Gavin Mahon / Gavin Mahon / 21 November 2008 / Leave a comment

The Queen's Park Rangers midfielder heralds the arrival of a big name and predicts that with his knowledge, experience and ideas the new manager is the one to take the club forward.

It's all change here this week - I did mention we've not had too many dull moments this season and now we've got a top-notch former Portuguese international as our new first-team coach.

For those of you who might not know him, Paulo Sousa was part of a brilliant midfield with Rui Costa in the days when Portugal were considered to be the flair side of Europe. He's also won the Champions League twice, with two different clubs.

He's been coaching with the Portuguese national set-up, working under Luiz Felipe Scolari for a time, so it's not like he's coming to us without any experience.

It's his first job as the lead man but I'm sure, with his knowledge and experience of sharing his ideas already, he's going to do really well here.

There's bound to be a bit of a buzz around the club for a good few weeks now. The owners and the board as a whole here are very ambitious and I'm sure our new man will be looking to match that.

It'll keep us on our toes as players, that's for certain. Everyone's got a clean slate again and has to prove himself to a new manager and his staff. We all want to be successful and, pulling together, that mind-set can be really powerful.

Paulo's only 38 and it got me thinking a little bit about my possible future involvement in the game on the coaching side. All the best coaches take the best of what they've been exposed to and deliver it with their own stamp on it.

I've worked under some excellent managers and coaches in my career. Steve Coppell was so laid back, but he got his point across so well you knew exactly what he wanted. Ray Lewington was very technical and he's still doing well for himself assisting Roy Hodgson at Fulham.

There was Graham Taylor, right at the start of my career as a YTS lad at Wolves. I would join in with the first-team's training quite a lot and Graham would always remember names, make you feel welcome and like it mattered that you were there.

More recently, Aidy Boothroyd at Watford was a great motivator. He did most of the coaching himself, because he was really into the detail of it all.
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So I've been lucky - and I'll be looking to take something from everyone I've worked under.

I saw Paul Jewell, the Derby manager, quoted this week as being unhappy with the timing of the international matches. I'm afraid I can't agree with him; it's part and parcel of football.

At the highest level, you get through loads of matches in the league, Champions League and the domestic cups so everyone is well used to the schedule. I think he lost something like four lads from training this week. But what if they all do well and come back with a spring in their step? That'll be good news for Derby come the weekend.

Ask any player about taking the chance to represent their country and it's a no-brainer for them. I'm sure it's not really disrupting his preparations for Saturday's game. Most clubs are in the same position so I don't see where he's coming from on that one.

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Every week Betting.betfair's regular Premiership previewer Richard Walker chats to Gavin about the biggest of the weekend televised matches in The Championship and recommends a couple of bets based on Gavin's insight into the match.

Plymouth Argyle v Cardiff City, Sky Sports 1, Sat Nov 22, 5.20pm

Gavin says:

What a place to go, Plymouth. It's always an overnight stay and you've really got to get into a good mental state to deal with the journey, the waiting around and the game in what isn't the most welcoming of grounds.

I've played there two or three times, mainly night games as well. So the hanging around in the day beforehand, having travelled the day before, can really drag and I dare say helps account for Plymouth's decent home form most years.

We've not played Plymouth yet but Cardiff came to Loftus Road a couple of weeks back. They were very organised, knew their jobs exactly and had players with real experience in this division.

We beat them 1-0 thanks to a header from yours truly but they were down to 10 men by then after really taking the game to us in the first half.

I don't think it'll be easy for them down at Plymouth, who've really picked up after a sluggish start. Paul Sturrock seems to have a good knack of finding players from lower down the divisions and getting them to blend almost unnoticed into his side.

I'm expecting a close game but I can see the home team taking it.

Richard suggests:

Back the hosts to prevail, Plymouth at [2.7]

Cover two correct scores which narrowly favour the Pilgrims:
1-0 at [9.4] and 2-1 at [11.5]

Back the [6.2] about Draw/Plymouth in the Half-Time/Full-Time market, with the game likely to be a tight affair.