When you think about Jaap Stam, you don’t necessarily think of a suave manager in a sharp suit. We’re more used to a raging bull of a centre back or some sort of screw-loose nutcase you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of.

Certainly not a man with the calm and thoughtful personality to take the pressure of football management, then.

And yet, the former Manchester United and Lazio defender has proved the doubters wrong: his club, Reading, are one game away from Wembley to play in what is, financially, the biggest game of club football anywhere in the world: the Championship play-off final. There’s no doubting how crucial Stam is to the current success.

We all know that the Dutchman has a big pedigree when it comes to playing football, but has also as a good management pedigree, too.

This season’s European competition might seem a long way from the Madejski Stadium, but both the Champions League and the Europa League have seen two of the most exciting young club sides on the continent woo crowds and perform above all expectations. We all know about the Kylian Mbappe inspired Monaco, but over the last few weeks, we’ve been hearing more and more about the rise of Ajax: and that’s where Stam cut his teeth.

As a coach working with the defence at the Amsterdam club, the Dutchman worked with the young side who will face another one of his former clubs, Manchester United, in the Europa League final in Stockholm at the end of the month. Stam will be hoping his own side will be busy preparing for the Championship play-off final, though.

Throughout the season, teams often look at the top six as a goal. Getting into the play-offs, then, almost seems like fulfilling an achievement, like a job well done. The challenge for all four of the teams is to remember there’s still a job to be done. The play-offs provide no guarantees - as Reading will know from their last play-off final appearance in 2011, when they lost to Swansea City.

There’s always that chance they slip up - after all, this side’s Championship play-offs feature four clubs with fairly equal claims to promotion. Only Huddersfield have come into the semi-finals in bad form, but after both games ended in draws, both will go down to the wire.

There is a big difference between success and failure, though. Each side has a well-respected manager, and all could see their man in the dugout poached by impatient top-tier clubs around Europe, perhaps even the Premier League.

For Reading and Stam, this is especially true. In the Royals’ last play-off final, their centre-back pairing that day was Matt Mills and Zurab Khizanishvili - a far cry from the Champions League winning manager currently on the bench. And also a far cry from the young Ajax side who have taken Europe by storm over the last few weeks - one would assume that a few will be on Stam’s radar should Reading make the Premier League.

Then again, if the Royals don’t, perhaps there will still be Premier League suitors willing to give Stam a chance in the big league.

Claude Puel’s future at Southampton still seems up in the air, and after years of achieving in the top half of the Premier League, it looks like the Saints have been unhappy with their current manager’s season in midtable.

They have a history of those sorts of appointments, too. Young managers with pedigree like Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman, who also came from Dutch football, have done well at Southampton, who prefer a young team playing a possession-based game: something that would suit Stam down to the ground. And Stam might just fit the bill on the south coast, too.

Tonight’s play-off semi-final is a huge game for the Royals for obvious reasons, but it might also be massive if they want to keep hold of their manager next season.

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