Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:03 PM: "Hello and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast. It's your Sutton Podcast in association with Lucky Star Gin. I'm your host, Mike, and joining me today to finish off our pre-season, since his pre-season's just finished, is the gaffer, Steve. Hello, Steve, how are you?"
Steve Morison - 6:03 PM: "Yeah, very well, thank you. I think I've probably had a bit more of a restful summer than you had. Did you get a chance to get away anywhere or too busy?"
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:03 PM: "No, no, no, of course, you're always working, which is just life. I think everyone's always working. But yeah, got away, had a holiday. Just meant when I woke up, I always woke up to loads of things that I had to do because it was on a different time zone. So no, look, it's great."
Steve Morison - 6:04 PM: "The more frustrating side was the outgoings rather than the ingoings, really. So yeah, glad we got to a clean slate eventually."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:04 PM: "Perfect. Well, some of that we'll come on to. Firstly, we're going to very briefly, like a band-aid, talk about last season, and we're going to rip it off very quickly. You were very open and, in my opinion, very harsh on your reflections. As you sort of said afterwards..."
Steve Morison - 6:05 PM: "Yeah, exactly that. I was brought in to do a number of jobs, and on the whole we did a lot of them, and we're still doing those jobs now. But the reality is..."
Steve Morison - 6:05 PM: "We had to perform well for the fans that were turning up, and if the miracle happened, be a part of it. Crawley game, not seeing that game off, things like that kind of started to make you think that it was going to be a tough ask, obviously with Colchester driving the games in hand. Obviously..."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:06 PM: "Mhm."
Steve Morison - 6:06 PM: "We're going to have a proper go at League 2 in the way that I wanted to do it, but it's obviously that didn't transpire, and obviously now we reflect, we have rectified a lot of wrongs from last year in terms of how we do things."
Steve Morison - 6:06 PM: "We've done more in this last four weeks than we've done the whole time I was there last year, so yeah we're in a much better place and it's really good to be a part of."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:07 PM: "So, when you look back, were there any, you did mention there were decisions that you had wished you'd made earlier, but were there any personal decisions that you made that stand out as tough lessons learned, or that you can look back on as a bit of pride saying actually that was a good one as well, even though the outcome wasn't the greatest?"
Steve Morison - 6:07 PM: "There's a couple of gut moments when you should have gone with your gut and you didn't, but obviously it was all new. You listen to people, you take people's advice. Sometimes it was good advice, sometimes it wasn't."
Steve Morison - 6:08 PM: "We did make huge strides, just didn't make them quick enough, those first 10 games. I know it's been spoken about, but they said, Doncaster, we win that game, maybe we go on a run. Instead it was the catalyst for them to have a great end to the season."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:08 PM: "Was one of the ones you look back on pride on the, uh, taking Josh off after 30-odd minutes of the MK Dons match? Um, I've spoken to him, and it was, um, to us, up in the sky, we were like, hang on a minute, he's just had a great shot, he's had a great run, he's playing well, and then Steve comes on and scored two and assisted one, I think, I can't remember, um..."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:09 PM: "Alright, fair enough. Josh did look at me a bit bizarre with the question as well, I was like, oh, alright, maybe you football people are a bit odd. I mean, different, sorry, not odd. Um, so, you mentioned those 10 games at the start, and I know you and the backroom team are very much, um, focusing on the mental aspect as well as the coaching side. How tricky and difficult was it to keep giving the same?"
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:10 PM: "And you've mentioned two of the games that I've mentioned as well, but is there any particular games that, um, you wake up in a bit of a sweat saying, oh my god, if only we had done that? I mean, it was a case of two penalties in a couple of games, the, uh, the Doncaster one against us, and then the Colchester one, um, as well, but is there any other games you wake up?"
Steve Morison - 6:11 PM: "No, no, it's nothing. As I said, we spoke about it last year far too much already, we don't need to worry about it now. Ultimately, yeah, you look at Doncaster game, we should win that."
