Motivation Quote by Paul Ince

Ince’s line has the blunt honesty of a player-turned-manager who knows how quickly a season can slip into narrative. The phrasing is almost accountant-like: “eight or nine points start” turns the romantic chaos of football into a simple deficit, a head start you hand to rivals by being sloppy early. It’s not poetry; it’s pressure management.

The intent is twofold. Publicly, he’s drawing a line under complacency: stop spotting mid-table-caliber teams a cushion and pretending a late surge will fix it. Implicitly, he’s also talking to the club’s ecosystem - players who think they can “turn it on” when stakes rise, and fans who treat promotion (or survival) as destiny rather than a grind. By naming Southampton, Palace, Norwich - “quality sides” with real infrastructure, budgets, and depth - he refuses the comforting myth that these are soft fixtures. That’s a subtle act of respect and a tactical warning: drop points against organized teams and you don’t just lose a match, you lose leverage.

The subtext is anxiety dressed as pragmatism. Ince is signaling he understands the Championship/Premier League border is a trapdoor: everyone thinks they’re too big to linger, and that belief is precisely what keeps clubs stuck. “And the rest” widens the net - no freebies, no moral victories, no waiting for momentum. Start sharp or spend months chasing ghosts.