To many people’s surprise, Stoke have a good chance of staying up. Do you think you deserve to be manager of the year?

It’s got to be Sir Alex Ferguson if he wins all the trophies I think he will. I know he’s got the best players, but to win the title consistently and so many trophies is just amazing.

Where would staying up rank in your achievements as a manager?

Let’s stay up first. Then come back and ask me again.

People have criticised Stoke’s style as the least attractive since Wimbledon were knocking people over in the late 1980s.

I don’t care what people say. How people try to stereotype you does not bother me.

You’re playing West Bromwich Albion today and they won promotion with you last season. You’ve got to fancy your chances . . .

I’ve got a lot of respect for West Brom. I watched the DVD of their last game against Bolton Wanderers and, while everyone has their preconception of how teams managed by Tony Mowbray and Gary Megson play, I thought West Brom were playing much more from back to front than they used to, trying to get Marc-Antoine Fortuné and Jay Simpson in behind.

This is your first season as a Premier League manager. Which manager has been most different from his public persona?

All the Premier League managers have been very good. They’ve all come in afterwards and had a drink — apart from one.

Who was that?

He didn’t like losing, put it that way.

What was the last book you read?

I’ve just read 150 BC by Dave Armitage, which is a collection of short anecdotes about Brian Clough by those who knew him best. It’s very good: being brought up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, all the memories come flooding back. He was a great manager.