It makes English football unique - why the Football League is important too

[BBC]

I've written a lot in this column about my experiences as a Premier League manager, but I also have many unbelievable memories of my life in the lower leagues, having been promoted out of each division.

Sometimes the rest of English football - anything outside the top flight - feels overlooked, but it shouldn't be.

England is unique in world football for the strength in depth of our professional leagues. No other country can compare with the number of professional clubs we have, or the standard of football as you go down the divisions.

Of course the Premier League is the centre of attention. It's world renowned and has undoubtedly captured the market of football fans not only in this country, but all over the globe.

Its revenue stream attracts the top players internationally and finances the signing of the best foreign imports into our top league, more than any other country, so I understand why it gets most of the focus from abroad.

At home, however, it should be different. I wonder how many of our foreign viewers would recognise that the supporter base of the 72 clubs in the English Football League [EFL] is larger than the 20 teams in the Premier League - it's certainly not reflected in the coverage they get.

Why do the lower leagues attract so many die-hard fans?

This week, Lincoln City became the first club in the English Football League to be promoted this season, and they are back in the second tier of English football for the first time in 65 years.

It's a fantastic achievement but, over the past 10 months, their success has mainly only been followed by their own supporter base.

They have been rewarded for all the money they've spent on tickets, home and away, plus travel - including journeys to grounds as far away as Plymouth and Exeter.

I have always admired that kind of dedication. Why is it that support for clubs in the lower leagues, and non-league too, attracts so many die-hard fans?

Take the Championship for example, where crowds are so big that in the 2023-24 season it was the second-most attended league position in Europe, ahead of Spain's La Liga, the German Bundesliga and Italy's Serie A. Only the Premier League was higher, and all three EFL divisions featured in the top 15.

I believe its all down to strong local identities in the towns and cities with league clubs, which are almost tribal in their own way, and also affordable ticket prices, compared to the Premier League.

Parents also play a part - just ask any young lads and lasses at games about that, and mum or dad's influence in picking their teams even before they could walk or talk!

These die-hard supporters arrange their whole year's calendar around the schedule of their beloved clubs, even going to watch them in pre-season in different countries.

From playing and managing in the lower leagues myself, I've got massive respect for those fans and their commitment - and also the players, coaches and staff who work at that level too.

I joined Bristol Rovers as an apprentice in the early 1970s, and memories of that time still linger. Apprentice life was hard and you had to show complete respect to senior players, but I loved every minute and it gave me an early exposure to real life.

Training at such a young age with senior professionals was just an unbelievable experience and playing alongside them was even more rewarding.

You were not given any grace because of your age and you soon learned that it was sink or swim - these lads had families to feed and a profession to try to stay in, and you were never going to hinder that in any way.

I have huge admiration towards the many mentors I had at that club, who I believe helped steer me on to the many years I enjoyed as a player, coach and eventually manager.

I loved life at the bottom of the ladder

England players' EFL appearances. League games only (including play-offs). .

The opportunities I had to make my way in the game are still there today. You only have to look at the England team that reached the final of Euro 2024 to see how important the EFL was in their journey.

Of the 26-man squad Gareth Southgate selected to go to Germany, 19 players [shown in the graphic above] had played in the EFL, with more than 25 EFL clubs represented in the squad.

It shows all young players now that there is life outside the Premier League and also how opportunities outside of academies can come your way. If you are determined enough and resilient in your own belief, then you can follow in their footsteps.

As I have talked about in previous columns, the same opportunities exist for young coaches and managers in the EFL. I believe they need lower-league experience to prove their worth and have a chance of getting jobs in the Premier League, rather than just from being involved in academy football.

That is certainly the way it worked for me, when I stepped into coaching with Bournemouth, who were then in League One. It was 1990, and I was 32.

It was always something I wanted to do - I'd passed all my coaching qualifications by the time I was 21 - but when Harry Redknapp offered me a player-coach role, it consisted of less money and more hours, mostly spent travelling up and down the country three nights a week, watching games.

I soon realised the real work had begun, and not just in coaching the team which I really enjoyed. It was there that I understood everything from scouting and the importance of knowing about players, to man-management and consoling players who were left out of the team.

My Football League education also included driving a battered old mini-bus myself, to take the reserves from Bournemouth to Swansea, playing the game too, and then buying everyone fish and chips afterwards and trying to eat them on my lap on the journey back.

It was worlds apart from when I was working in the Premier League a couple of decades later, but I still loved it, and embraced it fully.

The same applied when I was offered the manager's job at Bournemouth when Harry left for West Ham in 1992. Working with my chairman Norman Hayward, who had only just bought the club, we were both quite naive in terms of experience in our respective positions.

I have unbelievable respect for Norman and although I only lasted two years in my first job, he taught me so much about all aspects of running an organisation, in terms of its direction but also financially. Again, these experiences of life at the bottom of the ladder stayed with me throughout my career.

Success comes from the lessons you learn

Pulis (front right) leads his Gillingham side out at Wembley for the 1999 Second Division (now League One) play-off final. They lost to Manchester City on penalties [Getty Images]

There's one other aspect of the Football League, and football in general, that I discovered when I was sacked by Bournemouth.

There's a camaraderie that exists with people you encounter, whether they are working above you at your club like Norman was or further afield, and an effect they can have if they give you any kind of opportunity.

During the 12 months I was out of management, I got a phone call from Bruce Rioch, who at the time was at Bolton with Colin Todd. He asked me to watch games for them every weekend and midweek and I spent months travelling around the country.

To this day, I don't think Bruce realises the impact he had on my career. At the end of that season, Gillingham offered me the manager's job. They had just finished the season in 89th place out of the 92 clubs in the Premier League and Football League, avoiding relegation by seven points, but I had played a season there before taking that coaching job with Bournemouth, so I knew the club quite well.

Tony Smith and his lovely wife Val had owned the club then, and I knew it was financially sound. They were great people too, by the way. Tony passed away in 2023 but Val still comes to visit us on the south coast and we remain great friends.

I still needed to find a way of bringing the Gills success, though. I knew they were about to release a load of players but, from the scouting I'd done for Bolton, I knew exactly where I would find replacements. Taking two players from non-league and the rest mostly on free transfers, my four-year journey was about to begin.

That first season ended up with us being promoted, conceding only 20 goals - including just six at home - and with Jim Stannard, our goalkeeper, keeping 29 clean sheets to set a record that still stands today.

It was the start of us building three different teams at Priestfield, with the last group suffering a heartbreaking defeat on penalties against Manchester City in the 1999 Second Division (now League One) play-off final at Wembley, then finally reaching what is now the Championship a year later under Peter Taylor and doing a great job to stay there for five years.

I am probably best known for my time at Stoke, Crystal Palace and West Brom but those years at Gillingham were the catalyst for my future career. It was an unbelievably difficult but an extremely rewarding job and, to this day, my players from those times still hold a very special place with me.

The success I had at Gillingham was gained because of what I learned at Bournemouth as a coach and manager, and then that chance encounter with Bruce Rioch.

I'm not alone there, however. In my day, Dave Bassett, Graham Taylor, Jim Smith, Ron Atkinson, Harry Redknapp and many more would talk about how the EFL played such an enormous part in their great careers, and in the modern game I am sure David Moyes feels indebted to his experience at Preston too.

Like me, they will understand how Lincoln fans are feeling now, and will know how their team's achievement has given them as much joy as any similar feat in top flight football - or even more, I would say!

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