But the players are more than capable of, even with a six, eight point deduction of not being down there. It's just whether they want to pull their weight and fulfil their potential. And they just haven't done that at the minute.

And Marty didn't do that, which in my opinion is why you got the sack. You know, 99% at Leicester fans would agree that the board have provided Marty with the squad that's good enough to challenge for promotion. So therefore, the on-field stuff is probably where it's letting us down this season with the PSR rumbling in the background. Kate, what, and there from the Leicester Till I Die fan channel. The Dakar rally is the ultimate off-road challenge. Perfect for the ultimate defender.

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Darrell, do they need to be looked at as the model of a club? Larl's nodding his head here, but sort of like a model of a club that comes down, hard resets in League 1, doesn't go out and spend allahuddersfield and you look sort of where they are, but installs a footballing appointment and someone who is going to go in it

and install a style of play where you can sort of build from? Yeah, no, exactly that. It's fitting that they haven't made many changes, MIRF's gone in there and just, you know, got his style of play. The way he likes to play the game is a great way, doing a fantastic job. And he shouldn't go noticed. And I think sometimes when you go into an environment where the players are disappointed in but you know you've got some good talent in there, you've got some good young talent in there.

It's all about getting them on the training ground, getting some confidence and belief into him. And I think them early wins that he got, give them a massive boost. And then that gets the buy-in from the players and they believe in the way he wants to play, you work the way they want to go forward so yeah it's a good model to have because you can have a revolving door as a manager you know let's turn another 10 out 10 in 10 out 10 in 10 out

but at the end of the day for me building that platform for success is trying to keep it as as you can when you know you've got a talented squad that is with a few tweaks along the way there's been certain games that have built that good feeling around the football club the Chelsea game being one of them

we set and watch that game together And they gave Chelsea a really, really good game. Now, my fear is that with this, and I don't want to be disrespectful and call it academy style of football, but if we make it as simple as saying this academy-bred style of football, if that academy style of football goes into the championship without an influx of experienced championship footballers, how does that look from a survival and a flourish?

point of view in the championship? Yeah, it's a good question. To be fair, because you can get away with certain things in League 1 when you've got talent, you know, with the way they play the game. But then the physicality for me and the championship, if you ain't got that right amount of experience, you have the same problem if you do go up that they had last season. So getting that balance right, and I'm sure they will go up this season, and getting that balance right in the summer window where, you know,

getting that three, four key experience champion players, championship players in with a talented group that they've got now, will help them out, but certainly needs to be looked at. And that's the difficulty is finding the right players, the right people, because if they're coming into your dressing room, they have to have the same values as the manager, and obviously the manager has the same values as the board. And then they have to be the right players to take on these young players

and their potential future abilities and kind of mold that into really good championship footballers. That's not an easy job. And those players who you'd be looking at don't come cheap. I think they've built a really good core Cardiff City in terms of young players, homegrown players, there's a real good selection in there. And when, and I say when they get promoted to the championship,

because they're 10 points clear, at the summit now. There's a real good foundation. But then it's up to Vincent Tan and Ken Chu and Mehmet Dalman to go and say to Brian Barry Murphy, right, let's supplement and let's get you what you need to ensure that we're not at the bottom end of the championship this season. Let's talk Lincoln City. Again, another side jed that we've waxed lyrical about on the pod all season.

Michael Scabala, he goes under the radar. but the job that he's done paired with the experience they've brought in and I look at Sonny Bradley, an absolute warrior, I'm sure you've gone up against many a time. And the experience of him, someone like a Riley Tower, who brings youth, bit of pace and sort of the dark art. And other players in there, Adam reached.

There's real blend in there. It feels like a really good little concoction. Yeah, talking about what we were doing in 2016, it would have been around that period where I was living, a co-op in Portsmouth and my housemate was Mr. Sonny Bradley himself. We lived together literally above, yeah, he must have been probably a couple years older than me, maybe 21 at the time, and me 19 living in above a co-op, both playing for Portsmouth in League 2 at a time.

And I think Sonny's done really well to get to what he's done in his career. He sort of had the great times at Luton. And then the same as Ritchie. Sometimes you see players, Ritchie's one of the good guys in football. He had a difficult time at West Brom. was a low, I'm sure Lyle and Darrell understand his term. He was a player's player in terms of you could see the quality that he had. He was very well liked, very well respected as a player in the dressing room.

