Category Archives: Interview

MINTO’S DREAM JOB – WITH THE ULTIMATE CLASICO TO COME AT WEMBLEY?

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By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

SCOTT MINTO is living the dream. To be the presenter of Sky Sports’ coverage of Spanish football at a time when Barcelona have come within touching distance of perfection, their rivalry with Real Madrid has reached new heights and the national team rules Europe and the world is as good as it gets.

Minto has a great job – he is reluctant to call it work – and it is the reward for his dedication when, after 17 years as lively left-back for Charlton, Chelsea, Benfica, West Ham and Rotherham, the sands of time caught up with him.

“I was injured as lot during my last year at Rotherham and at 35 I knew it was time to quit,” Minto told footballwriters.co.uk. He contacted Pete Stevens of Radio London – the pair had worked together covering games – and asked if there was a chance of work on a more permanent basis.

Minto was living in Sheffield and was assigned to cover London clubs playing in the north for the station. Eager to learn as much as he could about his potential new career he took up the offer from Lawrie Madden, who played over 300 games for Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday before becoming part of the Daily Telegraph’s football coverage.

“Lawrie told me about a journalism course for players and ex-players. While things were going well on the radio I didn’t want to be sitting around doing nothing. As a player I was a lazy sod, come home, feet up and watch TV. I wanted to stay in football, but not management so the two-year course was ideal.”

The studies were intense and left little time for being a couch potato – “how those players who were still active found time to do it I don’t know.”

In the meantime Minto had started to work for Chelsea TV and Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday. His first live game was Burnley v West Bromwich where he took his position “up with the gods” at Turf Moor. “I could hardly see the numbers on the stripes. In fact, I was so high I could hardly see the Burnley numbers. The first time Jeff Stelling came to me after a goal I was tongue-tied. ‘Yes it’s a goal from a free-kick, I mean goal-kick, no corner…’ Driving home I thought to myself it wasn’t meant to be.”

But Sky Sports saw potential in Minto and persevered with him. .” In 2008 Minto graduated from Staffordshire University with a degree in Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting. The course taught him, among other things, how to write match reports and to assess what the best story-line was. Minto was given work by the London Evening Standard until budget cuts forced belt-tightening.

“Rather than speak to someone and they put it into my words I wanted to write it myself. I was completely different to how I was as a player. I didn’t need to work on my mind then, but when I retired and the physical work ended I found I was happy to put pressure on myself mentally. I’m glad I did the course and I am where I am now because of this.”

Minto’s big break came in September 2011 when Sky Sports decided not to renew the contract of Mark Bolton who had presented their Spanish football coverage. Producers at Sky’s headquarters in Isleworth had watched Minto presenting shows on Chelsea TV and Al Jazeera and were impressed with his calm authority.

With a young daughter plus twins on the way – all three are still under the age of three – Minto knew accepting the job meant the demands on his time would be immense. He also knew it was an offer he could not refuse.

While he is fluent in Spanish – he has a Colombian wife – his language skills were not a consideration. He said: “Though it helps being able to talk to Rafa Benitez, Albert Ferrer, Marcelino, Gaizka Mendieta and other Spanish guests in their language off air, the shows are all in English.”

Minto has grown into his role, at ease with live coverage where, as a presenter talks to the camera, the producer can be chatting to him via his earpiece. “They may be saying ‘keep going, we can’t go to that replay yet’ or ‘hurry up we have to go to a break.’

“I was talking to a famous presenter recently and he told me the first time he did a live show he said on air ‘yes I know, I know’ as the producer spoke to him.”

La Liga games on Saturday and Sunday show the best of Spanish football with Revista de la Liga on Tuesday a look-back at the weekend’s action alongside Guillem Balague, Graham Hunter and Terry Gibson [Minto is pictured with Mendieta and Balague, courtesy of Sky Sports].

“In some ways Revista can be more manic than a live game because there is so much to cram in. I’ll chat to producer Mark Payne the day before about the schedule. I am passionate about Spanish football and I hope that comes across.

“I think Spain have the best two teams, certainly the best two players, arguably the best five players in the world. But when it comes to the organisation it can be shocking. Often we have only two weeks’ notice about when a game will be played. Our pundits say such things are so much more professional in England.”

Games involving Barcelona and Real Madrid rarely disappoint and the clasico head-to-heads between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola were like Hollywood productions. “I watched every second of every clasico, even before I was offered the job. For me, the most glamorous club game in world football has always been Barcelona versus Real Madrid. They seem to play each other more than they used to, but I absolutely love it…I loved watching the games and now presenting them.

“The matches are never dull. It’s the same even if they play Granada or Deportivo…there is always something to talk about.”

Minto’s passion did not extend to the extreme of his brother-in-law. “He is a massive Barcelona fan and they’ve just had a baby boy. He texted me last Tuesday to say they want to call him Lionel.”

That night Minto saw Barcelona’s brilliant, breathtaking 4-0 victory over AC Milan on a boat with the London-based Barca fan club. He watched the game again at home, savouring every moment. “I needed to confirm what I thought at the time and that was it was one of the best performances in the history of football. I have nothing but admiration for players and teams under immense pressure not just producing the goods, but then some. In Barcelona’s case some people were almost writing them off to the point those critics wanted them to lose so they would be proved right.

“It was one of the few occasions where Barcelona were the underdogs to go through, yet the way they started and continued was Barca at their absolute best.”

A Barcelona versus Real Madrid Champions League final is still a possibility as the clubs were kept apart in the draw for the quarter-finals. For Minto and millions of others, Wembley would be host for the ultimate clasico.

DARRAGH’S DREAM IS THE PERFECT FOOTBALL MAGAZINE

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By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

DARRAGH MacAnthony loves football, so much that in 2007 he bought Peterborough United. Last year the Dubliner published a book about this called From Hobby To Obsession. Last week saw the first edition of Twentyfour7 Football, a monthly football magazine – chairman: Darragh MacAnthony.

If MacAnthony is not the editor in name, he has the final say on what goes in the magazine and on the evidence of issue number one the USA-based publisher and his staff did an excellent job.

Neil Gilby, the director of operations, oversees the day-to-day running of the magazine’s headquarters in – where else? – Peterborough and is clearly relishing the challenge of making Twentyfour7 the “perfect” football magazine.

The Dream Team, aka the list of contributors, include two long-standing member of the Football Writers’ Association, Oliver Holt (Daily Mirror) and Oliver Kay (The Times). The liner-up is wide and varied with talkSPORT’s Richard Keys and Andy Gray, Sky Sports’ Hayley McQueen, Charlotte Jackson, David Jones, Simon Thomas and Max Rushden plus Alan Curbishley, Matt Le Tissier, Fabrice Muamba, Didi Hamann, Justin Edinburgh, David Gold, Mark Bright, Paul Dalglish, Michael Owen, Kenny Miller and Peter Beagrie. Unsurprisingly so is Barry Fry, Posh’s director of football. To ensure no area of football is forgotten “renowned agent” Barry Silkman has written a column, even less surprisingly about one of his clients, Demba Ba who, he said, almost joined Spurs instead of the European Champions in January.

The idea for Twentyfour7, as it will no doubt be known, was hatched last summer between MacAnthony and Gilby who said: “We wanted it to be our perfect magazine. We looked at what was out there already, spoke about what we thought was good and what wasn’t so good…I think we came up with a good basis for a magazine which would focus heavily on English football.

“Not just the Barclays Premier League, but all aspects of the English game.”

The football publishing market is already saturated, FourFourTwo leading the way with a circulation of around 75,000. World Soccer, now in its 53rd year, has a loyal, specialised readership, there is UEFA’s Champions magazine, Shoot, When Saturday Comes while a number of clubs have their own monthly publications with many fanzines offering quality writing. There is also the blanket coverage by national and regional newspapers, so will supporters want more?

Gilby said: “It’s a competitive market, yes, but we believe there is a market out there for us with the focus on UK football. Darragh loves reading magazines on all the topics he’s into and is very involved in Twentyfour7. I’m on the phone to him every day and everything has Darragh’s final say. If we have an idea it goes through Darragh first.”

A full-time staff of 15 comprising editorial, production and design operates from the Peterborough HQ. “Many magazines have at least twice that number, so we’re not top heavy on staff. We needed a strong list of contributors and they were a team decision. We wanted people who knew about the game, we wanted a mix of journalists, pundits, players and ex-players.

