Manchester United director of football Jason Wilcox is going to continue targeting players who want to work for the team.
In an exclusive chat for our new podcast - Inside Carrington, presented by United Store - Wilcox explains how he is delighted to see members of the first-team squad arriving early for training, and will recruit those with a similar mindset, forwarding Reds icon Eric Cantona as a great example to the current generation.
For all his talent, the Frenchman was a relentless trainer and perfectionist, whose attitude rubbed off on his younger team-mates, including the Class of '92.
In discussion with Liam Bradford, Helen Evans and ex-Red Phil Jones, the former Premier League winner with Blackburn Rovers outlines what he is looking for.
When asked how crucial it is to introduce the right characters to the club, Wilcox replies: “It is so important. I think you have to bring players in that bring something different to the changing room.
”The most important thing is that, whenever we bring in a player, they have to want to improve and they have to be a team player, and understand what it means to be part of a successful team.
“It is not about putting the Harlem Globetrotters together. If I look at successful Man United teams, there were very functional players that would die for the badge and there were some mavericks.
”When you talk about Cantona, when you hear anybody talk about him, he was an ultimate professional.
“When I look now and I see the car park,”
he points out. “When the report time is 09:45, you see the lads coming in at 08:30, 08:45, preparing for training, and this is a good sign.
”The mood on the training pitch hasn't really changed, the intensity on the training pitch and the noise level hasn't really changed, winning or losing.
“Of course, when you lose a football match, there is a lot of disappointment and a lot of frustration but, once they are on that training pitch, the character, the team spirit, you can feel it, you can feel the energy growing and we have just got to keep it going.”
The overarching culture and vibe at the training ground is viewed as being an integral part in the process of engendering the right team spirit on the pitch, come matchday.
“What we have got to try to do is, whether we are winning or losing, we can't have the pendulum shifting so much where it affects the mood in Carrington,”
stresses Wilcox.
“And if anyone comes into Carrington, and if anyone is around Carrington, actually, the first thing they say when they go away is 'it's nothing like it appears from the outside'.
”So it's just a narrative that sometimes people are trying to create. But the most important thing is that, internally, we know what we need to do, we know where we are as a group, the players understand where we are as a club and we are making progress, on and off the pitch.
“I spoke last week to MUTV and, when I say we are making progress, it is not just on the pitch, it is off the pitch as well with our processes, the facilities, the structures, the staff.
"What we have got to do, despite all the noise, we have just got to remain calm and understand that we are heading in a positive direction.
“We are going to have bumps in the road and it's important that we smooth out the bumps and not get over excited or too disappointed.”