Michael Skubala press conference | Bristol City vs Millwall

Catch every word from Michael Skubala's first Press Conference as Bristol City Manager.

Ahead of City's 2026/27 league opener, Skubala discussed his excitement for the season starting, his new signings blending in, and much more. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Well Michael at the start you had a a new edition earlier this week with uh with Rio Cardines. Uh tell us a bit about him. What what attracted you to him as a Erlone?

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Yeah, um a great young player, um someone that Crystal Palace think very highly of. Um we've been in talks with Crystal Palace for quite a few weeks now. Um and he was you know we were just waiting for the time when he'd finished with his, if you like, with the first team and come back. And um it's been in the pipeline for quite a while. Um really powerful young man. Um fullback that can play left, right, can play off the wing left and right as well. So it's a great addition to what we need. Um obviously we've got you know two good fullbacks in the building, but I think we needed a cover there. Uh we've also got players that can play there from different positions as well. Uh Senna Hass, if you like, that can play out there. So um, but I think it's a really energetic and exciting move for his first loan, um, and he's ready to get well, he's he's he's already getting going and he looks good.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

And uh we're all sort of just looking at um at video clips of of things he's done in for for Palace and for international bits and pieces. It looks like he's definitely going to give you a dimension going forward. That's a real strength of his.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

Yeah, I think one of the biggest strengths is his power and uh and and his you know explosiveness going forward, and whether he's played for Crystal Palace on the left side or Trinidad Adams Bago on the right side, like you say, he's been international experience as well. So um, yeah, he's a he's a forward aggressive, forward-minded fullback, um, but also defends very well as well. So he's young, he needs to learn the league, he needs to still grow into to senior football, but um he's a great young man that's that's willing to learn as well. After working with him for a couple of days, he's he's ready to go and chomp in at the bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

And and available for the weekends, and available for the weekend, which is great. Always good. Um the window's still open for a little bit long. You've you've done quite a lot of business. Where do you think you are with that at the moment?

SPEAKER_04 1:47

Yeah, well, we're in a really good spot. Um, I think we spoke about it over the the course of the the few weeks that we've been quite aggressive early um for for different reasons. One to get a group together that we know is gonna have to blend and and and grow with cohesion, so it gives a bit of time. It also puts us in a really healthy spot with ins and outs if they happen late. I feel like we've built some excellent quality here. We've got good depth, which is again good competition, so lots of different reasons why we why we've took that stretch. And of course, young players that are now in that are gonna grow over not just this season, but for the course of the next few seasons as we try and push through to where we want to be successful. So, yeah, we've been early. Um, but like anything in the transfer window, things can happen really quick with either ins and outs as well.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

And and you you want success now, everybody wants to win the the next match, whenever that is, but you talk about having an eye on the the future there. It has that been a very much a big part of the recruitment plan this summer in terms of looking beyond not just the next nine months but the next two, three years?

SPEAKER_04 2:46

Yeah, I think it's about getting the blend of that right because, like always, we need to win on Saturday. That's you know one of the most important things, three points, and that's always going to be a challenge though. But I think at the same point, you can't lose focus on what you're trying to build. Um, and myself, James, and Charlie, you know, spoke really openly about how we need to build this for the next three years. And whenever I've worked at other clubs, it took that time to build something special to get to a point. So when you look at the recruitment, it's been um some younger players from overseas who naturally take time to embed in English football, some players that are younger that have played a little bit in English football, and then of course some some older players to to blend the experience. And I think we've tried to get the blend of that right, but balanced towards a squad that we see healthy and exciting, not just for Saturday, but you know, in 30 games time, but in next season and beyond that, where we become a stronger team as they sort of grow together.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

You you've had a sort of week since the the frustrations of the uh the the League Cup defeat. Has there been a key that you sort of saw in that game that you thought that's where we need to improve most quickly?

SPEAKER_04 3:50

Ah, there's always games where I try and keep us to improving, but you're right, you know, when you look at that game, I think we created enough chances or moments to put the ball in the back of the net, and we didn't do it. And I think that's always going to be the challenge. It's always the hardest part of football, scoring goals. Um, we're all disappointed to come off that game to not win the game. Um, but of course, there's ways that we needed to be a little bit more cuter with our work in around the box. Um, but I think you know sometimes those games can can shock you a little bit into to getting ready for what is going to be a really tough game against Millwall. So there's always things to learn, there's always some positives in there as well. Um, but we're ready to go and excited for a big challenge ahead against uh you know a team that finished in the playoffs last year.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

And and talking of goals, we we had Don Ballard in here just a little bit ago, obviously had an amazing season last year, and with him and and Lauren as your sort of striking options, both of them played a lot of time on their own last year. How do you see them working together?