“Some people may say it has a large Sky influence, but it didn’t worry us where people worked and there’s no tie-in with Sky. We just wanted the best and we were thrilled with Hayley McQueen’s Sir Alex Ferguson interview. She has a background in journalism and it’s a great interview.”

The budget of Twentyfour7 must be eye-watering, but MacAnthony has put his money where his idea is. “It’s Darragh’s money that we’re using for this,” said Gilby. “He’s put a hell a lot into it in every respect. We didn’t want it to be watered down, we could have tried to save money but we wanted to create the best football magazine in the market, one that any fan of club would want to read.

“Too many supporters don’t have their clubs written about [in national newspapers]. I know we can’t feature every club every month, but over the year we’ll do our best to include as many as possible.”

The first edition of every magazine is, in many respects, the easiest – the test is whether subsequent issues maintain the standard. Gilby said: “We started from scratch so it was an uphill task. In our eyes every magazine should be better than the previous one, that’s not just Darragh’s wish, it’s everyone’s. “

The dread, which comes with the territory, is a feature with a manager who has been sacked after the presses roll. “The difficulty with a monthly magazine is the time-sensitivity of it,” said Gilby. “With managers being sacked left, right and centre…if things have changed as we go to press it’s just the nature of the beast.”

But how can you beat an interview with Sir Alex Ferguson? “Sir Alex is the most successful manager in the world so you can never top him in terms of name,” said Gilby. “But we’re confident number two will be as good as, if not better than number one.”

“IT WAS A MIX OF ANGER, DEFIANCE AND CONFRONTATION” – Daniel Taylor of the Guardian

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footballwriters.co.uk looks at the media coverage of Arsene Wenger’s most amazing press conference

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

TWO THINGS took the assembled football writers attending Arsene Wenger’s press conference on the eve of Arsenal’s Champions League tie against Bayern Munich by surprise. Firstly, that a manager known for being so helpful to the media suddenly turned on the French equivalent of the hair-dryer and secondly, that a story about him being offered a new two-year deal upset him so much.

Whatever the validity of the story – Wenger, whose current contract has 15 months to run, denied it – managers usually go on the attack if their future at a club is questioned, not about to be extended. Wenger turned on Neil Ashton, football news correspondent of the Daily Mail, in what some papers called the Frenchman’s Travis Bickle moment. As the character played by Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver was a punk-haired former US marine suffering from insomnia and depression who tried to assassinate a senator the comparison is a little unflattering, if inevitable.

Sam Wallace of the Independent said: “For some managers, especially in the days before television cameras, a blow-out at a journalist would be nothing out of the ordinary. But this was Wenger, a man more likely to serve his players chips and lager than to get in a public row with the press. The same press whose efforts he usually treats with the good-humoured detachment of a charismatic schoolteacher presiding over a class of unremarkable students.

“This was a peculiar departure, for those who have watched Wenger over the years, especially on the occasions he has diffused difficult situations with humour, or ribbed the press – justifiably much of the time – for our readiness to proclaim a crisis. There is no wish to see a manager who has achieved as much as Wenger, and done it in such style, pushed into a corner but here he was fighting back like a man who has lost his patience.”

Bickle’s famous line was: “You talking to me?” Wenger looked at Ashton and asked: “Why do you look at me?”.Ashton replied: “Me? Because it is your press conference.”

Wenger: [ironically] “OK, oh, thank you. I just thought you had given this information out.”

Ashton: “No, I am looking at you because it is your press conference.”

Wenger: “Oh, OK, thank you very much [sarcastic].”

Ashton told talkSPORT’s Drivetime: “He’s always been polite, dignified and respectful, but I don’t think he was today. There was some mild embarrassment for him, but it makes no difference to me. Maybe managers should call out journalists a but more often, although perhaps in private, not in a live broadcast.” Speaking to footballwriters.co.uk Ashton added: “I’ve experienced this sort of thing with other managers. Sometimes it happens. He pulled me out over a story that was written in another newspaper. It wasn’t my story, maybe he just got the wrong person. He’s in a difficult position. It was more embarrassing for Wenger than for me.”

Those who have worked closely with Wenger have enjoyed his press conferences because he is a manager who will answer any question. Talk to him about the Greek economy, Russian meteors or unemployment figures and he’ll have a view. Football writers leave Wenger’s talk-ins with notepads full and back page leads aplenty.

David McDonnell of the Daily Mirror said Wenger’s “urbane exterior masks a tetchy side when under pressure.” Paul Hayward of the Daily Telegraph tweeted: “Wenger’s general media approach: no names, no 1-on-1s, humour to defuse questions, discusses any issue. But more curt and hurt these days.”

Wenger is right when he said “you will miss me when I’ve gone,” but John Cross of the Daily Mirror believes this was “dropping a huge hint about his future.” Cross said: “In dismissing the notion of staying longer he fuelled the prospect of his departure.”

Simon Yeend of the Daily Express took a different view and said: “The Arsenal manager is correct. [He’ll be] missed for the flair and elan he brought to the English game with his teams playing, at their height, some of the best football we have seen in this country. Missed for his willingness to face the media in victory and defeat. And missed for his passion.”

There was no shortage of that at London Colney and Oliver Kay of the Times said: “That exchange [with Ashton] seemed to be a sign of sad, confusing, turbulent times at Arsenal. Wenger usually exudes charm, serenity and wisdom in front of the TV cameras – at least pre-match. Yesterday he came across as tetchy and insecure.”

Steven Howard of the Sun called it “a mixture of anger, defiance, conspiracy theories and dripping with sarcasm that suggested here was a man at the end of his tether. He has lost the plot often enough out on the touchline. And there have been occasions when he has got the hump at press conferences. But never quite like this – and never in front of the TV cameras.”

Henry Winter of the Daily Telegraph said on talkSPORT’s Keys and Gray show: “What surprised me was he did it in public. I’ve seen him lose it before, away to Celta Vigo when Edu had to take an anti-doping test and it was taking a long time. It was midnight local time and we had a plane at 01.15. Wenger is a stickler and he was screaming at staff in the tunnel, his language was just toxic because things weren’t going to plan. I texted one member of staff he had a go at and they expressed surprise that I should be surprised at Wenger losing it.”

Winter prefers to remember the funny side of Wenger than the fury. He said: “When he first arrived Arsenal sat him down with all the correspondents at Highbury and you knew then this was a new force, a new spirit with new ideas because he talked so intelligently. If it is the beginning of the end, and I’m not sure it is, let’s remember the good things. It’s sad to see him like this. He said you’ll miss me when I’ve gone. I think he’ll miss Arsenal, he’ll miss English football.

“Usually in press conferences he will crack some fantastic jokes. We were teasing him once that he was so obsessed with football…it was his birthday and we asked him if he was going out to the theatre or cinema. He said ‘no, I will stay at home and watch a Bundesliga game. But I will put some candles on top of the television.’”

Daniel Taylor of the Guardian hopes Wenger’s players show the same passion as their manager. He said: “Wenger was doubtless trying, through a show of strength, to demonstrate that Arsenal are not finished yet and that anyone who writes them off does so at their own peril. At times, he was deeply impressive, arguing his case coherently, pointing out that we ‘live in a democracy of experts and opinion’ and that, put bluntly, he is sick of misinformed opinion and lack of expertise.

“Unfortunately for him, there were also moments when he floundered badly and resorted to the default setting of going back through history to make his point. In doing so he ignored the fact this is the problem for his club’s supporters: everything is in the past tense. Wenger pointed out that Arsenal were still the only team to qualify for the Champions League final without having conceded a goal and, voice thick with sarcasm, that they had done it ‘despite the fact that we have never a good defensive record’. That is not a great consolation, however, when the team have just lost to Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup, been eliminated from the Capital One Cup by Bradford City and are 21 points off the top of the Barclays Premier League, facing the possibility of an eighth year without a trophy.

“That was in the broadcast section but it was when the television cameras moved away that he properly let out all that pent-up frustration and we saw Wenger in a way that nobody in that room had witnessed before. It was a mix of anger, defiance and confrontation and it is just a shame, perhaps, that not all of his players can show the same passion. If he could bottle it and pass it to his team before their game against Bayern Munich, then maybe it will not be the ordeal that so many anticipate.”

