With so much happening since the end of last season, we've kicked off this season's Q&A interviews by putting Jimmy Quinn 'on the spot' with a selection of your questions.

Here's part three of the interview. Click on the "Q&A" link on the left to access the previous instalments.

John Hughes asks:
Over the last few seasons I have noticed that some of our players are becoming more prone to diving, and just going to ground under a hard tackle. Could you assure me that this will stop as it is quite embarrassing?

JQ: I don't know whether John has played the game or not but it happens at any level of football and you even see it in Sunday football. It's not something the coaches encourage but at specific times in a game the players will be challenged or tackled and they can sometimes look to gain an advantage for the team and they do go to ground.

There are different ways of looking at it and there are different ways of looking at being professional. I think John would be disappointed if one of our players received a bad tackle round the edge of the area, and instead of going down and getting a free kick our player stayed on his feet and the guy broke into our box and scored a goal. So there are different ways of looking at it.

I'm not talking about winning at all costs or cheating, but it's about identifying whether it's a fair tackle or whether the player hasn't touched your player. There is a lot of it going on and I certainly don't encourage players to dive, but at times in games there might be a situation where players will go down to get a free kick off the referee if they feel they've been unfairly challenged.

Stephen Thompson:
Who would you single out as your single biggest influence during your playing days?

JQ: I've had a lot, but from being focused and disciplined and driving forward it had to be Lou Macari at Swindon. I didn't like it at the time, I must admit, because the fitness levels were unbelievable and we used to run and work on fitness and go for weeks without seeing a football. He had this method of starving players of the football during the week and then they'd want it even more on a match day.

He was very good at getting players fit and getting them up for playing and taking them away to army camps before cup games, and making even the fringe players feel important in the squad. So it would probably be him, but to be fair I had quite a few.

I had Terry Yorath at Bradford who's a great manager and very good tactically, Harry Redknapp who, probably by his own admission, isn't the best coach in the world but he's a brilliant man-manager and really knows how to get the best out of people, and at international level Billy Bingham who didn't suffer fools and wouldn't accept second best.

I think if you're lucky to have been in the position to have had several different managers like I have you try to take the best bits of each of them. You don't want to copy anyone, you've got to have your own style, but I've kept some of the best bits from each of them and I use them from time to time.

Jamie asks:
Jimmy, of the strikers you targeted over the summer, did these include Tommy Youngs or Leo Fortune West?

JQ: I tried to get Tom Youngs on loan from Bury at the transfer deadline, but having got Lee Boylan now, who's not a big striker, it's about getting the right balance up front. If you have a smaller striker you do need a bit of strength up there too and having signed Lee Boylan soon after the season ended I brought in Scott Rendell and Dan Chillingworth who are both six-footers, but Tom hasn't played that many games in the last year or two so I was a bit wary of that.

Leo Fortune-West is still on Rushden's books and he's way out of our wage bracket. (Edit: interview took place before LFW's release from Rushden by mutual consent and his subsequent trial at United)

Jamie also asks:
Of the players you choose to release over the course of last season, if you HAD to bring ONE of them back who would it be?

JQ: The one I'm probably disappointed in losing is Josh Simpson. I can understand why he left but I feel he had the potential and could have gone on and been a terrific player here, and we'll have to wait and see.

Josh just wanted to play regular football and he asked me if he would be playing regularly and I wasn't in a position to guarantee that to anyone, but he's a young lad with a lot of future ahead of him, he's got a lot of strengths and some weaknesses that he'll need to work on, and out of all of them he's the one that I'm most disappointed in losing.

I like working with young players and he had a bit of pace in his game, he could have got a bit more aggression in his tackling but he has a great attitude to training and he's a nice lad to have about the place, and those are the types that most managers want to work with.

Jamie also asks:
If you were given the finances to bring back just ONE United player from the past (anytime before you arrived the Club) who would it be?

JQ: Dion Dublin, without a shadow of a doubt. If we had Dion Dublin when he was at his best you could guarantee 25 goals a season without blinking, and if you've got two strikers getting between 15 and 25 goals each then you'll be in the top half of any league. That sort of player makes any manager's job easier.

I know Dion, I've played against him a lot in the past and I know him as a lad, and not only does he perform well himself but he's the type of character that gets people playing around him and encourages them, and he would be the ace in the pack.

Dave asks:
Jimmy, are you aware just how important both games against Histon are this year? John Beck will have them training extremely hard over the festive period and will have them raring to go. Will we be up to scratch, fitness wise?

JQ: If Dave wants to see us train and join in and see how hard we work, he's very welcome. It's a bit frustrating sometimes that fans only see us on match days and don't see all the hard work that goes in during the week. Everything is geared up this season to make sure our fitness levels are good, and, whilst I'm aware of the importance of the Histon games, from my point of view they are just another team that we have to play on our way to being successful this season.

It's no good winning the two Histon games and losing the rest of them, so we want to win as many games as we can and that will include Histon. Histon were desperate to play us in last year's FA Trophy game and they were in a no-lose situation; the pressure was always going to be on us and if they had lost they could say they had got beaten by an ex-league club in a higher league, and if they won then they would obviously soak up all the glory, which they did.

So for me they are just another team, although I've played for many clubs in many big derbies and I realise the importance to the fans, but the important thing for me is the points. We're not going to win anything by beating Histon and losing to the other teams in our division, but the players who were involved in the Trophy game last season will be giving it their utmost to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Dave also asks:
Have you appointed a Vice Captain as such for this season, in the absence of Danny Brown?

JQ: There are a few that spring to mind but Mark Albrighton is the one who stands out. He's a terrific professional, he's been at a couple of clubs that have been promoted, he encourages the young lads and he performs to a level that as a manager I'm looking for, so Mark would be the one.

Jamie asks:
Aside from coaching the defenders, how much of a role will Mark Peters play this season? I thought he was outstanding last season and probably our best defender, and I personally think he still has a couple of seasons left in him at this level.

JQ: Mark has terrific experience as a player but he does struggle a little bit with his fitness. He's missed quite a bit of the pre-season with different injuries and I've always said I don't have any favourites.

There are players who are probably looking to be put on the teamsheet first but my only concern as a manager and coach is that everyone has to be at the same fitness level. If you don't get that core strength you'll be forever breaking down and picking up injuries, and I'd rather have a player on the pitch than sitting in the stand watching.

Mark has just turned 35 and whilst he's got some coaching responsibilities I've signed him as a player and he needs to make sure he's as fit as everyone else.

Without a shadow of a doubt last season he performed to an absolutely fantastic level, but one player doesn't make a team. He played a big part but it would be wrong of me to single out any player because to get results you need to do it collectively and I think every one of them played well.

This Q&A interview concludes tomorrow (Thursday).

Andrea Thrussell

Is there a player or member of the backroom staff you'd like to put on the spot? Nominate them now by writing to web@cambridge-united.co.uk

Make Your Click Count For The U's - talk about it on the Message Board!

You are respectfully reminded that any article, as with all content on this website (unless otherwise stated), is subject to copyright and the Official Cambridge United Website must be acknowledged as the original source.

AT070808