SPEAKER_04 4:43

I think both of them uh you know Lauren played in a front two at times at Plymouth, so I think he's done that a lot more. Um, Don Ballard had led the line a lot on his own, uh, but caused some aggro for some centre halves and caused some good goals. So I think it's a part of his journey to learn if we're gonna play a front two or how we do that. But again, they can both I think they can both do it, and they will, but they've got to learn and got to grow. And I think not just with Darm and Tolly, you know, Sam Tickle, you these are lads of also that are stepping up to another level, so they're gonna take time to to grow into the level. It's not, you know, he scored lots of goals last season for Leighton Orient in a side that was struggling, um, but it's gonna be a different challenge to him, and we need to be patient with the young men, we need to be patient with Lee Sav, we need to be patient with Sam Tickle. Um, but we haven't bought him here for again just for Saturday, we've bought him here for the future of the club, and you know, I have no doubt that Don Ballard and Lauren Talai could be a great partnership for this club in the future.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

And I guess you're right, it can take a little adjustment, whether it's with the other level, with the new place, all the rest of it. How do you go about keeping them as like Don Ballard seems as confident as he's ever been, kind of thing? How do you keep that up when perhaps it if it does start slowly, it it's difficult sometimes to keep your head up?

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Ah, I think that's part of the job, as myself and the coaching staff that Don Ballard is an excellent player, of course, flying from the goals he scored last season, you know, PF PFLA awards all over the place, if you like. Um, but he's gonna have different challenges, but it doesn't make him a you know a not a great player, and we believe in him, and we wouldn't have bought him here if we didn't believe in him. I believe in him, um, but I think all of the players that we've bought in, we believe him. Whether or not we see them, you know, 90 minutes after 90 minutes after 90 minutes in the championship away is a different thing. And I think with all players of a young age, they take time to get going as well for the new level. So we've just I just think we need to be patient. Um, that doesn't mean we don't want him to start scoring goals on Saturday, of course. Um, but we also need to know he'll have great games and he'll have some games that are not so strong. But that's with all the group, you know, that's not just with Don, that's with everybody. Um but we're really excited to put a team on the pitch that we think can go win a game on Saturday.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

So talking off Saturday, as tests go, Mill obviously had an amazing season last year. You kind of know what you're gonna get. Alex Neal's team's generally very well coached. What are you expecting?

SPEAKER_04 6:57

Very well organised, um, team that can hurt you if you're not very disciplined in the way you want to play football. Um, watched a lot of their team, a lot of the games last season. You know, they're up there for a reason, they make you defend first phases, second phases to put the ball in the box, you know, not too dissimilar to some ways, you know, how I did it last season that put teams under pressure and they force mistakes from you. So we're gonna have to be really disciplined with the ball, we're gonna have to be very good without the ball, and physically we know we're in for a challenge. Uh, you know, when you look at their centre-halves who are very strong, we need to make sure that we play our game and attack them in the moments we can. But we're you know, they're a strong team for a reason, they're consistently good at this level, so it's a great test for some of our new lads. And like, you know, uh, I think uh also we had five new startings in the lineup. So the challenge for us is to quickly grow together, as I keep saying, and to blend and get that cohesion because we're still a new group, um, but we're gonna get a good good test on uh at Millwall at home.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Yeah, and and I think from the fans that there is that sense of excitement. I think that your rivals are on and off the other pitch over the course of the summer has has raised expectations and and their hopes for the other the season. Um what would you say to them at the start of what's gonna be a yeah another tough long championship campaign?

SPEAKER_04 8:11

Well, every game is tough. Uh no, I think every game's a tough game. Um we're excited to get going. Um I know the fans at this club already, I can feel it, I can see it, are really behind the team. Um, and there's no better support and building confidence for the young floor players than the fans getting behind them. So, you know, there's there's some great moments I've seen of this team already that I've really liked against Newcastle, some moments against Warsaw, and some other moments that that we need to improve on. But that's part of our growth into getting to a really, you know, a team on the pitch that we we're excited about and the fans are excited about. And I I do believe that you know the fans feed off the team on the pitch, and the team off the pitch feeds off the fans. It's that it's that cycle, if you like, that we need to grow together, and they're a massive part of what we want to do. You know, they I think fans can be part of the performance, not just watching the performance. And I think if we can create something like that at Ashton Gate, I think it'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Thank you very much. Sure is hi Michael. Hello. Um, when you arrived a couple of months ago, I'm sure you, James, and Charlie had kind of a hit list of of the players that you wanted. Here we are now, and appreciate the window's not shut yet. How happy are you with the squad you've put together here?