“The truth might be that any hurt he feels right now stems more from the fact that he cares so deeply about Arsenal and takes it personally, as every once-successful manager does, when the old magic no longer seems to be there. His team need to do what Chelsea did last year and find something in adversity, but the question is whether they have the same mental fortitude.”

The pro-Wenger camp say that despite the eight-year trophy drought he has worked a minor footballing miracle to keep Arsenal competitive without the financial clout of a sheikh or oligarch Manchester City and Chelsea enjoy or the tradition and magic that give Manchester United an edge in the transfer market. On the other hand, it is impossible to think of any other top club in Europe who would keep faith with a manager after eight blank years.

Matt Law of the Sunday Mirror believes Arsenal have accepted complacency. He said: “No wonder so many Arsenal players think Wenger is the perfect manager. Not many people would dislike a boss who pays out big and turns a blind eye to so many errors.

“The coaches don’t have to worry, either. Despite having all the tools to become one of the best goalkeepers in Europe, Wojciech Szczesny is struggling badly. And yet coach Gerry Peyton is seemingly just allowed to get on with things, despite the fact a goalkeeper has yet to improve at Arsenal since Jens Lehmann left five years ago. [Chief executive Ivan] Gazidis cannot be feeling too much pressure, given the fact he has survived Arsenal losing Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Song and Robin van Persie under his watch.

“How anybody involved in the decision to allow Van Persie to join rivals Manchester United for £24m in the summer is still in a job is a mystery.”

The Sunday Times’ Jonathan Northcroft tweeted: “Wenger’s right: we will miss him when he’s gone. Personally I hope Wenger fights back and doesn’t end on this note – but he can only do that, not with talk, but a trophy. But surely ‘Arsene knows’ it’s also right he’s questioned – and the questions are coming from intelligent fans and reporters who know AFC.”

Arsenal seem unlikely to sack Wenger even if the trophy cabinet at the Emirates has no new addition this season. And as critics try to think of a better, realistic successor to Wenger, as other clubs have found out – be careful what you wish for.

Wenger has never broken a contract and the smart money would ne on the Frenchman at least seeing out his present contract. Yet how ironic a manager many would like to see leave Arsenal because of underachieving is being linked with Real Madrid, the most successful club in European history.

SWANSEA HAVE ALREADY SPOKEN ABOUT LAUDRUP’S SUCCESSOR

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CHRIS WATHAN of the Western Mail says that planning ahead has been a significant part of the Capital One Cup finalists’ success

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

SOME CLUBS have found it difficult going on impossible to appoint – and keep – the right manager. Swansea City have made the task seem so easy you wonder why others have such problems.

Chris Wathan of the Western Mail has covered the rise and rise of Swansea, from the time they needed to beat Hull City in the final match of 2002/03 to avoid relegation to the Conference to the Capital One Cup final where they will play Bradford City on February 24; the prize for the winners is qualification for the Europa League.

Brian Flynn was the manager when Swansea defeated Hull 4-2 to retain their Football League status. Since then there has been a succession of managers who have each taken the club forward, yet Wathan believes the change of ownership in 2002 was the catalyst for enabling the Swans to proceed and prosper. Wathan said: “If I had to pinpoint a moment that changed Swansea’s fortunes it would be when the club was taken over.”

A group of local businessmen bought out the Australian, Tony Petty, with the Swansea Supporters’ Trust owning 20 per cent of the club. “That model still exists today,” said Wathan. ”Along with keeping their League status, that was a key point. It keeps a connection between the city and the club.”

Since then, Swansea have had five managers – Kenny Jackett, Roberto Martinez, Paulo Sousa, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Laudrup – with chairman Huw Jenkins rewarded for giving them an opportunity to step up.

Wathan said: “Swansea’s philosophy has been – why are clubs so obsessed with giving managers second chances? Why not give them a first chance? Jackett was a number two at Watford and Queens Park Rangers, Swansea was his first senior job and he brought a lot of professionalism to the club. Martinez had never been a manager before and the hand of Roberto is still evident now.

“Paulo Sousa had been in charge at QPR for only six months and although there were criticisms of the job he did, the side still managed the club’s
highest league position for 27 years and came very close to the Championship play-offs. Rodgers had done well at Watford, but was sacked by Reading…it was a gamble but only in the context of knowing which way the board wanted to take the club forward.”

Laudrup was on the market for nine months after he quit Real Mallorca on a point of principle after his assistant Erik Larsen, who now works with him at Swansea, was sacked. Having managed Brondby, Getafe, Spartak Moscow and Mallorca, the Dane was given his chance by Jenkins in the Barclays Premier League.

Wathan said: “They do things with a common-sense approach, a sort of succession planning. They almost know what they want before things reach a crisis point. They had already researched Laudrup and had him lined up before Rodgers left for Liverpool. The process had started and I’ve no doubt they have already thought about what will happen when Laudrup eventually moves on.”

The former Denmark international is doing an exceptional job, Swansea proving that entertaining football can also be successful. “Swansea, being the size of a club that they are, know they cannot rely on a manager being there forever. That’s not being negative or defeatist, it’s a realistic approach which means they can move on easier than those who bury their heads in the sand. “

Wathan said Swansea are “absolutely fantastic” to work with, a sentiment echoed by football writers from English national newspapers who have covered the club this season. “They always say how accommodating the club are and a lot of that comes from the fact many of the players and staff have been there from League Two. They’ve always been open, helpful and friendly to deal with and we all know how difficult it can be at various clubs.”

The press facilities at the Liberty Stadium are first class unlike, Wathan said, their previous home Vetch Field “where you had to lean out of the window to see who was taking a corner.”

To help establish close relationships with the media, there has been a Christmas seven-a-side game between the press and staff. “We have a meal and few drinks afterwards. For one reason or another we haven’t had a game with Michael yet and he’s been teasing us, saying we are running scared and that he’s going to nutmeg everyone.”

Laudrup, one of the few players to have played for both Barcelona and Real Madrid, was one of the finest forwards of his generation, winning 104 caps for Denmark in the Eighties and Nineties. “I’ve absolutely no doubt he’ll do what he promised,” said Wathan.
“The games are fun and a good bonding exercise. When Martinez was manager, there was a goalkeeping coach called Iñaki Bergara who, among others, played for Real Sociedad so to score past him was nice. Paulo Sousa, who went to three major finals with Portugal as an attacking midfielder, also played in goal against us, claiming a groin injury.
“That didn’t stop him, on one occasion, becoming rush-goalie, taking everyone on before rounding the keeper to score.
“This sort of thing illustrates the good relationship that has been maintained between the club and the media. Swansea are very much a community club…I did a interview with goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel who has played in Germany and Austria and he said how much he liked the family club atmosphere at Swansea.”

The coming days will be Wathan’s busiest period of the season as the countdown to the Capital One Cup final begins, with supplements, features and back-page leads to take care of. “The Western Mail is a national paper so what we’ll do is not quite to the extent of the South Wales Evening Post which is mainly a Swansea paper, but we’ll certainly have a field day with the final.”

Next season, Swansea are set to be joined by Cardiff City in the Barclays Premier League for the first time. It is a rivalry that could politely be described as intense and Wathan said: “From a journalist’s point of view the Welsh patch is a fantastic one. It would be tremendous for newspapers to have two clubs in the top division even if Swansea fans may be split about this. Some would love to see the clubs playing each other in the Barclays Premier League as it’s never happened before while others prefer Cardiff to be just below them, but it’s hard to see it staying this way because of the way they are playing.”

In March 1978 John Toshack, 28, became the youngest manager in the Football League and under him Swansea rose from the old Fourth Division to the First Division in four years. The team of Dai Davies, Robbie and Leighton James and Alan Curtis finished sixth in their first season in Division One and Wathan said: “I did an article a couple of weeks back speculating that the current team was their greatest of all-time. Toshack’s team played some great football and even led the division for a while, but the way Swansea have done it now…the way they are playing and winning admirers everywhere…this is probably a better achievement. “If they manage a first major trophy in their centenary season it will be difficult to argue against them.”

 

THE SAVOY SHOW GOES ON THANKS TO A DEGREE IN APPLIED STATISTICS

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By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

FOOTBALL WRITERS are used to working to deadlines. However many words may be needed for the match report, whatever the deadline…even if the WiFi goes down or the lap-top waves its ignominious magic wand and makes the copy disappear into the ether…words will be filed on time. Somehow.

