EXCLUSIVE: What Birmingham City target Alex Neil has said about his next job
A key contender for the Birmingham City job has outlined his ideal setting for his next role.
Birmingham City manager candidate Alex Neil has expressed his desire to replicate the success he had at Preston North End.
Reports indicate that Birmingham City is currently in initial discussions with Neil about the potential of him taking over at St Andrew’s. It is emphasized that these are only initial talks and the appointment process is still underway.
The 42-year-old has been out of work since he was sacked as manager of Stoke City. He was Potters boss for 16 months after choosing to leave Sunderland after promotion – where he would be replaced by Tony Mowbray.
Neil has had a period of reflection and is happy to get back in to work either this summer or in to the next year. He discussed the different scenarios a manager faces when they take over a club and how he would approach his next job.
“Obviously, I’ve been on a few holidays since I left Stoke and had time to reflect – as you do,” said Neil to sister paper the Lancashire Evening Post.
“Every club you work at is very, very different… they are not even similar. Honestly, even the structure of things and how you report to people. And what happens is, when you walk into any club people try and paint an understanding of the situation the club is in.
“But, every club you walk into, when you lift the bonnet up and look under it, you think: ‘Oo, right, OK, it’s a little bit different than what I thought’. And then, you’ve got to try and make the best use of what you’ve got – and try win as many games as you can. But yeah, for me, I’ll just look for the next challenge and see what comes up over the summer, or into next year.”
Alex Neil has spent the past nine years in English football management. He joined Norwich City in 2015 after securing promotion with Hamilton Academical and quickly found success at Carrow Road, leading them to play-off victory in his first season.
A former defensive midfielder, Neil managed to secure a job in the Premier League with Norwich before being dismissed. He then spent about four years in charge of Preston North End, where, although he didn’t achieve promotion, he led the team to a seventh-place finish in 2018, their closest attempt at reaching the play-offs.
Neil did manage to secure promotion with Sunderland, ending their four-year stint in League One through the play-offs. However, he chose to move to Stoke City at the end of August, where he spent 16 months at the bet365 Stadium.
It is what Neil did at Preston that he is aiming to replicate at his next club. He arrived in the summer of 2021 and was allowed to assemble his own squad whilst working with the players already there.
Asked what he would like in his next job, he said: “I want to get… to be honest, I’d like to try and recreate what I had at Preston for those years – in terms of having a squad I really enjoy, having players that are hungry, want to make their way and want to achieve.
“You don’t come across it very often, but I was fortunate I managed to walk into the right changing room at the right time. I’d like to try and do that again.”
