Players on the beach? Why lack of motivation is difficult to deal with

[BBC]

This is the stage of the season where players are sometimes accused of being 'on the beach' after a poor performance, which is something no manager wants to hear said about his side.

But, being completely honest, a lack of motivation can be difficult to deal with if you are in charge of a team that find themselves in the middle of the table with, in their minds, nothing to play for.

Clubs generally pay players bonus money for staying up, yet I have been at places where reaching 40 points has guaranteed us safety and, having received the extra payments, results have dropped off afterwards.

It's never like that for a manager, though. The Premier League has always had positional prize money with a difference of several million between, say, eighth and 12th.

So the club itself is always motivated to finish as high as possible, even if you know that is going to be in mid-table. It could add a couple of million to your transfer budget for the following season but, even if you don't get to spend it yourself, you know it will pay a bill somewhere.

The players don't think like that though, and as a manager it is really tough to maintain that relentless focus you have demanded from the group for the previous nine months - but now without the cutting edge you only get from having a target to reach.

Giving them a financial incentive is probably the only way to solve the issue. Premier League players are paid enormous basic wages, but at times like this you'd prefer to cut that figure and replace it with winning, appearance and league-position bonuses that run right up to the last game of every season.

Getting your priorities right

Another bone of contention at the moment, especially for fans of teams who are desperate for other results to go their way, is seeing managers prioritise certain games over others.

By making seven changes for his side's Premier League game against Tottenham, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was accused of focusing on his side's Europa League tie with Nottingham Forest, rather than selecting his strongest side against Spurs.

Whatever Emery was thinking, this kind of thing has always happened. Look at Manchester United and Tottenham last season, for example, when they were both focused on trying to win the Europa League and had nothing to play for domestically.

I definitely prioritised some games myself, for different reasons, with Stoke in our early Premier League years when I put our top-flight status ahead of cup games.

It certainly wasn't popular with a certain section of our crowd, but as the seasons went by in our journey to establish ourselves, the more confident I became in all-out risk taking when it came to my team selections.

One example was when we played Valencia in the Europa League knockout stages and I got heavily criticised for the team I selected in the away leg, having made a lot of changes from the home leg which we'd lost 1-0.

We lost 1-0 in Spain too and I hold my hands up to making a massive mistake there - I should have picked that team for the home game, because they certainly played a lot better!

In the past, Blackpool and Wolves were both fined by the Premier League for making multiple changes to their teams when Ian Holloway and Mick McCarthy were in charge, bringing in several squad players for games that affected other teams.

That rule has changed now though - since 2010 you have been able to pick any player in your nominated 25-man squad without reprisals.

So, Villa and Emery won't get any comeback from the Premier League this time - I am not sure that the same will apply to all the unhappy West Ham fans though!

Planning for next season already

Goals in each half from Raul and Roberto Soldado left Stoke a mountain to climb when they faced Real Madrid in a pre-season friendly in Austria in 2007 [Getty Images]

This time of year is never quiet for a manager. Even if your team has nothing to play for right now, you already have to think about what happens next.

During the latter stages of every campaign, I would plan my next pre-season. That usually involved Austria, a fantastic country for the altitude work I wanted, and then two weeks on the east coast of the United States, where we would play two games in unbelievable humidity.

Of course, as you reach the end of a season you can reflect on your own performance as a manager, as well as the team's.

But, for me, that took just a weekend. I always thought the work you do over the summer months determines how the next season will go and, as we still see now, recruitment is almost everything.

I would not wait until the end of the season to start putting those plans in place and, right now, I would be working my socks off to ensure I got the best signings my club could afford.

Most of those deals would be agreed before the end of the season, whether outgoing or incoming, but they could still fall down so easily with all your competitors chasing the same players.

It's a process that never really stops, either. Come the end of pre-season, another list of players would enter the market, those whose demands were far in front of what they were worth, but had hung on for that golden egg!

Soon, with most clubs having done their transfer business, you knew those demands would decrease and become more reasonable.

I know of a manager who would allow his coaching staff to run pre-season and would not get back to work until a week before the season started. He called the transfer market up to that point the 'phoney war' - but for me it began in about April.

Delivering bad news was always difficult

At the end of every campaign, you know you also have the job of releasing players - young and old. Delivering the bad news was always difficult, but it was a situation I approached head on.

Please remember I worked lower down the leagues for many years and not always in the Premier League. Those lads have never been on the enormous wages I mentioned earlier and they can and do suffer from financial hardship, just as much as anyone else who is out of work.

For the young lads you are letting go, you know their aspirations take an enormous hit, while with the senior players who have families to provide for, you know they could end up on benefit payments if nothing comes up.

Whenever I released young players, I always wanted to do it face to face. It would take me back to my first days as an apprentice at Bristol Rovers, and the time when I got my first professional contract.

Don Megson was Rovers manager at the time and the club had just been promoted to what is now the Championship.

I've talked about how much I loved my life as an apprentice in previous columns and how different it was to what young players face now.

One thing that hasn't changed is how some teams have nothing to play for at this stage of the season. If, with a few games left, you could not get promoted or relegated then clubs would use the opportunity to play some younger players.

Rovers were brilliant at bringing youngsters through and used these games to blood many of their promising young talent - which at one time included me.

From a Sunday League semi-final to Molineux

When I'd just turned 18, although I was about to join the professional ranks, I'd still always go back to Wales and spend time with the lads I grew up with.

At this time, I had just started dating Deb, who is now my wife, so my nights out at the weekends were changing anyway.

My mum and dad were much happier if I was spending time with Deb, because it would be better for my career. I still managed to get out with the lads from time to time, though. This was one of those occasions.

One particular Easter, Rovers had played a home game on the Saturday and I wasn't involved. I travelled back to Wales and took Deb out for dinner but, on the way out, I met up with the gang from Pill, the area I was born in, in Newport.

After a few drinks they convinced me to play with them the next morning, in a semi-final of a Sunday League cup competition. I was told I was not breaking any rules because I wasn't a fully fledged professional. I was always desperate to play whenever I could anyway and as far as I knew that was the only game I'd play that weekend. I was wrong!

The next day, at the crack of dawn on a very wet Sunday morning, Deb drove me up the valleys to where the game was taking place, and we won on a pitch that I will always remember being full of puddles and on the side of a hill.

I went home because I had to catch a train back to Bristol. The distance from Temple Meads to Eastville Stadium was a good distance and on that particular day, myself and the other Welsh lads ran back because the first team were travelling to Wolves for an evening kick-off on the Easter Monday.

Our usual jobs were to clean boots and help pack the kit, but when I got there I was pulled in by the manager and told to get back to my digs to get a suit, because I was travelling with the team to Molineux.

It wasn't unusual for a young lad to travel with the senior squad, to help with the kit and gain some experience, but when we arrived at our hotel I was told I would be starting the game, alongside vastly experienced defender Stuart Taylor in the back four.

Molineux was packed that night and the atmosphere was incredible. It took an unbelievable strike from Steve Daley to beat us 1-0.

My preparation for the game was pretty unique with that game on the sloping pitch up in the valleys the previous morning, but I still did OK.

It taught me an important lesson about how unpredictable a life in football can be - and how unpredictable life is in general.

Tony Pulis was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.