Yet, as Shaun Custis of the Sun observed, trying to arrange for four reporters to meet in a hotel lobby at 8pm is a meeting of the indecisive society. So as Paul McCarthy puts the finishing touches to Sunday’s Football Writers’ Association gala tribute evening at the Savoy to honour Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, which will be attended by around 400 guests, he has found it rather more testing that a lobby quorum.

As chairman of the FWA, McCarthy chose Alan Shearer, George Best and Graham Taylor as the recipients for a dinner to mark their contribution to English football. Now executive secretary and the man responsible for just about everything connected with the dinner, McCarthy said the difference between the two roles means he now needs “a degree in applied statistics.”

Andy Dunn, in his first term as FWA chairman, chose Gerrard last August. There is then an anxious wait until the Sky Sports televised games from the Barclays Premier League for January are announced, a sigh of relief when Liverpool’s match against Norwich remained a Saturday afternoon kick-off. Sunday games involving the recipient involve inevitable nail-biting.

McCarthy said: “Andy and I had our first meeting with the Savoy at the beginning of September. We were given a selection of menus from different price ranges. We find one which is not to extreme in terms of content, something that is modern but not too flamboyant as to put people off, and at a reasonable price.”

The evening is organised on a break-even basis to give members and guests the lowest ticket price.

McCarthy said: “It’s helped that Andy and I have worked together for 13 years on the People and News of the World. We know the way each other works, even if he thinks my organisational capacity is bordering on OCD. Andy’s more laid back and it’s a good balance.”

Inevitably there will be the odd last minute change or problem, some unavoidable and others with little appreciation of the scale of the request. McCarthy said: “Dealing with journalists who are used to working on the tightest of deadlines is great fun. But when someone comes to you eight working days before the dinner and asks if his table can be moved, which of course means then moving someone else’s…you say you’ll do your best, but in the back of your mind you know it’s a no-go.

“Most people would not realise the amount of work the Savoy put in. Alexandra Packman has been absolutely brilliant and has made my life a lot easier than it might have been. Much has been left in place by my predecessors Paul Hetherington and Ken Montgomery, so it’s a case of picking it up and running with it. I’ve enjoyed it, but it’s taxing.”

Dietary requirements will always be an issue with food allergies or personal choices. McCarthy said: “Other than girls who may be pregnant…we’re asked for no rich sauces, no yeast, gluten-free, soya milk only, no salmon, the vegetarian option…but dealing with the Savoy, one of the great hotels in the world, is an education.”

McCarthy will arrive at the Savoy around lunch-time. “Most things are done by then,” he said. “But you have to oversee the branding of the evening which, thanks to our sponsors, Barclays, is always done very professionally. I’ll check that everything is all right with the band and that they have meals, something I never thought about until I took this job. Andy and I will practise our speeches, we’ll watch the video which Sky Sports put together and just make sure everything in the room is in place, which it invariably is.”

Kenny Dalglish and Jamie Carragher will give tributes to Gerrard, a former Footballer of the Year. McCarthy said: “It’s fallen nicely for us given that he’s just won his 100th cap for England, a testament to any footballer to win 100 caps for his country. Steven’s been a great leader for Liverpool and England, he’s the type of captain we’ve needed for a few years. He has the respect of everyone in football plus our side of the industry, too.”

The dinner will see the continuation of the question-and-answer session, which has been well received, particularly by football writers who leave the Savoy with a good Monday-for-Tuesday article on Gerrard. Sunday’s Q&A will be conducted by the Daily Telegraph’s Henry Winter who, with Paul Joyce of the Daily Express, wrote Gerrard’s autobiography. “Henry’s one of the most respected football writers who has been with the Telegraph for almost 20 years. He knows Steven well and is an ideal choice.

“Ben Shepherd [of Sky Sports] did an excellent job last year when he hosted the evening for Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, but we have the talent within our ranks to handle the Q&A. We are fortunate in our industry to have had a grounding in broadcasting thanks to Sky, Five Live and talkSPORT. Henry is particularly comfortable doing this type of thing.

“It was the idea of Lee Clayton, the Daily Mail’s head of sport, who said to me last year we should be able to find someone in the FWA to supervise the Q&A. Henry chatting to Steven fits the bill perfectly.”

Female guests will again receive a wonderful table gift, but FWA lips are sealed to the content.

‘Think of the worst hangover you’ve ever had then add a whole new level on top…I’d had better days’

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CHRIS BRERETON on the amazing story of Fabrice Muamba’s autobiography which was written in 38 days

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

CHRIS BRERETON was watching Tottenham Hotspur versus Bolton Wanderers in a bar in Bangkok when Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the White Hart Lane surface on March 17, 2012 in an FA Cup quarter-finals tie.

As the chief sports sub editor for the English language Bangkok Post, Brereton felt both personal and professional emotions; sadness for the player but aware that it was a huge story. Little did Brereton know that as Muamba began his recovery he would be ghost-writing his autobiography I’m Still Standing.

Brereton, who previously worked for Wardles sports agency before the chance to work in the Far East came about, said: “I was as gobsmacked as the rest of the world when the incident happened. I went into work the next day and it was front and back page lead.

“Six months later I was helping Muamba write his autobiography.”

As the country was gearing up for London 2012, Brereton was offered the opportunity to return to England by Trinity Mirror Sport Media. “I got back on August 11th, I started work on the 13th and a few days later we began talks with Muamba’s representatives about the book. On my third day with the company Steve Hanrahan, my senior editor, walked over to me and asked me a ridiculous question – had I ever written an autobiography in six weeks? No, I hadn’t was the obvious and accurate response. Writing a book from start to finish in six weeks? That’s impossible.”

No it isn’t. Brereton completed the near 100,000 words in a remarkable 38 days. To write a book in three months would be an exercise to test any journalist, but 38 days is mission almost impossible.

Brereton said: I had covered Bolton games for Wardles, but had never met Fabrice before we got together at his agent’s office in London on September 7. It was like ‘hi…we have to get to know each other very quickly.’

“What helped me with the tight schedule was having worked for Wardles and before that, for Hayters, you become used to turning copy round very quickly.”

For just over six weeks Muamba dominated Brereton’s life as his Groundhog Day existence kicked in. While there was far less time than usual for research, Brereton said: “In fact, I never stopped researching his life to the extent I was dreaming about him.”

From September 11 Brereton would interview Muamba for two hours daily, transcribe the tape and then write it into Muamba’s words.

Brereton said: “It can be very intense talking about every detail of your life…where Fabrice were brought up, what the house was like, his first pair of football boots, what food he loved, what growing up in DR Congo was like…you can only go so far each day. We spoke in the morning from about half past nine, we’d chat for a couple of hours with breaks, I’d leave lunch-time, go home and start working on it. To say I lived and breathed the book is no exaggeration. We’re talking 20-hour days at times.”

What helped Brereton was the help and co-operation of the medical staff involved with saving Muamba’s life, plus his parents and Bolton manager at the time Owen Coyle…“it was old-fashioned journalism, just hammering the phones,” said Brereton. “I’d pull into a service station on the M6, chat to someone on speakerphone as my dictaphone was recording it while also taking it down in shorthand.”

Muamba’s story was rather more challenging than reporting about zonal marking or the benefits of two holding midfielders. The B-grade in biology Brereton achieved in 1998 was of little help when it came to writing about a ventricular tachycardia is [it’s a rapid heartbeat to save you Googling].

Brereton said: “The high regard in which Fabrice is held was clearly shown by the willingness of everyone to help. Everybody. If I had to leave a message for a doctor or specialist, they returned the call the same day and gave me as much time as I needed, explaining the medical details and procedures.

“Mark Alderton, the Bolton press officer, and Owen Coyle couldn’t have been more co-operative while Phil Mason, the club chaplain who prayed with Fabrice in his room, was also brilliant. Despite his heavy schedule, Owen invited me into his office and gave me three hours uninterrupted, offering me an enormous amount of information and colour.”

Brereton’s early days as a news reporter on the Salford Advertiser helped as he complied the book, not least the 78 minutes after Muamba collapsed following his cardiac arrest – the player calls it “78 minutes of nothing”.

