My quality time with Guardiola - and getting his guide to Barcelona

Breaking news from the world of sport: My quality time with Guardiola - and getting his guide to BarcelonaPublished5 hours agoI have talked a lot in this column about what I did as a manager before and during games, but what about immediately after the final whistle? At Stoke, our ritual after home matches was always to invite the opposition's management staff into our room at the stadium. We would provide food from the same menu as the boardroom, plus a good measure of wine, for them to either celebrate a win or drown their sorrows if they had lost.

I had always believed that providing good hospitality was important in such a cut-throat industry and a way of managers having a time to mix and meet. This was a tradition I had experienced all the way through the English football pyramid. Lower down, it was a bottle of beer and some left-over sandwiches, but that never stopped managers from always sharing these moments together.

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Once Stoke were promoted to the Premier League, we took this tradition further, by having hot food and a table which would accommodate the opposition staff and my staff together. Along my journey over my 30 years as a manager, I was made aware that this tradition was only really observed in the British Isles, and not in mainland Europe. The British managers would always come in after the game, but we made a point of inviting the foreign ones too - and they always joined in.

Carlo was coolness personifiedImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, left, greets Tony Pulis when Stoke visited Old Trafford in 2010. United won 4-2I had been welcomed into Sir Alex Ferguson's room upstairs at Old Trafford many times when he was United's manager and it was the same when he retired. I remember having a glass of wine with Louis van Gaal when he was in charge, then going up to see Sir Alex, who had always been a manager who enjoyed our hospitality at the Britannia Stadium.

On one occasion when his United team had played there, someone from their team bus came up to tell Sir Alex that the lads were ready and waiting to leave - his response to being summoned was swift, and to the point! I'm sure most other British managers would have responded the same way. When Jose Mourinho was in the Premier League, he was always full on, but was also exceptionally gracious with me - win, lose or draw - and my staff enjoyed his no-nonsense assessments of the games we played against him.

Reactions and Expectations

But we welcomed everyone in exactly the same way, whichever club I was with and whoever we were up against. Carlo Ancelotti was coolness personified, and no wonder all his players love him - he is a great football man and human being. Ronald Koeman was again great company and reciprocated our hospitality by serving up a dish of eels when we played at Everton.

I was really not sure about eating it, but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was - and how gracious Ronald was too.

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