Steve Morison - 6:11 PM: "And yeah, that's just where we were as a team. When you're down there, stuff goes against you and it just seemed to keep happening. And then obviously we got the great performance at Notts County. So yeah, there were positives, there were negatives, but ultimately..."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:12 PM: "Yeah. Well, at least that was actually the last question on last year anyway. So, um, for me, obviously the next difficult job is the, um, the sort of retained released list. Um, I know, um, people in football are very, very different to how the rest of us are, but it seemed quite brutal. Were there any kind of reactions?"
Steve Morison - 6:12 PM: "Yeah, there's not really any reactions. No, not really. Just a couple that I thought might want to stay, kind of informed me in those meetings that if the opportunity came they'd want to leave."
Steve Morison - 6:13 PM: "Everything kind of changes, the financial side changes so all of a sudden you can't give people what they would expect and if they're not willing to take that then they're going to have to find it."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:13 PM: "Yeah. I mean, from, from obviously our point of view, we've had players there for years and years and years. It's like, whoa, hang on a second. Well, I didn't expect that. Um, but you moved very quickly as you, as you already mentioned, and you've done a lot of business really, really early. Um, how important was that to get it done early, to get the full preseason with as many as possible?"
Steve Morison - 6:14 PM: "Yeah, obviously, look, we have, what, three players, so we didn't really have a choice. We had to work really, really hard. We had to leave no stone unturned. There's actually more work to our recruitment than there ever has been. We now have to tick at least..."
Steve Morison - 6:14 PM: "Davis and Terry and everyone involved in their specific role had a part to play to make sure the person we're getting can do the things we want them to do."
Steve Morison - 6:15 PM: "And we're so aligned here now, from the top to the bottom, that there's a lot of trust and everyone knows and there's constant communication and we're always updating each other and it made it."
Steve Morison - 6:16 PM: "The work that we put in as a group of staff and ownership was worth it."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:16 PM: "Um, is one of the criteria young players, or is that just, it so happened to be young available players on the list?"
Steve Morison - 6:16 PM: "No, no. We wanted a progressive squad with players either on their way up or if they're stepping down it's because they're ready to go again and they want to go again."
Steve Morison - 6:17 PM: "So yeah, for the oldest one we've signed so far, apart from Arnie, re-signing is Shun Anderson. We've got an average age of just over 24, which is a really nice age and yeah, it's a group that hopefully..."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:17 PM: "Mhm."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:17 PM: "Yeah, obviously I've only seen little snippets of them, but bits of conversations with other people, they all seem like nice guys off the pitch as well. I know one or two had mums with them and stuff as well, with them when they were doing the signing videos and whatnot. So it seems like a really, really good bunch from the snippets we've had. And they all were saying about the promotion."
Steve Morison - 6:17 PM: "Yeah, look, us and 23 other teams are all saying the same thing. We all have to have a dream. We won't get caught up in it. We've mentioned it once. That was in my first message to the players. We won't mention it again."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:18 PM: "And your first pre-season with us, did it go as expected, or was there anything that you were caught by surprise? I know we've changed training ground, but was there anything that you were caught by surprise on, or was it just a pre-season everyone bought into it straight away?"
Steve Morison - 6:18 PM: "Yeah, there's no surprises because we're in control of it. We know what we wanted to do as a group of staff. We know the players are capable of doing that. Yeah, the games have been..."
Steve Morison - 6:19 PM: "We've had a couple of poor performances in there, but on the whole, when they're at it, the boys are very, very good."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:19 PM: "Do you learn more from those poor performances, so when they aren't going well, do you see a little bit more of the players and individuals than you do from winning games easily?"
Steve Morison - 6:19 PM: "No, not really. You see, you learn more when you're winning. You see what they can do, and you just use it as a tool to say, this is what happens when you do it right, this is what happens when you do it wrong."
Steve Morison - 6:20 PM: "It was a frustrating day, but it was only on reflection of that, you're like, actually, yeah, I got the teams wrong. I should have mixed it up a little bit more. But then the Dartford one, there was no excuses for that. But then you go and put a performance on like..."