The proofs were read and approved by Muamba plus the doctors, paramedics and consultant cardiologists while Brereton paid tribute to Ken Rogers, executive editor of Trinity Mirror Sport Media and the rest of the editorial team who worked round to clock to meet the October 19 deadline.

The result is a fascinating if harrowing insight into the ultimate recovery. Muamba recalls the moment he came back from the dead: “When I opened my eyes I’ve never EVER felt worse. Think of the worst hangover you’ve ever had then add a whole new level on top. Groggy, exhausted, useless.

“It felt like I was dying. I looked down and saw this hospital gown covering me up. Two big pillows and a hospital gown? Is this a wind up? I couldn’t even begin to understand the situation.

“What is going on here? Where am I? Just total confusion. I had a head full of fluff but I looked again to my right to see [wife] Shauna.

“My skin felt like it wasn’t part of my body. At that moment in time somebody had stolen my arms and legs and my brain felt brainless. I’d had better days.

“You’ve got to remember that if you fall off a ladder or you are in a bus crash or whatever, when you wake up you can probably remember a little of the build up to what happened. You can slowly piece together the past so you can work out why you’re in a hospital bed. But I had none of that luck. I’d gone from kicking a football around to being surrounded by people crying just because when they asked me how I was, I told them I was ‘OK.’ It doesn’t get much weirder than that and it really freaked me out.”

Muamba has a rather more trivial problem at the moment. His legs are sore as he prepares for a stint on Strictly Come Dancing. After everything else he’s beaten, he should waltz through his next challenge.

*Fabrice Muamba – I’m Still Standing (published by Sport Media, £12.99). You can follow Chris Brereton on Twitter: @chrisbrereton1.

FANS STANDING IN GARDENS TO WATCH GAMES…A 6-SEAT PRESS BOX…UNKNOWN PLAYERS…AND A TOWN CALLED TARTY

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Kenny MacDonald of the Scottish Sun on the challenges – and fun – of covering Rangers in Division Three

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

PAUL QUINN is not used to 15 seconds of fame, let alone 15 minutes. Under the heading “About Paul” the East Stirlingshire FC web site’s profile on the forward is blank. The 22-year-old signed from Stenhousemuir, is unaccustomed to media attention.

Yet on August 18, 2012, Quinn was doing an after-match interview because his penalty at Ibrox was the first goal Rangers had conceded at home as they started life in the Scottish Division Three. Rangers recovered to win 5-1 but Quinn was, in newspaper parlance, a story. And the reporter interviewing him was from the New York Times. Not the Falkirk News. The New York Times.

Kenny MacDonald, of the Scottish Sun, thought he had been there, seen it, done it and bought lots of T-shirts, but covering Rangers in the fourth tier of Scottish football has “made me see things I’d never seen in 35 years reporting football.”

MacDonald said: “I told Paul after his interview that he probably didn’t expect to be talking to the New York Times. In fact, at every game Rangers have played this season there have been foreign journalists. Canal+ from France, a Dutch TV crew…the interest has been incredible.”

One of the delights of being a football writer is covering a big club when they are drawn away to a non-league team in the FA Cup or Scottish Cup. A new ground…a genuine welcome from everyone proud of their special day…no jobsworth saying “you can’t go there.”

MacDonald said: “When Rangers went into Division Three during the summer we knew our satnavs were going to be in use more than usual. There was some trepidation among reporters about going to Elgin in mid-week in mid-winter. You drive all the way up there and you find the game’s off because they don’t have undersoil heating.

“At the same time we thought we’d been going to Easter Road or Tynecastle four times a season for 20 years, so it will be nice to see some different surroundings.”

MacDonald covered Rangers’ first league game this season at Peterhead, which is the easternmost point in mainland Scotland. He said: “You couldn’t get any further away than this. The furthest we would go in the SPL is Aberdeen, but Peterhead is almost an hour’s drive north. It’s not a great drive, either.

“We would only go to places like Peterhead for a Scottish Cup tie but, this was Rangers’ new world. I’d never covered a game at Balmoor, but had been there for a preview when Celtic played there in the Cup. I remember the drive from Glasgow and thought of Rangers fans getting there this time…for them, Division Three has become a badge of honour, they want to see every match.

“Ibrox is packed for every game, but Division Three grounds hold a fraction of Ibrox. Balmoor’s capacity is 4,000. I asked the Peterhead chairman where the press box was and the expression on his face was one of panic. He showed me the press box which comprised six seats on a passageway at the back of the stand with one electrical point.”

Around 30 football writers including Rangers’ own TV channel were at Balmoor for the historical match. “Peterhead did all they could and put in more seats, but it was a little bit sailing by the seat of our pants.”

Another new ground for MacDonald to cover a game was Annan’s Galabank. “That was an experience,” he said. “Annan are new to the Scottish League. Their stadium holds just over 2,000, but had never even been half full. Suddenly the circus came to town.

“They had to erect a TV gantry outside the ground on a pavement overlooking the pitch. It was a similar story when Rangers played Forres Mechanics in the Cup. Mosset Park in Forres is a beautiful, idyllic Highland setting but the 1,400-capacity ground was completely unprepared for the pantomime about to descend on them. Behind one goal the land slopes down and it was literally people’s gardens. They did a roaring trade for fans who had been unable to buy tickets, charging them a couple of quid to stand in their gardens to watch the game. The punters had a perfect, undisturbed view of the entire length of the pitch.”

Whatever the inevitable practical problems, the welcome Rangers management and players, the supporters and media have received in their new surroundings has been warm and friendly if different.

For the visit to Annan, the Rangers’ coach could not reach the players’ entrance. MacDonald said: “You know what footballers are like, they come off the team bus, headphones on and straight in the door. At Annan they had to walk 100 yards along this pot-holed road filled with puddles which was something new for them.”

Rangers, the only full-time club in Division Three, sold 36,000 season tickets and despite its lowly status, SFL3 is the only fourth tier in world football which has two FIFA- and UEFA-approved stadiums capable of hosting international and European finals – Ibrox and Hampden Park. Ibrox’s press box has wifi and electrical sockets for lap-tops, facilities understandably not available at most away grounds this season.

MacDonald: “I was at East Stirlingshire who play their homes games at Stenhousemuir and reporters without dongles for their lap-tops headed off to the local Subway coffee shop which is half a mile from the ground because it had wifi. We filed our copy having coffee and a sandwich.

“The best by a country mile was Forres. The press room was like a soup kitchen where there was cock-a-leekie soup, coffee, sandwiches and cakes before the game, at half-time and after the match. The local ladies who did the cooking gave reporters a little doggy-bag and waved us on our way with the words, which I’ll always remember: ‘Hope to see you all next week, we’re playing Turriff United.

“But too many SPL clubs are poor in the way they treat the media. I covered Dundee United v Hearts and the post-match press conference was held in a room where the stewards changed. It was dismally unsuitable for what it was being used for.

“In contrast, the way we’ve been treated in the Third Division has been very good. OK, you will get some guy whose seat has been moved to accommodate the press come and say ‘I never saw you on Tuesday night when there were only 200 here…I’ve sat there for 30 years, son, and now you have my seat.’ Unfortunately that comes with the territory, but generally speaking everyone has been great.”

While MacDonald and his colleagues know SPL players well, they are seeing new names on a regular basis now. “This is where there internet kicks in,” he said. “If we are going to Annan or East Stirlingshire we have to do background work on the players. If we’re lucky there will be a player nearing the end of his career who has slithered down the divisions who may have even played against Rangers in the past.

“While SPL clubs have a dedicated media officer, in Division Three you have to ask the secretary or manager to send in one of their players “and can you come in with him in so we know it is him.”

The demotion of Rangers has been a financial windfall for clubs who normally struggle to attract a crowd of 500, but MacDonald pointed out the visiting supporters are not being ripped off by inflated prices. “When Rangers went to Peterhead, the home club charged £12 a ticket, the same as any game. Rangers were worried clubs would hike-up their prices, but most have not done that. They are happy with two bumper gates from Rangers’ visits.”

Despite some disappointing away results MacDonald has no doubt Rangers will win promotion and manager Ally McCoist has been incredibly upbeat despite his club’s punishment. “Ally is a glass half full guy,” said MacDonald. “He’s conducted press conferences on the pitch in the rain, but there has never been any issue with him.”

