Rob Elliot speaks in his first interview after leaving Gateshead for fellow National League side Carlisle United.
Interviewer: Rob, first of all, welcome to Carile United. How are you feeling?
Rob: Yeah, no, pleased. Really excited to be here and everyone’s giving me such a warm welcome, so it’s nice to get in, you know, see the surroundings and yeah, start getting prepared.
Interviewer: You mentioned the surroundings. You come in at around half 9 this morning. You’ve had a lovely walk around, meeting a lot of different people. Just talk us through your your day so far.
Rob: No, it’s been good. Obviously, you met yourself and the media team and yeah, had a look around. Just I just said we was just talking earlier, wasn’t we about you know what how much work goes in to make the club run and the amount of people here from the commercial the upstairs the community and it’s great to see everyone working and obviously nice to see the kids on the pitch enjoying themselves which is what it’s about and now it’s been a really nice first impression for me.
Interviewer: What were your initial thoughts and feelings when you heard about this opportunity?
Rob: Yeah just one of excitement really obviously um wasn’t expecting something so quick with the Gateshead chapter closing but you know when you have an opportunity like you can’t turn it down is something that, you know, the club’s doing everything it can. Putting everything in place to be successful, not just for the short term, for the long term, and just such an exciting opportunity to be a part of it. And, you know, I think I think and I hope that um my personality in the club and everything really really do match up well and I’m genuinely looking forward to it and looking forward to getting going.
Interviewer: Is there anything specifically that stood out about Carlisle when you saw this opportunity come up and you were like? “Yeah, that really excites me.”
Rob: Yeah. Well, I think when when when I come here, when I come here with Gateshead and you know, the fans and the fan base and the size of the club, you know, it really does make you think that it’s an exciting place to be and um and then obviously the players as well. You know, as a coach, you want to work with good players and there’s definitely some really good players here. I think they’ve shown, you know, how good they can be and the strengths they’ve got and that they can improve as well, which is great. So, when you put all that together, you know, the the size of the club, the community, the fan base, and then hopefully the talent we’ll be able to put on the pitch, it just seems like the club’s going in the right direction. I just want to be able to come in and just try and help help steer us and and lead us on the pitch a bit more to be able to get, you know, where we want to be and and hopefully even further, but try not to think too far ahead and just come in and get us get that identity, get that connection and yeah, get the lads playing hopefully what is enjoyable football to watch.
Interviewer: Of course, on that identity, you’re still very early in your managerial career. Has there been anyone specifically that, you know, really influenced the way you play, the way you set up?
Rob: I think it’s just a multitude of learning. You know, I was very fortunate. I had some brilliant brilliant coaches. I had some not so good coaches, and I think you just have to learn from all of it and you just have to say right, you know, I want I think the biggest learning for me is that we want to win first and foremost. We want to win games of football, but we want to do it in a way that’s aggressive. You know, we want to play attacking football. We always want the focus to be on how can we score, how can we win games and and that’s with and without the ball and and I think you just learn over time. You know, you learn from your bad experiences, right? Well, you know, I think I learned from obviously when you know you lose your job at Crawley. It was tough. You know, it was it was tough. It was tough for multitude of reasons, but the only thing I could do is look at what I could do better and how I could learn and then you take that into moving forward. And I think the big thing for me is that you know I want the club and I want the players especially to have high standards and set them all the time. So when we walk on the pitch hopefully when you watch you know exactly what you’re going to get from a Carlisle team and and I think that’s a team that the fans will be able to get behind and we can hopefully enjoy the journey.
Interviewer: As a former goalkeeper is there any kind of differences that have kind of shaped the way you view things from the sidelines in comparison to you know outfield players going into coaching maybe?
Rob: I think as a goalkeeper, whether you’re I spent a lot of time on the sidelines as well as playing, so you’re always watching the game from one perspective or the other, you’re never involved in it. And I think that’s why I’m massively big on impacting the game. You know, being front footed on the press, being aggressive when you’re getting after the ball without the ball, because as a goalkeeper, all you can do is wait for the ball to come to you. Whereas, I really like my teams and I really want us to be front footed. you know, we set up presses, we go aggressively, we go man for man, whatever it looks like. Because ultimately, when things don’t go your way, you want to be able to look back and go, well, we give everything. We was aggressive. We went after the game. We tried to win. And, you know, on the day, maybe someone was better than you. Maybe it just wasn’t your maybe it just didn’t go the way you wanted. However, you know, you did the right things. You can look yourself in the mirror and you can say, “Right, we can get better from that. We can improve next week.” And I think that’s the big thing of having a lot of career as a goalkeeper. you’re on the back foot waiting for the ball to come to you. Whereas as a coach, you want to be aggressive and front footed, obviously you have to be a bit more tactical around it if there’s teams you have to respect or whatnot, but we want to be more front foot and aggressive in terms of how we set our stall out so that when the fans turn up, they know what to expect from from from our team.
