Black background with University of Derby logo in white.
Panel of speakers arrive to sit on a stage with a background of black and white football photographs and an audience in front of the stage.
CHRIS: We're talking today about the event at Derby County. Paul Warne and Curtis Davies on a panel, what did you think of the event?
Ella, a brunette female with a ponytail and black roll neck, appears on screen. Ella is sitting in a recording studio separate from the panel of speakers.
ELLA: I thought it was amazing, to be honest. I remember first getting the email and thinking it was just such a unique opportunity. I hadn't got that from any of the other courses or universities that I'd applied to and I think it was just really special. I’d never really had the opportunity prior to be that up close and personal with a manager and a captain inside a football club. So I think it was really incredible to have that sort of insight into what it's like inside a football club and to just sort of see what other potential opportunities like that I could get from the course.
Paul Warne is shown with a microphone in the panel line up. He's wearing a khaki shirt and a baseball cap.
PAUL: Going back into education later in life, it's sort of helped me with my whole time management, don't leave it till the last minute. Just preparation is key. And maybe, you know, as I've left the meeting now about recruiting for next season, I'll go back into it after that like it's still currently my, you know, job now. Preparation is key. You have to do loads of conversation to meet loads of players. As Curtis would tell you, loads of agents, you're constantly doing stuff that you don't know you’re going to have any fruition until the end. And it's like that with education. You do a degree, you might not use every facet of it initially, but in later life you think, hang on a sec, it’s opened that door for me, or opened that door. And I definitely think doing a teaching degree for me anyway, helped me become a manager, even though I didn't want it. But the owner of the football club saw traits in me that he liked, and a lot of them I got through my education.
The audience are shown and then Ella appears back on screen.
CHRIS: Coming back to the the event itself, was there anything that was spoken about that really kind of like made you think, oh, wow, that's really struck home with me?
ELLA: Yeah. Well, the captain, Curtis Davies, was talking, about this, the use of social media from from the players and behind the dressing room and how that's been normalised a lot more in today's society than, you know, we're talking 20 years ago. And I think it's really important to look at the development of that and how it's much more accepted by football players today.
The audience is shown and then Chris is shown in the panel line up asking a question.
CHRIS: How much on a day to day basis do the media department at the club impact your day to day life, and how different is that now to what it was when you started?
Footage continues to show the panel line up answering questions and pans to the audience every now and then.
OWEN: Careful boys!
CURTIS: We can never get rid of them at our place. Obviously, this is a unique club, and, we've got Rams TV, so we've usually got somebody following us around with a camera. It's kind of become normal, but, you know, it's important. Last year, when we were going through all the problems and stuff like that, to connect the fans with us. And it's obviously carried on this year, in better circumstances. So it is different. But at the same time, we're kind of used to it now and it's not too invasive. You know, obviously we have to do certain interviews and certain bits and bobs, which you do at any football club but yeah, there are times where you're just having a chat, and you pop around the corner and Ang has got a camera in your face.
PAUL: Yeah, I mean, I quite like it. In fairness, it is different at different clubs. Curtis is right. There is, a significant, team here. I think it's fair to say, and it has changed massively. So when I used to play, when Curtis was still a wee twinkle, when I used to play, if you played bad - it’s fine, one bloke might write a letter to the local paper and say, ‘That Warne is rubbish.’ But by the time it got printed we’d probably had another game and I’d play quite well, whereas I feel for this generation I do. I think it's really tough that they could, you know, we played really well at the weekend. Should have won comfortably, handsomely. And we don't - not that I would because I’ve got sense, but if I went on to Twitter, there'd be people contacting the players direct to tell them how bad they performed and that. So look, it's a different world and I can't say we have to protect them from it, but it's nice for the players to go on and go, you know, @DerbyCounty or whatever it is, I don't even know what the hashtag is, that shows what I know. But go on and say, ‘Great win today.’ ‘Thanks for all the fans following.’ And then they’re saying the following week, they say, you know, so many of them fans abuse them. So it is a different world.
OWEN: We talk about how sort of the media has changed and it certainly has. Chris, from going back to your, at the start of your time at West Brom, what was a player asked to do week to week, day to day with the media compared to now?
CHRIS: I mean, well, first of all, we were in the championship, so not anywhere near as much. I mean, the change from that into my third year at the club when we got promoted to the Premier League was just an enormous jump, because suddenly you've got international broadcasters coming down, you've got to do multiple interviews. The manager was genuinely doing kind of, Sky Sports, local TV in one, local radio, national radio, if they were interested, which they weren't always and then the written, all in one. So I mean, it wasn't overly arduous. And the club weren’t asking for I think a great deal at that point either because this is when I started, Twitter wasn't a thing. Facebook wasn't a thing. So there wasn't loads of social media content to put out. You just wanted a couple of lengthy interviews that you could write up on the website, where it has changed to the point where I left West Brom is night and day. It was absolute night and day. I mean, the volume of broadcasters we had down. I mean, when just before I left, Roy Hodgson was the manager and obviously and for those of you who are of an age like me, would know that Roy is a is a god in Sweden because, he got Malmö to a European Cup final, which is like, it's a bit like getting Mansfield to a European Cup final. It's just a staggering achievement. And Roy would have to do all these, all these interviews in English, but then he would have to basically redo them in Swedish because the Swedish media would come down and want to speak to him as well. And that and that was the kind of thing you had to deal with week in, week out. And, I mean, I still speak to the guys at the club because I've still got some good mates over there in the media department, and it's even more mad now.
CURTIS: In terms of the media, I can say this first hand actually, I think we're going very American in terms of, I did a game recently, for Wickham Portsmouth, at Adams Park and it was all access. So it was before the game. You're in the players lounge, and then you’re walking into the changing rooms and you’re doing this, and then you’re doing that, and then they’re trying to interview Danny Cowley during the game, whilst his team are losing one nil and he's got Portsmouth fans singing ‘Cowley, sort them out’, you know for me I've got no problem with progressing in terms of, you know, trying to get access and and I don't mind so much the camera being there seeing the changing room and seeing it going mad but have it muted. But if not you’re gonna have managers not being their true selves. You know it's like what's he meant to say? His team are one nil down. He's trying to sort it out, and you're putting a camera, and a mic in his face when he's actually stressed about, what am I going to do to sort this out? You know, and if you have cameras, we've had you know, we have cameras in at the end of the game when we've won a game. Well, it's a great time to be in there. But when we've lost a game, you sometimes will hold your tongue because you realise the camera's there when actually you want to come out and say a few home truths. You maybe take a little bit back. So I think that's a worry for me that the game is going that way into in terms of, you know, interviews at every single point. Half time, during the game, all that. We’re not American sports where it's stop-start and we play 80 games a season, like in basketball, or baseball where actually it doesn't matter that much. You know, ultimately there's a difference between three points or no points or whatever it is. And getting into the playoffs or not getting into playoffs and getting relegated. I think it can be really detrimental to managers that then do those interviews because also if they are winning and they’re doing interviews saying ‘Ah yeah I’m happy with it’ blah blah - their team then loses 2-1, then the narrative again goes against them because they, they praise their team. So, you know, that's the way it should be.
OWEN: That's all from this section of the day. Gentlemen, thank you very much indeed. Curtis, Paul, Andy, Chris, let's hear it for them. Thank you.
Audience claps and footage pans to show screens and banners with University of Derby branding. A black end frame with the University of Derby logo in white with the text 'derby.ac.uk/journalism' in white closes the video.
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