Steve Morison - 6:20 PM: "I don't know, I got asked if I had a favourite. That day, Sidgey was my favourite because I was trying to demand more from him. So he was my favourite that day. But no, that's it. I love them all. They're a good bunch. And yeah, they're a good team."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:21 PM: "But who, from, you've been around football for all your life, really, so who do you think is going to be that fan favourite? Who are the fans going to kind of go, ooh? This isn't you picking a favourite, I'm going to make it very, very clear. Yeah, I feel a lot of looking at Dylan running very fast at defenders."
Steve Morison - 6:21 PM: "It's normally the person who puts the ball in the back of the net the most, isn't it?"
Steve Morison - 6:21 PM: "When I want a very good Swatch."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:22 PM: "And are we kind of where you expect us to be, where you want us to be, or are we kind of slightly ahead of the curve or behind the curve in preparation?"
Steve Morison - 6:22 PM: "I'll let you know about 5.10pm on Saturday. Yeah, as I said, last game was very good. Very positive performance. So yeah, we're in a good place, touchwood."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:22 PM: "Excellent. And do you, obviously, as you said, everyone's objective is promotion. Do you have any shorter term objectives? Is there anything you want from the first sort of five, six games, or is it just building for the whole season?"
Steve Morison - 6:22 PM: "You're constantly building, constantly progressing, obviously. What would I like in the first month? To get through the six games that we've got very, very quickly in the best possible shape we can be. I think you always win your home games, pick up points away."
Steve Morison - 6:23 PM: "So we're trying to enjoy the ride."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:23 PM: "Well, yeah, this is what I've been saying. I know, obviously, the target's promotion and all the rest of it. I'm just like, I'd like to go to matches with expectations of a result, rather than, here we go again. So, the more fun we have, the better. How can, obviously, they're making the noise, they're getting behind them, but is there any sort of specifics how fans can kind of help? Will the players need a bit of time to get on?"
Steve Morison - 6:24 PM: "We want music to be playing when we come out. We want everyone to be engaged. We don't want any moaning that they don't like the song that's being played or stuff like that. It's not for you. It's for the players to get in the best frame of mind possible to get them up, get them ready to start the game hard and fast."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:25 PM: "That's interesting about the music thing, because you're dead right, people will hear it and go, oh God, what's this rubbish? And never even for that idea of, it's not for us, it's for you guys coming out onto the pitch. So, that's, yeah, that's very interesting. I'm presuming there's been some kind of training to deal with this sensitively, because were you aware, or how much were you..."
Steve Morison - 6:25 PM: "No, I didn't know. I didn't know anything about it. If I'm getting involved in those things then there is a worry. But yeah, no, I didn't know anything about it. I think they were tried in a few things last year, I know. The only one thing I said I never wanted to happen again was that the fans think it was Harrogate with their fans."
Steve Morison - 6:26 PM: "Fingers crossed."
Steve Morison - 6:27 PM: "I don't think it really matters. I think ultimately if you're one of the favourites, it's because you're respected, which is nice. People see what you've done and there's an expectation, yeah. I think..."
Steve Morison - 6:27 PM: "Come down from League Two so it's gonna be an automatic tag. I think people forget the fact that we only got two players left from when I was there, so it's not the same team or group of players. It's completely different, so now we're a mixture. We're a mixture of League Two, League One..."
Steve Morison - 6:28 PM: "Yeah, I'm always like that. I'll change the team because we—there's no point in having information if we're not going to use it. So we know when players, when the team drops off from a physical point of view, we know when individuals drop off so we make changes."
Steve Morison - 6:29 PM: "If you can stick to that way, a preferred 11. Haven't got a preferred 11. You've obviously got the team that I feel is and the staff who are performing best, and at that time that's the best 11, so. And obviously going into certain games..."
Steve Morison - 6:30 PM: "I just, as it comes, it's showing you want to win. You want to win all your games. Yeah, we've got that cup competition with the Premier League teams as well, so that'll be—that'll be good. Yeah, look, we're just trying to attack every game."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:30 PM: "You've mentioned the pitch today and previously, I think you said it's the best pitch in non-league outside, non-league and outside the Premier League, I think you said. What will the impact of that be? How will that benefit us?"