I think he's fallen victim a little bit recently to not really having a position and being a little bit in the middle of like he's played midfield on the left on the right and he's really found a home at left back for Lincoln. And his availability, he was in a PFA training camp in the summer to come into the team on the wrong side of 30, which I can say. as me and Lyle Bofar and stay fit throughout the whole season. He's done really, really well. And at that level, he's got as much quality in his left foot as anyone in the league.

And even in his right foot, looking at his 25-yard volley that went in the stanch against Barnsley three weeks ago. So it's really good to see him and Sonny doing really, really well. Let's get into some championship chap. Someone who's certainly getting the most out of their team is Norwich, Boss, Philippe Clement. Two-one winners at home to League Leaders' Coventry last night. Clement said it's their best victory yet. So far, yes, but I'm ambitious,

so I want more evenings like this, performances like this, and this happiness of all the people, fans, players, stuff. So I want more. I hope it creates for everybody in the building, more hunger and more belief. I have the ambition to go to the Premier League

with this club, the owners have that, the sportive director have that. When I came in, when I asked the players, Some questions, they all put it in the questionnaire. They want to go to the Premier League. So we're going to work hard for that. It's a long way. It's a difficult way.

We're still nowhere in the league for this season. So that's a very, very, very, very long way. But let's see week by week. But for the future, we want to get there. And everybody in the club will work hard for that. To make everything better and better, that we can grow to that level and that we deserve to be there. Darrell Clark, I mean, this is one hell of a 180, isn't it?

I mean, they look disciplined, they look a lot more meaner as well. And fundamentally, they're on the move up. Yeah, they are, Aaron, to be honest. What I will say is, is that, and it'd be interesting to hear, the lad's feedback on this, is that, you know, when you're down the bottom and you start like 10, 15 games, we're in Norwich, were, in the bottom three, I think people, the fans sort of get used to it, you know, like the negativity is there.

but what happens is that it feels at times it can't get any worse so then it gradually gets better and better and let's not kid ourselves, Norwich you've got some good players right. But I think players get sort of used to it when they're down there. That's why I think you find

come the last 15, 20 games of the season, you'll find that teams that have been down there all season start to pick up and start to pick up results. And it's normally the teams that are filtering down in those last 5, 10 games that start feeling the pressure. that haven't been in the relegation zone that can get caught up with it.

He's cleaning house though, Philippe Clown. Everyone said he'd instill discipline into him and he's done that. And that's the most important thing in a dressing room. If you've got a manager who leads from the very front and is strong with how he's going to do it and what he wants to do, then that doesn't leave any room for any flip-flopping

from any players. And you either put up and shut up or you see yourself out the door and you contact your agent and see if you can find yourself somewhere that might suit you a little bit better. The best thing that they could have possibly had is a manager come in and say,

right, this is the right act, you've been read it, what do you want to do? And you as a player, you know then where you stand. So it makes it all very clear for everyone. And he's won, what, more than 50% of his games since he's coming, he's won eight out of 14, is it? Or something like eight out of 15? So what he's doing is obviously working,

and he obviously has enough of the players on side so that what he is doing can work. So it seems that those players are willing, it just maybe takes a different voice that they hadn't heard before. Darrell, got to ask you to talk Coventry City, their lead cut to three points at the summit. Are things getting a bit nervy for Frank Lampard side?

Yeah, I think so. I just think they need that reset. I think as well as it is, sometimes it's not bad time to have a blip. You know, they're going to have a blip, All teams do. Comptuary having one now, and it might just be the right time to have that little one because you want to be really strong in those last 15, 16 games.

So it's in Frank's experience. He's been there, won everything, got the T-shirt. He'll be resetting the group. You've got a fantastic team there, and I'm sure they'll kick on. So you're always going to have that little bit of a dip, so they've just got to keep that confidence high. That is it for this episode of the Football Daily on the next one. Ali Bruce Ball will have all the reaction to the final night of Champions League fixtures

from the league phase with six English clubs aiming to progress. As for us here on 72 plus, remember our WhatsApp number if you want to drop us a message or a voice note. It's 08,289-369. That is 08,289-369. We'll be back next week with another episode. Catch you then. Five Live Sports.

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