If Rangers go up they will probably have visits to Cliftonhill, home of Division Two Albion Rovers and a) generally considered the worst senior ground in Scotland and b) located in Coatbridge, a monumental Celtic-supporting stronghold to come.

Some new adventures for Scottish football writers to come. At the moment, apart from his new professional experiences MacDonald has discovered something about his homeland he was unaware of. “I had reached the age of 53 without being aware there was a place in Scotland called Tarty which is a fishing village on the way to Peterhead. I remember seeing the sign and thought ‘if Rangers being in the Third Division has taught me nothing else, it has taught me there is a place in Scotland called Tarty.”

TRAPPISH – THE LANGUAGE THAT IS MAKING LEGEND TRAPATTONI A FIGURE OF RIDICULE

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COLIN YOUNG of the Daily Mail explains the difficulties of working with Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

IF THE football writers who cover England thought Fabio Capello was hard work, a few days with his fellow countryman Giovanni Trapattoni would have them yearning for the good old days under Don Fabio.

After Giovanni Trapattoni’s press conferences, conducted in what those who follow the Republic of Ireland call Trappish, the journalists get together in an effort to agree on what they think the Italian said.

Trappatoni has been manager of Ireland for four and a half years, but Colin Young, who has covered Ireland for the Daily Mail and The Sun since the Mick McCarthy era, said: “His English has actually got worse during that period.

“When Capello was in charge of England, the problems he had and what he was criticised for by the media and English players…they didn’t know how lucky they were, compared to being with Trapattoni.”

His press conference ahead of the friendly against Greece had even experienced Trapattoni watchers scratching their collective heads, his muddled English compounded by saying “black” and “eight” in reference to players. Young said: “It was possibly the most baffling one yet and they are always baffling.

“It just didn’t make sense. Twenty hours later, just before the Greece game was to kick off, we were still trying to work out what it all meant. Even those of us who went through the tape recording of the press conference couldn’t make complete sense of it.

“A lot of what Trapattoni says you have to assume what he meant or translate yourself. His usual translator, Manuela Spinelli, who has been with him from day one, wasn’t there on Tuesday. Peter Sherrard is the FAI’s director of communications and while he speaks very good Italian, he doesn’t have the sort of grasp that Manuela has of what Traps is trying to say.

“Tuesday’s press conference by Trapattoni would not have been allowed by the English FA. The Irish press are far from happy with the situation but he’s got away with it. I once wrote the answers Trapattoni delivered verbatim so readers could appreciate just how difficult it is for us to put what he says into proper English.”

After press conferences the Irish written media get together in an effort to agree what they should say Traps said. Neil O’Riordan of the Irish Sun is usually the man entrusted with the final version which, to ensure uniformity, he emails to his colleagues.

Perhaps to his credit, Trapattoni has always insisted on doing his press conferences in English. Young said: “The problem is, he’s 73, he lives in Milan and the only time he speaks English is when he comes here. He’s not going to start English lessons now, especially as he might not be in the job too much longer.

“I find his press conferences frustrating. I’ve begged the FAI to make him do them in Italian. I can understand why he wants to be seen speaking English but the downside of that is television struggle to find even a small segment to broadcast. The purpose of a press conference, from the FAI’s viewpoint, is to sell tickets, not to sell newspapers. But the manager is not doing his job.

“He is becoming a figure of ridicule, not the legend he really is. A couple of times during the press conference there were sniggers and guffaws from the press audience. And how his captain John O’Shea managed to keep a straight face, I really don’t know. He looked as baffled and bemused as the rest of us.

“When Ireland played Italy twice in the 2010 World Cup campaign he did his press conferences in Italian with Manuela translating. There were some lovely, anecdotal, colourful stories. It was the same when Ireland played Bulgaria and Cathal Dervan [sports editor of the Irish Sun] and I had some time with Trapattoni. He spoke in Italian with translation. It was brilliant…the fans had been chanting his name after the 1-1 draw in Sofia which he really appreciated and he became quite emotional when he spoke about his mother and upbringing.

“It was so much easier and so much better, but he is the one who dictates which language he speaks in and he insists on Trappish.”

Trapattoni’s lack of English also presents inevitable problems for the players. Young said: “We have signed former player Kevin Kilbane as a columnist and he has given an insight into the difficulties the players face. Quite often communication is not a problem because he doesn’t communicate with them.

“When he was appointed, Liam Brady was there and he was a brilliant go-between because he spoke Italian and understood what Trapattoni was trying to say in terms of theories and tactics. Brady has since left and now at half-time Trapattoni doesn’t say anything, neither does his assistant Marco Tardelli. The players do it all. It’s a really bizarre ritual with the manager saying nothing but that’s the way it has always been.”

Initially Trappattoni’s stature as a club manager – seven Serie A titles, one European Cup, three UEFA Cups, one Cup-winners’ Cup in Italy, plus championships in Germany, Portugal and Austria – gave him instant respect. “That helped him a lot and got his foot in the door,” said Young. “The majority of the squad knew of his achievements but the newer, younger Ireland players who are 19 or 20 are less aware of this reputation. They don’t remember what he did with Juventus, Inter and Bayern Munich.”

Trapattoni’s inability to talk to his players in a way they are used to with their club managers has seen confrontations with some squad members. Darron Gibson (Everton), James McCarthy (Wigan), James McClean (Sunderland) and Kevin Foley (Wolves) have all had communication problems with the manager. Young said: “There are no one-on-ones and Trapattoni doesn’t feel he has to explain his decisions to anyone. He’s the complete opposite of someone like Mick McCarthy.”

Wolves utility player Foley was in the original squad for the Euro 2012 finals and was in the training camp in Montecatini, Italy. He was informed just hours before the Euro Finals deadline that he would not be going to the finals before the warm-up friendly against Hungary. Young said: “Trapattoni dropped Foley from the squad in a cold hearted way, but he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. If Mick had to tell a player he wasn’t going to a finals he would have had sleepless nights for a week worrying about how he would announce it and the effect it would have on the player.”

Trapattoni had previously watched his players playing for their clubs on television or on DVDs at his home in Milan, but at a recent meeting with FAI chief executive John Delaney the manager was told he must attend matches to see Ireland internationals first hand.

Young said: “It wasn’t a problem before because they had qualified for Euro 2012, so whatever system he had in place six months ago was working. Ireland were unbeaten in 14 games, most of those matches clean sheets, they were at a major finals for the first time in 10 years so while what he was doing then was being scrutinised, it certainly wasn’t criticised.”

Euro 2012 could hardly have gone worse for Ireland who left the finals without a point, scoring one goal in three inept displays. The FAI had extended Trapattoni’s contract for a further two years before the squad left for Poland and Ukraine and Young said: “In hindsight they got a little carried away with themselves and they now cannot afford to get rid of him.”

Trapattoni’s popularity is plummeting yet despite the record 6-1 home defeat by Germany and needing two goals in the final three minutes to beat Kazakhstan it is not beyond the realms of possibility for Ireland to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. Young said: “If they grind out results against Sweden and Austria as they did in the last two qualifying campaigns they could finish second.”

In the Euro 2012 qualifiers just about every break went Ireland’s way, being the recipients of some generous penalty decisions, opponents being harshly dismissed and then drawing Estonia, the weakest link in the play-offs.

“At various points in the last two campaigns he’s been lucky, the sort of good fortune that often deserted his predecessors, though Trapattoni may counter that with the Thierry Henry incident in the 2010 World Cup play-off against France in Paris.”

In any language, the Hand of Gaul cost Ireland dearly

Trappish…Giovanni Trapattoni’s word-for-word reply when asked after Ireland 1-0 defeat by Greece whether his side’s failure to convert possession into goals is the biggest disappointment:

[Asks for clarification of something in Italian]. “Yes, yes, there is this situation. You have to no forget this team is there [unintelligible] plays is strong team, play, play, played a long time together is a good maybe missing little bit heavy in the [something Italian], in the box, but possession is no enough is right what you say. But it was important our confident, the look, the score, look also this situation. Eh this watch about our personality because is there, is the first game Coleman, the first game also okay Long play something time, but I think we had this good impact approach because it was important. It was important after make a good performance after this disappoint, the German. Also Faroe eh Kazakstan [starts speaking in Italian, translated roughly as ‘we have seen a progression’]. Yes.”

