HIS nickname is Elvis but Coventry manager Steven Pressley isn't the kind of man you'd ever find all shook up.
Just ask Walter Smith, who remembers the teenage defender beating his door down demanding a game for Rangers.
Or Vladimir Romanov, the tyrannical Hearts owner whose shoddy treatment of staff and players saw Pressley call a press conference to publicly denounce the Lithuanian.
And don't forget Christophe Berra, a rookie at Hearts who was moulded into a Premiership star by the relentless nagging of his skipper.
“He was an experienced, vocal player,” says Berra, now playing at Ipswich, “and if you were alongside him he'd always keep you on your toes and make sure you did things right. He taught me so much about leadership and consistency.”
As Gordon Strachan, who managed Pressley at Celtic and subsequently became a good friend, once remarked, the hirsute centre-half was a coach in all but name during his playing days.
“I think the football world in general has got quieter, so it was great to hear a voice like his on the training ground,” said the current Scotland manager.
“If you are an intelligent player, you will listen to him. If you're unintelligent, you won't. Players can get better by paying attention to what he has to say.” In the beginning, though, it was Pressley doing the listening. A talented youngster at Rangers, he was unhelpfully branded “the new Richard Gough” after the legendary Ibrox skipper of the late 80s and 90s.
Yet while Pressley lapped up the advice of Gough, he could never dislodge him and eventually left Rangers – after just 34 games – to join Coventry in 1994. It was an unhappy spell that lasted only one season.
“Looking back, I do regret not working with Walter Smith for longer,” said Pressley. “He has lots of warmth and humanity. He is very close to his players and likes to have an understanding of them and what makes them tick.
Cry
“I'm a huge admirer and I wish I'd worked with him at a stage of my career when I was more appreciative of managers and the decisions they have to make because he is a great man and a great manager.”
Pressley did, however, stay in contact with Smith and indeed with Gough, who had offered a shoulder to cry on during the dark days at Coventry.
“I watched him a few times on TV and he was struggling a bit,” said Gough. “They were losing a few goals. So I phoned and told him to stop trying to take the weight of the world on his shoulders. He always wanted to take control of everything, to do everyone's job as well as his own. It was in his nature to take responsibility.”
And so it was when, after three successful years at Dundee, he joined Hearts and became both skipper and leader of a team that in 2006 broke the Rangers/Celtic duopoly to finish second in the SPL, ahead of Rangers.
His exit – after the attack on Romanov – was inevitable, but in eight years he had more than cemented legendary status at Tynecastle. “People talk about captains and he is one of the guys I learnt from as far as being a proper leader,” said friend and fellow Hearts stalwart Paul Hartley. “Steven is someone you can rely on, he's someone you can trust and I have a lot of respect and time for him.”
Two years at Celtic under Strachan were followed – inevitably – by a move into management with Falkirk.
“I knew that was the route for him as he always spoke about it and wanted it,” said Hartley.
Relegated in his first year, Pressley led the Bairns to consecutive third place finishes in the Scotish second tier before leaving last March for League One crisis club Coventry.
And despite a ten-point deduction, a move to Northampton and a transfer embargo, he has got off to a flying start with the Sky Blues, who are League One's second-top scorers.
The ingredients? Part natural leadership, part Walter Smith and a large dose of Gordon Strachan.
“With Walter, I always respected his honesty,” says Pressley. “And with Gordon, it was the attention to detail. He was always very specific with details in terms of solving problems and pin- pointing areas in the opposition to exploit.
“And he was fair with his players. If you give him commitment as a player then he can accept failings in your own game and even your own make-up. If you give him your full application he's fully satisfied.”
STEVEN PRESSLEY FACTFILE
Born: Elgin, 1973 (Age 39)
Playing career: Spotted by Rangers as a teenager, Pressley came through the youth system at Ibrox and made 34 appearances in four years before joining Coventry for £630,000 in 1994. However, the young centre-half struggled in the Premier League and left to join Dundee United after 19 games, winning promotion to the SPL and securing a third place finish in the top flight. That was followed by a move to SPL Hearts in 1998. Pressley quickly became club captain at Tynecastle and helped the club to three consecutive third-place finishes, second in 2005-06 and a Scottish Cup victory the same year. Signed by Celtic on a free transfer in December 2006, he was part of the side that won the Scottish Cup in 2007 but dwindling playing time saw him quit the club after two years. After a brief stint at Danish outfit Randers, he saw out his carer at Falkirk, retiring in 2009. Pressley also won 32 caps for Scotland.
Managerial career: Pressley's first experience of management came in 2005 when he stood in as caretaker of Hearts following the departure of John Robertson. In 2008, he joined former Hearts boss George Burley as assistant with the Scottish national side, leaving a year later after failure to qualify for the World Cup. Having completed his UEFA Pro Licence and retired from playing, Pressley was named assistant at Falkirk, stepping up to become manager in 2010. Relegation from the SPL in his first half-year was followed by two consecutive third place finishes in the second tier before he left to join Coventry in March 2013.
