Tony Pulis column: So much for the three-year plan – what’s the secret to managerial longevity?

My first coaching opportunity came with Bournemouth in the summer of 1992. At first I wasn’t thinking much beyond my first game – a draw at Preston Plastic, by the way – and apparently my boss, Norman Hayward, wasn’t either.

I got a club car, it was about 20 years old, and a few months into my first season we went up to watch a Grimsby game one night.

We drove there in his Mercedes car and on the way back he dropped me off where I was stopping. The windshield was frozen so I started the engine and Norman took out his credit card to try to clear the ice.

As he was doing so, I heard him shout, “Oh no, I can’t believe it!” I thought he stole his credit card but he actually saw my tax disc. “They gave you 12 months. I told them six months!”

I laughed and said, “Thanks Norman, that gives me a lot of confidence!”

However, I was lucky to get the opportunity to play at Bournemouth, and I was also lucky to receive some good advice on how to continue.

I always remember the late Alec Stock – another member of the 1,000 Players Club, who spent long spells managing Leyton Orient, QPR and Fulham as well as Yeovil, Roma, Luton and Bournemouth – calling me one night and explaining to me why I should work on a three-year plan.

He said the first season was aimed at assessing players and staff and learning about all the other aspects of how the club is run.

Season 2 was all about resetting it, making it work on and off the field and winning all the battles to get things my way for Season 3, which, according to Alec, was the season that everyone – the fans, the managers and you – should have witnessed.

He also told me that any manager’s success would only be judged by producing a winning team.

During my time at Bournemouth, I learned how true this was – no matter how hard you tried or how much you did to protect your club financially, management was about winning.