Steve Morison - 6:31 PM: "People enjoy coming to play at home. Well, I enjoyed going away more than I did at home in terms of the pitch that we were playing on. And yeah, look, it just takes that excuse away of 'oh yeah, but the pitch is terrible.'"
Steve Morison - 6:31 PM: "Go out and have a look and you go, 'oh, that is nice,' and then go back in again."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:31 PM: "Yeah, I was there the other day and I went really close to the line. I didn't step over the line, but I went really, really close going, 'oh, I just want to lay on it, just lay down.' It looks absolutely amazing. And we've moved back into the borough for training with a new facility. How important is that to you and the players to be in the borough?"
Steve Morison - 6:32 PM: "It will be loads for the community, the players, it's just nice to have a home, it's nice being back at the stadium and being based there and having an office. We didn't have offices before, even though we were at Harlington, we just sat around on sofas waiting to go outside."
Steve Morison - 6:32 PM: "We are at Harlington and we know where we are, it's becoming more like clockwork all the time. David's always great, there's a fantastic gym there, got a nice place where we can warm up inside which is good."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:33 PM: "Perfect. And the community side, obviously, we have players at Arlington, then if they're doing stuff around the borough, they'd have to travel all the way back over here for whatever, an hour and 90 minutes. Will that give them more scope to go and do other things?"
Steve Morison - 6:33 PM: "Yeah, well it already has done. As I said, there's a post run up today which showed the lads going last week to one of the soccer schools at Aberdare, I think that's happening again tomorrow morning and then obviously there's the Open Day tomorrow afternoon."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:34 PM: "That's not going to affect, like, we're going to have people rocking up to watch us training? Okay, fair enough, we don't have any secrets, that's good. So with it being kind of, when you came in last season, you were kind of packed."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:34 PM: "You parachuted in and you're immediately in a stressful environment. Are you, obviously stressful anyway, but are you a bit more sort of relaxed, chilled, you feel like you've achieved a lot more that you wanted to do, things are working in the way that you wanted them to work, or is there still a lot of the professionalism to do?"
Steve Morison - 6:34 PM: "I think that when you first come into a job obviously you spend more of your time trying to work out what you kind of need to do as long as as well as trying to get results etc. Have we got a better way of working now? Yeah, we've got half the amount..."
Steve Morison - 6:35 PM: "Of goalies on top of that, which is a lovely number and it gives us the ability to bring academy players up to train because we like to work with 20 players every day, so it gives us the ability to do that. If we've got a couple of knocks it's no problem, get a couple of the young lads to come up. That's the other benefit of being local."
Steve Morison - 6:36 PM: "As I said, it just comes down in alignment to Terry and to myself. Everyone's working for the same cause and I think that's really important."
Mike Sutton Podcast - 6:36 PM: "Yeah, all on the same page as we need for success. How's kind of the, especially you living quite far away, relationship with the fans, has there been any kind of feedback, any kind of things you're looking forward to? I know there's the Open Day happening tomorrow, Thursday. Has there been any interesting feedback from fans or any interaction?"
Steve Morison - 6:36 PM: "No, I haven't seen any, to be honest. We've just been working. You see the people at the ground when you see them. Obviously the open day will be good tomorrow. It's a nice day."
Steve Morison - 6:37 PM: "Look, the whole football club's in that mindset. We're looking to build month-on-month, week-on-week, year-on-year, whatever that might be. We're just looking to get ourselves into a really good working order."
Steve Morison - 6:38 PM: "Level of performance, with everything being calm and relaxed on the outside, then I think we'll be in a good place. Ultimately, we want to be an EFL team again, don't we? I think that's the plan and we want to get there and we want to stay there."
Steve Morison - 6:39 PM: "Just get ready, just get ready to rock and roll. It's business time, all of a sudden it's just got serious. Just be excited, it's an exciting time for the football club."
Steve Morison - 6:39 PM: "Yeah, I'll bring her down if you want, she'll make some noise. She doesn't like people or dogs, so I'll just bring her down. Yeah, she's a German shepherd, that's what they're like. The neighbour's just turned up, she sees the neighbour every single day."
Steve Morison - 6:40 PM: "No problem. Thanks for having me."
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