SPEAKER_04 9:15

Very happy, uh, extremely happy. Um, we like you're right, we went off to a hit list that we thought would really complement the squad. We've got really high levels of competition in the squad now, uh, which makes my job harder in some ways. But you know, we spoke to some of the senior players as well, and they spoke about how they thought there needed to be more competition. So we have a really competitive group, um, but a blend of different profiles, if you like, a brend of different strengths in the group. Um, and we feel like we've had a really up to now really successful window. Of course, there's weeks left of it, and things can change quickly. Um, but we think we're in a good place, and we also think we're in a healthy place if if something happens quickly to you know some players that that might leave the building, but we're in a good spot and we're happy.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

You've mentioned there's a a mix of different sort of age profiles, but there does seem to be quite a concentration of sort of your 21s to 25s. Developing players, is that something that you really enjoy personally? You consider a skill of yours?

SPEAKER_04 10:11

Um, yes, it's definitely, I think, over my journey as a coach, is something I've done very successfully. Um, but I also think Bristol City have done it very successfully over their their time when you look at the players have left here and gone there. So I think that's a good blend. Um, but these aren't young, young players that are trying to break through academies, these aren't young players that are you know trying to break into the first team. These are players that are young enough that we think over the next two years can become top players in the championship. That doesn't mean it can't happen in two weeks, in four weeks. You know, when I look at Sam Tickle, you know, I think he's got a really high ceiling, and I you only had to see some of his saves the other day, and I thought it was amazing. But he's still got to grow and he's still got to improve. But so we haven't bought those young players in that are trying to break into first team football. We've bought what we think are young, hungry players, and I think that's the other thing, hungry players that think they can play, you know, and push us to the next level, but also you know be a really good dominant force at this level.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

It's something that's in short supply of football, patience. But is everyone gonna need a little bit then? Do you think?

SPEAKER_04 11:07

Well, I think it's patience, definitely, with the group because of how new it is. It's a new, it feels like a new team. Not only is it lots of new players, I'm new, the coaching staff of new. I think that's the like you said, the hardest thing in football is patience. Um, but it is the thing that can create success at times. So um, yeah, we're gonna have to, you know, have we'll have some good days, we'll have some not go so good days. Um, but there's no doubt in my mind when we, you know, when we go over the white line on Saturday, everybody's out there to try and get three points, which is the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

I think you won, was it 33 games last season at Lincoln? Um what is did you do you get a feel when momentum generates like that?

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Yeah, I think I've got a good gist on that. Um I think momentum's a really strong thing. Um, this group's got a huge belief there, they work hard every day. You know, you if you were to come and see this group train, they work hard every day. So it's not through desire and effort, but there is you know things that can help you by winning football matches. And there's no doubt in my mind when you get a bit of momentum and you can put a few wins together, and I think it's the same in the championship. A couple of wins together can change places really quickly. Um, so but it's always great to start on the front foot. Um, and I like our teams to be aggressive, um, and we've still got to improve on that and still got to get better at that, and and everything's part of it, you know. Ashton Gate being part of a cauldron to come to for me, needs to be part of it. When I look back at the teams I've worked for, it was there were always tough places to go, so we need to help the fans with that to make it a really tough place for the opposition to go. And as you know, Millwall are gonna bring a lot of fans on Saturday, so um, yeah, we we really want to work together, not just you know, as a team but a club to be a really hard team to play against.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

I appreciate this one. Might be more for us outside of the building to discuss, but what what are kind of realistic expectations do you think we never game?

SPEAKER_04 12:51

I think it's always the same, you know. We have to like I always say, like if I say, all right, we're gonna finish X, people hold it if we finish it. I think we have to push, we have to push to finish, you know, as high as we can be. And we always try and go out to win every point. And I don't think you really know where you are until you come out of the back of January. Um, but getting a big strong start is is always helpful. Um, but again, we we've got a new group, and we need to there'll be some bumps in the road. Um, but I think this group, if it starts hitting its mojo, can finish high in this league.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Thank you. Well, I'll tell you what, Michael, just building on that a little bit, if you've looked wider across the the championship, how do you see it this year? There's some big clubs there, some parachute money that's come down. It's gonna be a brutal division.

