Tony Pulis column: So much for the three-year plan – what is the secret to managerial longevity?

My first chance as a manager came with Bournemouth in the summer of 1992. At first I was not thinking much beyond my first game – a draw on Preston’s plastic pitch by the way – and neither, it seems, was my chairman, Norman Hayward.

I’d been given a club car, which was about 20 years old and, a few months into my first season, we went up to watch Grimsby play one night.

We drove there in his Mercedes and on the way back he dropped me off where I’d parked up. The windscreen was iced up so I turned on my engine and Norman got out his credit card to try to scrape the ice off.

While he was doing that, I heard him shouting: “Oh no, I can’t believe it!” I thought he had snapped his credit card but he’d actually seen my tax disc. “They’ve given you 12 months. I told them six months!”

I laughed and said: “Thanks Norman, that gives me loads of confidence!”

Still, I was fortunate to get the chance at Bournemouth, and also lucky in that I received some good advice on how I might stick around.

I always remember the late Alec Stock – another member of the 1,000 club, who had long spells in charge of Leyton Orient, QPR and Fulham as well as with Yeovil, Roma, Luton and Bournemouth – ringing me up one night and explaining why I should work on a three-year plan.

The first season, he said, was to assess the players, staff, and get to grips with all the other aspects of how the club is run.

The second season was to reset it, to get it working on and off the pitch and win all the battles to get things my own way for the third season which, according to Alec, was the season that everyone – supporters, directors and yourself – should see progress.

He also told me any manager would only ever be judged a success by producing a winning team.

During my time at Bournemouth, I learned how true that was – never mind how hard you worked or how much you did to protect your club financially, management was all about winning.