“You have to be authentic,” Pascal Jansen says. The AZ Alkmaar manager is thinking about how to lead. There is, he says, no point in putting on a face. The Dutchman has spent years doing things his way since a knee injury ended his hopes of becoming a professional player when he was 17.
He began jotting his ideas about football down in a book and he had big dreams. He wrote about wanting to pass his Uefa pro licence before his 35th birthday – mission accomplished – and his ambition was limitless, his determination to manage in the Premier League a sign this was going to be no ordinary journey.