SPEAKER_04 13:33

Yeah, it's tough. There's some big clubs, um, some exciting clubs, some exciting places to go to. But every league I've ever worked in has been tough for different reasons because when I look at every league, everyone says there's big teams, there's tough teams that you know. In when I worked with Leeds, there's obviously in the Premier League with some tough teams. When you work with League One, or there's some other big teams, I just think that's the nature of the business. You know, there's no easy game in football. That is a that is a belief I have. It's a cliche whether you go against, like you say, a promoted team, uh sorry, a relegated team, or you come up against a promoted team who are on an absolute fly. There's every game's going to be difficult. Um, but we just need to focus and look after ourselves in most of the moments of the game and try and be a team that it's tough to be an exciting team to go and attack teams.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

How excited are you? Because this is your championship season, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 14:20

Two absolutely buzzing. I know I'm quite calm, um, and quite, you know, I don't get two line wins and two lows because I think that helps helps, especially long players in the groups, but I can absolutely I'm absolutely rare in to go. And I know we've had a few friendlies and and those things, and of course we've had the Carabao Cup that we wanted to win, but there's nothing like you know, a league season starting and and three points on it, and yeah, and we're all excited to see what we can do and push this group to what they what we believe they can be. So I'm absolutely yeah, absolutely buzzing to get going in in the real real stuff, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

And then just just on the development of the young players, how what what is the most important thing as they're stepping up? Because they've got good experience in League One, lots of them did well last year. What is it that they need to do and you need to lead them into progression, into consistent?

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Consistency. I always think with the young players, consistency to find their consistency at the level, um, to find their consistency every day in training. Um, most of these, you're you usually find most of your senior players are very consistent, you know what you get with them week in, week out, you know what they can do, and that's a huge benefit. I think with younger players, sometimes you get differences of consistency. When they step up to a new level, they can be challenged in that consistency that I had with a level before, or again from Europe. If they come in from Europe, English football is very different from some of what they're experiencing. So, you know, one of their challenges is to be a consistent player Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday as well. You know, that's that's another big challenge for some of the players haven't done that. Um, so I have to help them with that. I have to help them how they can find their consistency within the group, and even bigger challenges when you have a competitive group, um, when there is lots of competition for your places, you need even more consistency to be able to keep the shirt if you like.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

And then just finally, you've got a pretty much a new team, new management. How do you bond them all together? You've done lots of that to be.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

I must say, they're an exceptional group of young men that really do care about the club and really do care about the city. Um, and they'd love nothing more than to do well for this club. Um, so we've done a lot of bonding with that, and the new players have been integrated well with some of the you know the older statesmen of the groups, if you like. Um, but yeah, we've worked really hard on that because it's an important thing, you know. I think it's when your back's against the walls, those are the things that count when you've got to go and head things offline and put your bodies on the line. I think they really need to be together in that.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Can you give us an idea of the bondings of what's done for a wow?

SPEAKER_04 16:54

Okay, so what we've done. We've obviously been to Spain and we've done, they've had a few team bonding days, we've done some activities there. Um, we've done, I think paddle boarding is yeah, we've been paddleboarding on the lakes, we've done some other activities here and had barbecues, and yeah, we've done a lot of sort of team activities where it's important. Try sometimes though, it's just trying to not make it too what's the word, corny, you know. And I think that's uh you know, where we are really developing. But the reality is there's nothing better than the lads sometimes, you know, getting together, having a coffee and and just blending. But they are a really good group. They, you know, there's no clicks in the group, which sometimes you can find with groups, they really do work hard to mingle with each other, and the older lads taking the younger lads under the belt. It's it's it's been really good to see. Thanks, mate. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Michael, you've spoken a lot about that cohesion. I guess if the day you walked into the building, if you knew this is where you'd be a couple of days before the first game of the season, do you think you'd be happy with the place you and the school?