Interviewer: Of course, when you look at, you mentioned the disappointment at Crawley before, but on the flip side, the previous experience you’ve just had in your second stint at Gateshead, I think it was 11 points of drift when you arrived, managed to drag them out of that. What was kind of the overriding feelings when you had confirmed survival, I think it was down at Aldershot if I’m correct.
Rob: Yeah, it was it was brilliant. I think it was a brilliant feeling. It was an amazing achievement. The players I think ultimately they’re the ones that step on the pitch. So yes, you can guide them, you can coach them, you give them structure, but it’s up to them to buy into it. It’s up to them to make that their identity and be proud to do that, which is what I’ll expect from the players here, but yeah, no, it’s a fantastic achievement. I think it goes to show that, you know, when you really believe in something, you drive towards a cause and you’re together and everyone works together that you can you can achieve you can achieve anything. I think that’s the challenge here. You know, we know that we want to get promoted. We know we want to get out of the National League, but we need everyone to do that in every capacity on the pitch, off the pitch, and I think everyone here has to be bought into that one goal. Now, I talk about buy in a lot, and buy in’s huge. You have to you have to buy into the culture. You have to buy into the identity. You have to buy into the club, to the fans, to the community. And I think when you do that, we are going to have tough times. Of course you are. Um but when you do that, that’s what gets you through and that’s what turns the corner, and I think where the club’s been, you know, what Mark did to steady the ship and keep the club uh to turn the fortunes around and and give some positivity, which he did a brilliant job, you know, I want to mention that because, you know, obviously what a brilliant player, manager, and person from the brief meetings I had with him. You know, I think it’s my responsibility to push that forward now and I’ve had the opportunity and I’m grateful for it. But I don’t want to just be grateful and happy to be here. We’re here with purpose. We want to win. We want to be successful, and I believe with the players that are here, hopefully with the players we bring in, we can definitely do that.
Interviewer: Mentioned this morning, didn’t you? Away from all the cameras that you really wanted to kind of stress that element of, you know, obviously, understandably, you’re a really nice guy, but when it comes down to it, it’s business.
Rob: Yeah, I think that’s my learning. Honest about I’m not going to I try and be as honest as I possibly can. You know, it hurts getting sacked. It does, you believe in yourself, you believe what you’re doing and when things don’t go your way and you lose your job and you know ultimately it’s a failure. You can dress it up however you want. You can talk about statistics you can say about this this that ultimately it’s my responsibility and mine alone. So you know you have two options and my option was to understand that you know it hurts and I want to win and I want to be um I want to win. I want to be a part of a winning culture but the culture has to be right. You know it’s not win at all costs. It’s win the right way. Win with the right people. Win for the club. You don’t look to win Saturday, you win to look every Saturday. And how does that look? And I think that was the biggest change and probably why I believe we were successful at Gates said last season was because ultimately how do we win? How do we get the club out of this position? How do we get to a point where we are safe despite it being near-on impossible? And you know, belief, desire, but ultimately doing everything you can to to win football matches. And and I think that was the secret to it. you know, it was it was it’s simple, but it’s hard to do. And luckily, we did that last year, and that’s definitely something we obviously want to do here because, you know, the the goal is promotion. You know, I think that’s no there’s no batting around it. The goal is to get promoted here. Obviously, like I said, it’s not going to be smooth sailing. Hopefully, win every single game and you never lose, but the point is that we want to win every game. We want to plan to win every game. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. And we have to have that belief no matter who we’re playing, where we’re playing, and I want the culture, for the players to understand that we do it, but we’re doing it for the club, for the people, for the fans that turn up and for ourselves. And it’s not just about winning this season, it’s about taking the club forward for the next however long.
Interviewer: In early April, you brought your Gateshead here. What was kind of your recollection of that day on a match day on the other side of it?
Rob: It was brilliant. Genuinely I think when I got the phone call about coming here it’s why the decision was so quick because that experience was a brilliant experience you know um such a fantastic club the fan base even just when you’re coming into the ground the fanzone the atmosphere the connection and yeah and then you know the pitch itself is fantastic pitch the stadium’s fantastic and it’s an exciting place to be you know there’s a good group of players here that I believe you can get really you can get a lot out of they can play some really good exciting football. Uh I think there’s an honest group as well which I really like. I think I like the personality and the makeup from what I’ve seen and yeah, the chance to, you know, the chance to go somewhere and build something and be a part of something, you know, go with not just yes, we want to get promoted, want to be successful in the short term, but also how can we be successful in the long term and build something and build something together and become a part and become a part of the history and hopefully do something that that’s lasting.
Interviewer: Of course, you’re going to get a full preseason to embed your methods into the lads when they return from preseason at the end of June. How excited are you to to meet them all and and get going, I suppose?