A WORKAHOLIC BESET BY A SENSE OF NEVER BEING QUITE GOOD ENOUGH

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Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona were the greatest team many have ever seen, but Guillem Balagué reveals in his new book the former Barca coach is a workaholic beset by a sense of never being quite good enough.

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

THE SPECULATION will intensify as the season progresses, there will be exclusives about his next destination with “sources” confirming it will be Chelsea, Manchester City, Inter Milan or whoever, but right now even Pep Guardiola does not know where he will be working next season.

The man who coached the Barcelona team that most (outside of Madrid) rate as the best they have ever seen will end his self-enforced sabbatical next summer and return to football. Guardiola will not be tempted by the highest bidder because, as Guillem Balagué explains in a superbly researched and highly readable biography Pep Guardiola – Another Way Of Winning, the Catalan will choose a club that seduces him with football rather than finance.

“Pep only moved once in his career for money, when he went to Qatar,” Balagué told footballwriters.co.uk. A 33-year-old Guardiola joined Al-Ahli on a two-year contract worth US$4 million, but as Balagué explains in his book: “After playing 18 games and spending most of his time lounging by the pool in his complex…he went for a trial at Manchester City, spending 10 days under Stuart Pearce’s eye in 2005. Eventually Pep turned down a six-month contract in Manchester, wanting a longer deal that the City manager was not prepared to offer…and joined Mexican side Dorados de Sinaloa.”

Balagué, a lifelong Espanyol fan and a familiar figure in English football because of his regular appearances on Sky Sports’ coverage of Spanish football, admires Guardiola, a complex character who invested so much into his first experience as a manager he needed pills to help him sleep.

In the biography, Balagué outlines Guardiola’s self-imposed work-load: “Despite having 24 assistants he worked longer hours than most of them. His players will tell you he is a coach whose care for the smallest detail improves them, who can see and communicate the secrets of the game. They see a complex man with so much on his mind, always mulling things over, excessively so sometimes. Players say they are sure he would like to spend more time with his wife and kids but he can’t, because he dedicates the vast majority of his time to winning games. He lives for that, but sometimes even they wonder: does he overdo it?

“He would go for walks with his partner and their children to help him find some sort of emotion balance.

“‘A manager’s work is never done,’ Pep was often heard saying. One morning, the enthusiastic Pep seen the previous day had made way for a silent Pep whose words said one thing but his sunken eyes another. ‘What’s wrong?’ one of his colleagues asked him. ‘Yesterday I should have gone to see my daughter in a ballet and I couldn’t go.’ ‘Why not?’ his friend asked, surprised. ‘Because I was watching videos of our opponents.’”

So would being a slave to the cause, which contributed to him taking a year off, not remain with Guardiola when he returns? Balagué said: “Many people in this day and age overwork, we do too much. It can reach a point where you stop loving what you are doing and he lost that.

“When you are the sort of person who has to give absolutely everything, you take that with you everywhere. You go to the next club and you still have to do 120 per cent. Pep will not just want to keep learning about the game, he will want to know about the club’s history and the culture of the place where he lives. So he will immerse himself again with work, trying to gather information because that’s how he does it. The hope for him and his family is that he can balance it more so he can last a little longer.”

Balagué writes in the book: “Pep sets impossibly high standards and is beset by a sense of never quite being good enough. Guardiola might look strong and capable of carrying a club and nation on his shoulders but he is very sensitive about the reaction of the team and about disappointing the fans by not meeting their expectations. Or his own.”

He said: “At his next club he cannot fail. To him he would be failing himself, failing a nation, failing the club, failing his family…so he’d have to work even more to achieve this.”

Having reached footballing utopia at the Nou Camp, there will inevitably be the belief that the Guardiola magic can be transferred elsewhere and he can create Barca II. “It is impossible,” said Balagué. “I’m not sure how he will approach this or what message he will give the people at his new club. He will produce good football and he believes in a way of playing football. He will take that with him, he will maximise what he has at his disposal, he will improve the players, look at every detail to beat the other team…that kind of thing.”

In 2008 Guardiola took over a successful team put together by Frank Rijkaard, albeit one with signs of ill-discipline which was soon sorted, starting with the departure of Ronaldinho. Balagué said: “He took some significant decisions which not everyone was in favour of but as a manager from the first minute Guardiola did the right things, then as a coach he took the team to a completely new level. He combined the lessons he had learned from everyone…from Johan Cruyff, from his close friend Juanma Lillo who was his coach in Mexico, from people in Italy [where he played for Roma and Brescia] and applied all this to his own football philosophies.

“I have never seen a better team than the one Guardiola produced. He took a side that was maybe 7/10 to the limit at a time when everyone knows everything about each other, about the players, the tactics and still took them above everybody else in the world.”

His four years as coach saw Guardiola win 14 major honours. At Barcelona, the motto is “more than a club” and Guardiola, a key member of Cruyff’s Dream Team of the Nineties, is a symbol not just of Barca, but Catalonia. Balagué understands Guardiola’s decision to leave a team with players such as Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi (you could name the entire squad) but “I don’t completely agree with it.”

In the book Balagué writes: “By the end of his tenure he was no longer the youthful, eager, enthusiastic manager Sir Alex Ferguson met that night in Rome [in 2009]. On the day he announced he was leaving his boyhood club you could see the toll it had taken, it was discernible in his eyes and in his receding hairline, now flecked with grey.

“When he took the job he was a youthful looking 37-year-old. Eager, ambitions, enthusiastic. Now look at him four years later, he doesn’t look 41, does he? To be a coach at Barcelona requires a lot of energy and after four years, now that he no longer enjoyed the European nights, now that Real Madrid had made La Liga an exhausting challenge on and off the field, Guardiola felt it was time to depart from the all-consuming entity he had served – with a break of only six years – since he was 13. And when he returns – because he will return – isn’t it best to do so having left on a high?”

Balague said: “I remember something Luis Aragonés said to me. He is one of the wise men and said: ‘I don’t believe Pep when he says he is tired.’

“I don’t believe it entirely, either. When Pep was a player at Barcelona he left the club too late. Cruyff always told him he, himself, should have left two years earlier. Guardiola always had the idea, from minute one, that he wasn’t going to last long. So I think there’s a bit of a strategy behind all this. It was a combination of many things, including the fact there were a lot of very hard decisions that had to be taken. He built this team from love as well as from tactics and everything else. Try telling your kids ‘sorry I don’t want you any more’ or ‘you’re not playing in the team.’ That demanded an emotional investment he was not prepared to do.”

Balagué is adamant the world’s most sought after out-of-work manager will not return to work until next summer. His advisors are constantly in touch with Europe’s leading clubs and Balagué said: “The only thing they are trying to convince him of at the moment is to say ‘yes’ to a club and start working in the shadows.

“Everyone likes money, but Guardiola will be saying ‘show me this club can be taken to the top, show me it can be done in the way that I like.’ There is no point in him going to a club that prefers to play long balls or does not have a squad that is ready to keep the ball.”

The smart money would be on Guardiola’s next stop being England, Germany or Italy. In the book, Sir Alex Ferguson writes in the foreword: “I missed out on signing Pep Guardiola as a player back at the time that his future no longer lay at Barcelona. Maybe the timing I chose was wrong. It would have been interesting: he was the kind of player that Paul Scholes developed into. Sometimes you look back at a really top player and you say to yourself: ‘I wonder what it would have been like if he’d come to United?’ That was the case with Pep Guardiola.”

The longest-serving manager in British football makes no secret of his admiration for man who ticks just about every box needed for his successor.

Ferguson wrote: “One thing I have noticed about Guardiola – crucial to his immense success as a manager – is that he has been very humble. He has never tried to gloat, he has been very respectful and that is very important. As a coach he is very disciplined in terms of how his team plays, whether they win or lose he is always the unpretentious individual. And to be honest, I think it is good to have someone like that in this profession.”

Would Guardiola’s pending availability persuade Ferguson to step down? “I am pretty sure Ferguson and the club have discussed the possibility of that,” said Balagué. “It doesn’t mean it will happen because we all know Sir Alex wants to be there for at least another year or two. He lost the opportunity of getting Guardiola as a player, but would he retire to bring him in to take over? No.

