Football: Why Roeder preferred the doldrums to the dolce vita: Guy Hodgson talks to the new Gillingham manager who put principles before profit

THERE is a question anyone meeting Glenn Roeder for the first time finds irresistible. Why?

The man who could have been enjoying the dolce vita by the Tiber as Paul Gascoigne's minder is instead hard up against the River Medway trying to extend Gillingham's existence as members of the Football League. The gates are down to less than 3,000, the club is bottom of the Third Division and on Friday his team produced what he described as their worst performance since he arrived. Surely even keeping Gazza, a former Newcastle team-mate, on the straight and narrow was an easier task than this?

Roeder smiles and provides the patient and sensible answer of a man who had supplied it many times before. 'Gillingham were the first club to offer me a position,' he said. 'And you don't get offers from places where things are going well. Believe me, for all the problems here, compared to being out of work from May to September this is heaven. At least I've a chance here and all I've ever asked for in football is a chance to prove myself.'

The opportunity could hardly have come worse dressed. When Roeder, 37, arrived at Priestfield on 26 October the team were bottom of the League and, an occasional rise above Northampton apart, they have remained there since. The team carries the worrying symptoms of the downwardly mobile, too many players at either ends of their careers, too many matches lost in the final minutes.

For Gillingham, who began the season with promotion as a realistic ambition, the massive distance between reality and expectation, has been a shock and cost Roeder's predecessor, Damien Richardson, his job. For Kent, which has already lost Maidstone United this season to financial problems, it is throughly depressing. To lose one club from the League is unfortunate, as Lady Bracknell might say . . .

The problems started at Priestfield as soon as the season. Losing to Northampton at home was an ominous beginning made more meaningful by their presence immediately above Gillingham at the foot of the Third Division, and it sent the club into a spiral which Roeder's arrival - with four wins and four losses in 10 matches - has only partially arrested. Some of the wins have come in the Cup, all the defeats have been in the League.

'The directors and the previous manager expected their best season for years,' Roeder said, 'but they began badly and now every match becomes too important. The first 10 games can dictate the mood of the whole season, here it seems to have knocked the confidence out of a lot of players. I sometimes think a walloping, a 5-0 defeat, would get it out of our system. '

Friday's home game against Colchester provided a case study. Forty-eight hours earlier Gillingham had beaten the same opponents away from home in the Cup, but weighed down by the value every struggler puts on League points, they could not repeat their form and lost 1-0. The winner came in the 86th minute, the fourth match in succession they have conceded goals in the last five minutes.

'We have a lot of young players and they find it difficult to express themselves when they are playing under so much pressure,' Roeder said. 'It is in situations like this that you look to your senior pros to help out, but I know from my experience it's not always easy to provide guidance when you're worrying about your own form.'

At least Roeder has plenty of good examples to draw from. The England B defender's path to management was signposted as soon as he was made Leyton Orient's captain at 19, but he has also been guided along by some of his more illustrious colleagues in a tour of clubs that included QPR, Newcastle and Watford - Jack Charlton, Terry Venables, Arthur Cox and Jim Smith are among his past employers.

'I'll steal ideas from all of them,' he said, 'because you're not telling me that Jack Charlton didn't pinch things from Don Revie or Terry Venables from Bill Nicholson. But you've got to be your own man. If you try to be anybody else, you'll fail.'

As if to emphasise his independence, he returned to the question of Gascoigne and Lazio without prompting. 'I'm aware I could be lying by the pool right now. I don't want to go too much into the reasons, everything you say about Paul is blown up into major headlines, but it was my decision not to go to Rome. I suppose it shows I've got greater priorities in life than money.

'Paul and I are still friends and we still respect each other. Obviously the distance means we're not as in touch as we were but when he returns to England I expect our relationship will take off as it was before.'

For the moment it is Gillingham who need uplifting. 'I've been here seven weeks, I'm learning something new about the players every day and I'm getting an idea about which players will be here next season. We have a lot of players aged between 18 and 22 and if they survive this season it will have been a great experience for them.

'It's my belief that your first chance in management is the most important. If you mess that up you won't get another.'

(Photograph omitted)