My quality time with Guardiola - and getting his guide to Barcelona

I have talked a lot in this column about what I did as a manager before and during games, but what about immediately after the final whistle?

At Stoke, our ritual after home matches was always to invite the opposition's management staff into our room at the stadium.

We would provide food from the same menu as the boardroom, plus a good measure of wine, for them to either celebrate a win or drown their sorrows if they had lost.

I had always believed that providing good hospitality was important in such a cut-throat industry and a way of managers having a time to mix and meet.

This was a tradition I had experienced all the way through the English football pyramid. Lower down, it was a bottle of beer and some left-over sandwiches, but that never stopped managers from always sharing these moments together.

Once Stoke were promoted to the Premier League, we took this tradition further, by having hot food and a table which would accommodate the opposition staff and my staff together.

Along my journey over my 30 years as a manager, I was made aware that this tradition was only really observed in the British Isles, and not in mainland Europe.

The British managers would always come in after the game, but we made a point of inviting the foreign ones too - and they always joined in.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, left, greets Tony Pulis when Stoke visited Old Trafford in 2010. United won 4-2

I had been welcomed into Sir Alex Ferguson's room upstairs at Old Trafford many times when he was United's manager and it was the same when he retired.

I remember having a glass of wine with Louis van Gaal when he was in charge, then going up to see Sir Alex, who had always been a manager who enjoyed our hospitality at the Britannia Stadium.

On one occasion when his United team had played there, someone from their team bus came up to tell Sir Alex that the lads were ready and waiting to leave - his response to being summoned was swift, and to the point! I'm sure most other British managers would have responded the same way.

When Jose Mourinho was in the Premier League, he was always full on, but was also exceptionally gracious with me - win, lose or draw - and my staff enjoyed his no-nonsense assessments of the games we played against him.

But we welcomed everyone in exactly the same way, whichever club I was with and whoever we were up against.

Carlo Ancelotti was coolness personified, and no wonder all his players love him - he is a great football man and human being.

Ronald Koeman was again great company and reciprocated our hospitality by serving up a dish of eels when we played at Everton. I was really not sure about eating it, but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was - and how gracious Ronald was too.

One story which shows the way we looked after people was when I was with West Brom and Antonio Conte's Chelsea side clinched the Premier League title at The Hawthorns in 2017.

Conte got given 'the bumps' by his players after his Chelsea side beat the Baggies at The Hawthorns to clinch the Premier League title in 2017. Their celebrations continued long into the night

It was a Friday night game and afterwards we provided Antonio and his directors the means to celebrate. They certainly did that, to the extent that it was the early hours of the next morning before they left.

The club had provided them with my supply of wine, then provided even more from the boardroom - which had emptied hours before. The next morning I headed off to watch a game in Germany with a sore head and a few paracetamols.

All of the above managers and many British ones too have exactly the same principles. They are all desperate to win on Saturdays between 3 and 5pm, so get characterised by people's perception of them based on how they behave during games, or speak to the cameras straight afterwards when emotions are sometimes still running high.

Generally, though, we are all decent and hardworking coaches who, when we are away from the game, can be totally different people to our families and friends.

Pep Guardiola greets Tony Pulis before their second meeting in English football, when Manchester City beat West Brom 3-1 at Etihad Stadium in May 2017

One person I've deliberately left out of the above list of managers I've enjoyed getting to know over the years is Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.

I want to talk about Pep separately, because of the rumours that this could be his last season in English football.

My first encounter with him was when I was with West Brom. It was early in Pep's first Premier League campaign, 2016-17, and Manchester City had just beaten us at home. After the game I made sure my assistant Dave Kemp would get City's staff in for our customary drink.

I didn't join him in my room until after I had finished my post-match press conference, but there he was at the table with a glass of wine and chatting to all my staff.

As people will tell you, I forced him to eat with us too, while we discussed his early impressions of the Premier League and English football in general.

Having Kempy and Gerry Francis there meant the conversation never moved from Pep's own journey, and the fact he had managed one of the greatest club sides ever when he was in charge of Barcelona with Lionel Messi in his team.

He was very humble and proclaimed he could not fail to succeed with - I believe he said - six world-class players in his team, and a genius in Messi who could change games in seconds.

The entire time he was in the room, he never once brushed over any detail asked of him and he impressed everyone who was there that day - even the caterers commented on how warm and engaging he was to them.

Later that same season, our away game at Etihad Stadium was an evening kick-off and after the game Pep came and found me.

We had a drink and again had some food and, during our conversation, Pep got on to his time at Barcelona. I told him I'd never been but one day it may hit my to-do list.

He immediately asked for my email address and said he would invite my wife Debs and I to enjoy all the pleasures that city could and would provide.

I am still terrible with technology now, and was even worse then - so I gave him Debs' email address because I didn't have one.

The following weekend, after we'd had another Premier League game, I headed home to discover Pep had sent Debs a to-do list of Barcelona that he had compiled himself, and saying to make sure to contact him before we went to see if he would be around at the same time.

I am also useless at accepting gifts or invitations - even ones like that - and we never took that trip to Barca. Maybe we will go one day, though - and if we do hopefully Pep will be around.

I did not see him for a while when I stepped away from management in 2020, but we stayed in touch. It was the same with some of the other managers I've mentioned.