SPEAKER_04 17:46

I'm never happy, like no. I think I think as a as a manager, you know, you're always thinking about where you want to be and about and where you want to get to. So are we exactly where we need to be? No. Am I happy where we are now with the changes in the group? Yes. Um, does that not mean there's lots of work to be done, of course? And I think you can see that. There's like moments in games where I've been really excited and it looks exactly how we want to be, and you can see the aggression in the team and how we want to play forward, and there's moments at times where I think we play backwards too much and it's not aggressive enough, and that's going to take me time to get the players to understand that from a from a cohesion point of view and how we do that. And I think when you have a new set of players, sometimes they they can uh revert back into how they played for their old clubs, and so it takes a bit of time. That's what I'm talking about, the cohesion bit in terms of those moments in games. But I'm happy where we're at, definitely happy with the the window. I think we've been really, really good in the window and exciting in the window, and now it's just making sure we work hard on the training pitch to get that cohesion.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

I think when we've spoken to James, he's kind of said this is window one of if you're talking obviously three year project six. Yeah. Have you done more work than maybe you anticipated? Because it has been almost every position, like you say, that we thought you might target, you seem to have got someone in.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

No, I think that's the strategy that we wanted to take. Um, again, you know, I always think it takes four to five windows to really get to a team that you think is where you want it to be, and we wanted to make sure that we're aggressive in window one and to start to build towards you know the future of the journey, which is, you know, of course, if we can get success this season and what everybody wants, fine, but it's over three years we're looking at the plan. Um, we need to win football matches, so it's not just about looking in three years and looking on Saturday. Um, but I think the window's gone very successfully in terms of our first attack, if you like it, the first window, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

With players that are taking that step, obviously you've managed higher level as well. But when you're taking that step as well, do you think that helps the group as well? That you've kind of there's a fair bit of that group taking that step from League One or different leagues into the championship together? So I don't understand the question. So that obviously you won promotion last year into the championship, it's your first time managing regularly in the championship, and you've got players doing the same. Do you think the fact there's a real group or nucleus there that are doing the same can help the group together?

SPEAKER_04 20:00

Yeah, I think the older group, do you mean the nucleus of the group that played before? Yeah, of course. So there's there's no doubt that there's there's some really good experience in here in the building with the players that we've kept and around the group. Um, but there's also the fresh blood is an important thing as well because that can drive that as well. So, but again, that that that is the Khiji bit I'm talking about can take time because obviously the newer players that haven't experienced the championship wherever they're from, they're gonna need the support of the nucleus of the group who have been there and know what it takes to win at this level. Um so it's important to get the blend and the mix right, but also again the new blood in the building can push those to keep improving as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Team news-wise, you've had quite a fit squadral through pre-season. Is it looking that way for Saturday?

SPEAKER_04 20:42

We're okay, got a couple of niggles that is yeah, come about after the Warsaw game. So we're in a position where, again, you know, we've made lots of additions to the group, so the depth of the group is is not a problem. And maybe positionally we might have to just assess this week for the rest of the week to see how we go.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

I wanted to just ask you about Luke McNally. I know you spoke about him when you were out in Spain, that saw him at the open training session. Whereabouts is he at the moment?

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Yeah, quite a few weeks off, probably months off. Um, I think everybody's seen him. He's a great player, a great young man. I think he's worked so hard to get to the point of where he is, and it's great to see because it's a tough journey. I think we underestimate sometimes that these you know players they just want to play. They just want to play, they just want to push, and when they've been out for so long, it's a really lonely place. And I don't know Luke, but I do know him now, and um, I think he's worked so hard to get back to where he is now, and we just want to keep looking after him for the foreseeable future because he's been an exceptional player for this club, and we hope in a not too distant future he can be again, but I wouldn't expect to see him in in a few months.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

I guess that's the advantage of that depth as well, that you don't feel you're in a place where you need to rush someone like that back unnecessarily.

SPEAKER_04 21:49

And I wouldn't anyway, yeah, because it's his career, and I think we have to be careful about that. So, you know, but we're definitely in a good place with him. He's smiling because he's out on the grass a little bit, but it's it's not something we can rush.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Um, just with you and Emil, I know when you spoke about Warsaw, they probably weren't ready to start. I think you said are they in a place now where you'd feel comfortable?

SPEAKER_04 22:06

Yep, they're probably not starting for 90, they're not in that place, but you and uh Emil, yeah, they're ready to be ready for selection for sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

You mentioned how excited you are for the start of the season. You obviously worked so hard last year, I know at a different club to get into this division. Will you be able to give yourself that moment, I guess, on Saturday when you like walk out to take it all in, or is it all just full focus?

SPEAKER_04 22:26

All just full focus, yeah. I won't I'm not very good at that to be honest, but no, I won't care about anything like that other than trying to win a football match, which is the most important thing.