Paul Jewell was in the same position a year ago that Roy Hodgson, Steve Coppell and Alex McLeish find themselves now, and knows what it takes to survive in the Premier League on the final day of the season.
Jewell's Wigan needed to win at fellow relegation candidates Sheffield United to stay up and succeeded. Derby County, his present club, had their demotion to the Championship confirmed six weeks ago, yet Jewell can still empathise with his three managerial colleagues.
"Preparation is the key," he advised. "Look at the players, see how they handle the pressure. Last year there was a massive buzz around the training ground because you have to win one game. And our lives and careers are on the line now. That's what I would be saying. Tell the Fulham guys, ‘Go and beat Portsmouth or you could be Championship players. The Mercedes might have to go back'.
"There's a lot of things that come with being a Premier League player and if you can get the players to realise how important it is without making them nervous about it, that's a major thing.
"This time last year we went to Sheffield United knowing that if we won we would be safe. This year there are so many imponderables." If Fulham beat Portsmouth then it matters little if Reading and Birmingham beat Derby and Blackburn; if Fulham don't beat Portsmouth, then one of the other two could overtake them.
"I've had five games in my career which were do or die," Jewell said. "I wish I had that this week. I would swap with Hodgson or McLeish."
Jewell recalled the last eight days of last season. "Talk about a week being a long time in politics," he said. "We played Middlesbrough, 3pm kick-off, and we were three points behind Sheffield United with a goal difference of four less. They were playing Villa, 5pm kick-off. I was in my office, on the floor, thinking we were down. Then Villa went 1-0 up, 2-0 up, 3-0 up. I came out of my office thinking, ‘If we beat them, we're up'.
"If Villa had beaten Sheffield United 1-0 we would have had to beat them three or four, but we knew we had to beat them by one goal. I even rang up Talksport because there was all this talk about what team Man United were going to play against West Ham. I wanted to say that it didn't matter what team United were going to play. If West Ham win 10-0 it doesn't matter. All we had to do was win 1-0. I'm sure people around Wigan thought our result depended on that, but it didn't."
Tomorrow Derby can play a part in deciding who goes down with them when they play Reading. Not that Jewell is remotely interested in that. "Sunday is important [for us] to give our terrific supporters something," he said. "We don't owe Birmingham or Fulham anything. We owe it to ourselves. I just said to Alex [McLeish], ‘The best news is we're going to try our best'. At that point he collapsed!"