Rob: Yeah, you know, that’s the enjoyable bit, the people behind it. So, look, the football is one thing. You know, we’ll have time, we’ll implement it, you know, the players um you know, we’ll be open and honest with them about what we expect, the standards we expect, and then also the structure. So, they’ll know exactly where they should be and what they should be doing. However, you know, you want to enjoy, you want to get to know them, you want to enjoy the time with them because ultimately they’re the ones that go out, put the bodies on the line, do the smiles, do the work. You know, they’re the ones that the fans turn up to see ultimately, the exciting players, the leaders, the, you know, the technicians, whatever it is your skill set is, they come to bring them. And and I think that’s one of the things that I’d say is probably the thing I enjoy the most is being with the players, understanding them, and trying to get the most out of the group, regardless of age or profile, anything, you know, everyone can learn, everyone get better, and everyone can ultimately come to work and enjoy it. Because I think if you get in your car every day and you drive to work and you’re looking forward to it, well, I think that’s half the battle. And, you know, that comes with purpose, that comes with intent, that comes with working hard, that comes with having a having a reason to get in the car, having a reason to turn up and train and give your all and put your body on the line, you know? And I think if you if you’re fortunate enough to be driving here and getting out and playing for this club, then I think that that should give you every reason to want to be to to want to be here and want to be successful, not just short term, but long term as well.
Interviewer: What are the non-negotiables for you as a head coach in terms of standards and mentality around the place?
Rob: Yeah, I think you never get outworked you know for I think probably I’d imagine you get a lot of praise at times with the in possession stuff whether it been at previous clubs but the big thing for me and the thing I look for is how hard do the players work you know do we outrun the opposition are we high speed running training properly training standards every day you know there’s no excuse not to train properly is the best job in the world and there’s no secret the best players I’ve ever played with are the best trainers you know it’s a process to that and then the other thing as well is you’re good people you’re a good person before you’re a good footballer and you buy into what this club and what the culture is about and if you do that then you know football is football know some you can only pick 11 subs etc but I genuinely believe if you do that then you you’ll be successful in whatever uh in whatever capacity as a player you know you will you’ll you you’ll help the environment you’ll help the culture you’ll help the club to be successful Um, and to be honest with you, most of the things that non-negotiables have, don’t have too many things to do with football. You know, work hard, make sure you give your all, be a good person, respect the club, respect the culture, and then you’ve got some really good footballers on top of that who can once you’ve got that that once you got that base and you bring the bring the football side into it, then that’s where they flourish and that’s where they get to do what, you know, their talents they’ve been given. That’s where they get to express themselves and, you know, that’s where they can excite the fans because the fans know they’re giving everything. They’re working hard. They’re buying into what the club is trying to help the club to get better and then you get to go and watch them do what they they do best.
Interviewer: And of course, as you mentioned quite early on in this interview, the overall goal next season is to obviously get promoted. How excited are you for that challenge and just, you know, wanting to get involved with it now really?
Rob: Yeah, it’s a really good challenge, but it’s something to focus on. It’s not about we have to get promoted and it doesn’t matter how I think because I wouldn’t be here if that was the case, you know, being honest. It’s about we want to get promoted and we want to get better and we want to improve, but we want to get promoted. So, it’s about how can we be adaptable? How can we go into games to make sure we’re giving ourselves the best chance to win? And also can we get hungry players who want to be here, want to want to push the club, want to drive the club forward, want to get promoted with this club and then do well again the year after and do well again the year after and have their best period at this football club because it’s a club that you know can sustain that and can give the opportunity to players to come for the yes for the short term but also for the longer term. I don’t think it needs to be spoke about loads because it’s you don’t you don’t come to Carlisle and not expect promotion in any league to be honest with you with the way the club’s set up. So that is absolutely the number one goal, but for me the priority is is making sure that we have everything in place to to do that. And being able to come in, have a look at the squad, get to know the players, have that pre-season, I think it just gives us a real nice start to be able to do that. And yeah, hopefully get us off to a good start and and get us off on the right foot.
Interviewer: With over 3,000 season tickets already, so what would be your message to Carl’s supporters heading next season?
Rob: Yeah, firstly, just thank you for all the the messages and the support. It’s been lovely and and meeting everyone, but I think I just want to make sure that yes, I think we’re here to get promoted and you know want to see the team um hopefully play some exciting football and you know get that identity and the all the nice football talk but really I want to make sure that whatever team we put out where players play they’re going to give absolutely everything for the club and we will put out a team that the club are proud to proud to watch and they there’s a connection. I think that’s the biggest thing I want. I want that connection with the club and the fans because it’s such a brilliant place. You know, everyone from from today yourselves and everyone I’ve met just shows how proud they are of the club, how proud they are to represent and work for the club. And you know, that definitely that’s definitely how I feel now. I’m proud. I’m so pleased to be here. And I just want to make sure that us, everyone represents the club in the right way. And I think that’s by going out there and showing how much the players care, how aggressive we want to be, how much we want to how much we want to win for the club and take the club forward because it’s, you know, 3,000 people signed up already for season. It’s incredible. Um, the club’s had a tough couple of years and obviously it’s been turning around from last year and we want to make sure we push the club forward and hopefully we can do it together and have a and have a brilliant time and yeah, in the future we’ll look back and hopefully this will be a proud time for the club.