Birmingham City manager Gianfranco Zola has confessed that results simply have not been good enough since he took charge and has vowed to turn things around.
The 50-year-old is already under increasing pressure at St Andrew's Stadium just three months after replacing popular boss Gary Rowett, winning two of his 17 games at the helm.
Zola admitted to being annoyed by his players' performance in their 1-0 home reverse to Wigan Athletic last time out, leaving them eight points clear of the relegation zone, and reports in the local press claimed that he had decided to make changes on the training ground.
It is claimed by the Birmingham Mail that the former West Ham United and Watford chief has shortened the length of training sessions, bringing it more in line with the methods used by predecessor Rowett, but Zola was quick to deny these rumours.
"Either it is incorrect information or the informant is not very reliable," he told reporters. "I've always been very honest and I will take the stick from everyone, but I won't take false information. I keep to my work and keep to my belief and it's as simple as that. I repeat, you can tell me I'm not performing as a good manager which is fair enough; fair enough because of the results, but not that I get influenced and change my work.
"I believe in my work and I will never change my work and never change my beliefs in football. I came here promising to deliver certain things and in terms of results those things have not come. So, I'm the first one to put my hand up. If you criticise me I'm happy to take the criticism and I will take it positively.
"Being very open, what I don't like is the lies in stories. I read an article in a newspaper. It's not true. I didn't change the regime or the work. You can go and ask the players and they will tell you that they love what they do. If I noticed that they were not responding to the training and they were not liking it then I would consider adapting.
"I'm here not for myself, I'm here for them. It's the players that encourage me to carry on doing the training that I do. I can show you the training sessions. I have all of them on videos. If you can see there is a different type of regime you can judge it yourself. Very simple."
Birmingham return to action on Saturday afternoon with a trip to take on Cardiff City in South Wales.
Daniel Lewis