“Pep has not told anyone he wants to go to this club or that club in England. From what I know of him, at 10 in the morning he’ll have made a decision, at 11 he’ll think ‘well, actually…’ and at one he’ll be thinking about another club. By the evening he’ll have ruled them all out. It will take him months to decide to take his family to another country and for him to join another club.

“I think it’s clear Chelsea are doing all they can to convince him, they have probably been the most consistent ones.”

Wherever Guardiola’s next port of call may be, Balagué is sure he will one day return to Barcelona.

“He’s going back, no doubt about it.” As coach? “We’ll see. It’s the kind of thing he has not decided, but I am 100 per cent sure he will go back at some point.”

How Barcelona developed under Guardiola.

The team that Rijkaard left in 2008 was: Valdes – Zambrotta, Milito, Puyol, Abidal – Yaya Toure – Xavi, Iniesta – Messi, Eto’o, Henry.

The starting XI for the 2009 Champions League final against Manchester United was: Valdes – Puyol, Toure, Pique, Sylvinho – Busquets – Iniesta, Xavi – Messi, Eto’o, Henry.

By 2010 it was: Valdes – Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal – Busquets – Xavi, Iniesta – Messi, Ibrahimovic, Pedro.

In 2011: Valdes – Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Abidal – Busquets – Iniesta, Xavi – Pedro, Messi, Villa.

Guardiola’s last season: Valdes – Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Puyol – Busquets – Xavi, Fabregas – Alexis, Messi, Iniesta.

*Pep Guardiola – Another Way of Winning: The Biography by Guillem Balagué (Orion £20).

 

WHEN THIERRY BECAME HENRY

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PHILIPPE AUCLAIR thinks Thierry Henry has a right to be considered France’s greatest footballer but in a ‘love letter’ he explains the character of the player changed…

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

IT IS sad that a player who gave Arsenal, English and French football such joy, so many moments of incredible skill, scoring breathtaking goals after a 60-yard lung-bursting run should be remembered as much for a handball (pedants will argue two handballs) as the pleasure he served up.

Thierry Henry remains the only three-time winner of the Footballer of the Year award, a distinction likely to remain for a long time unless double-winner Cristiano Ronaldo returns to the Barclays Premier League or Lionel Messi fancies giving up el clasico for Chelsea v Arsenal or the Manchester derby.

The Hand Of Gaul is a tattoo for life and what Henry did in the 103rd minute of the 2010 World Cup play-off second leg between France and the Republic of Ireland on November 18, 2009 was as surprising as it was unacceptable. It was so out of character – a word Philippe Auclair uses frequently when talking about Henry in a fascinating, absorbing biography Lonely At The Top.

Auclair, France Football’s London-based correspondent for over a decade, believes Henry has a right to be considered an even greater player than Zinedine Zidane whose glorious career ended ignominiously and violently in the 2006 World Cup final. Admiring Henry is one thing; liking him is another. And the more Auclair spoke to people about Henry for the book the more uncomfortable he became about France’s finest.

“You have to make the distinction between the person and the persona,” said Auclair. “I do not know the person well enough to have the right to place any judgment on him. It’s a very important distinction. But I am like many people in France in that I am ambivalent towards Henry, which is why the book proved quite difficult to write. I would come across people who were telling me things about Thierry that I didn’t particularly want to hear and was reminded of the very strong feelings some have about him, not all positive.”

In his book Cantona: The Rebel Who Would Be King, it was clear that Auclair, perhaps reluctantly, was won over by the player Manchester United supporters still call King Eric.

Auclair said: “There were many flaws in Cantona, we know what they are, but there is a certain generosity of spirit in him and a sparkling wit that, for me, was impossible to resist. The more I worked on the Cantona book the more I became drawn to the character, but the more I worked on the book about Thierry the more difficult it became to retain the very warm feeling I had towards him when I began writing it, but which I thankfully recaptured after his return to Arsenal and that beautiful night at the Emirates, when he scored against Leeds. It was something I found hard to deal with at times, however.

“I tried not to pass judgment which is up to the reader, especially whether I’ve been fair or not. I have tried to be fair with Thierry as I tried to be fair with Cantona.

“But my admiration for the Thierry the player is absolute and I do not think he is revered or admired as much as he should be. The handball in Paris tarnished his image and the strength of reaction to that incident was because such a so-called crime against football was so out of character. “

Auclair writes in the book: “When the British papers tried to find ‘previous’ in Thierry’s career, and tried they did, they failed to do so. Henry’s increasingly aloof demeanour may have grated with some, indeed with many, but he had never been labelled a ‘cheat’ before. He didn’t dive or wave imaginary yellow cards when he had been fouled, and heaven knows he was fouled more than most, when defenders could get to him, that is.”

The stage, with a place at the 2010 World Cup finals up for grabs, inevitably exaggerated the consequences of the handball, but Auclair said: “The image of Thierry sitting on the grass with Richard Dunne after the game as the celebrations went on really hurt a great number of people. I’ve tried [in the book] to express the disarray in French football after that.”

Another paradox of Henry was the lack of emotion he often showed after scoring the sort of stunning goal that lit up English football. “I wouldn’t say he was incapable of enjoying the moment,” said Auclair. “It’s more that he used to transport himself out of the game while being in it. He’s a reserved sort of guy, his own harshest critic, with incredible powers of self-analysis on the field, not someone who jumps up and down. He finds it hard to express this side of himself, he seems to be on his guard permanently, always thinking ahead.”

Auclair has closely followed Henry’s career from his early days at Monaco, where Arsene Wenger was his coach, to his glory days at Arsenal.

In the book he writes: “It was hard to reconcile the sweet, generous Thierry who had stood talking to us at Highbury, barely protected from the rain by an umbrella-wielding press officer, with the increasingly aloof Henry I had to deal with on a weekly basis later in his career.”

Auclair said: “His status changed. Thierry became Henry. He was very aware of his status which saw the progress from ambition to its realisation. For that you need to be focused to such an extent that I think you can lose touch…lose contact with your environment in such a way that you will appear distant, haughty not scornful though not very far from it.”

While it is common for players and managers to claim they never read the papers – yet they always seem aware of criticism, if not praise – Henry not only made a point of seeing what had been written about him, but contacting any journalist whose comments he felt unfair.

In the book, Auclair writes: “Oliver Holt of the Daily Mirror has told how – on the eve of the 2006 Champions League final – Thierry spent 20 minutes chastising him for having mistaken the council estate he grew up in with another in a preview piece. An amateur psyschologist would perhaps explain this hypersensitivity as a direct consequence of the willingness of his father to simultaneously praise (in public) and chastise (mostly in private) his son for his performances, which ultimately he found unbearable. What is certain is that at the heart of this superb player lay a feeling of insecurity that he often found impossible to disguise and which he tried to assuage by trying to exercise an ever-growing measure of control over what he said and what was said about him.”

Auclair said: “He set himself extraordinarily high targets. If you look in terms of the honours he won and how he won them, he’s achieved almost as much as anyone in modern football yet somehow still does not belong to that extra special group of players who dominate an era.I feel this is an injustice, which I hoped to set right.

“If you asked me which was the greater player, Henry or Zidane…in terms of achievements in his career I’d be tempted to say Thierry, even though Zidane scored two goals in a World Cup final and the winning goal in a Champions League final. In this respect I’d place Thierry on a par with Zidane, perhaps even above him, despite the fact that Zidane, in absolute terms, thinking of his vision and technique, was superior to him – and to everybody else, for that matter.

“But going back to the persona of Thierry, everybody who had to work with him noticed the changes between the player between 1999 and 2004 to the player of his last few years at Arsenal and then Barcelona. He became more and more remote. Maybe that’s the consequence of fame or success. Most people who experience such an ascent within their profession, whatever it may be, have to build mechanisms of self-preservation. Thierry had to, in order to survive, from the very beginning. It only got tougher. This is a guy who has been driven to become a great footballer almost since he was born and has been under tremendous pressure.”

The distance clubs place between players and the press these days makes it increasingly difficult to build up a close relationship with the people those who cover football write about. In the book Auclair is dismissive of those writers “willing to concur with Henry being able, with some luck and provided they wrote for a publication that carried enough clout, to join the inner circle.”

He writes: “Each paper has at least a couple of these privileged reporters on its staff; some of them are groomed from a very young age, sent out to follow youth teams in the hope they’ll sympathise with players whom it’ll be indispensible to develop a close working relationship with later in their careers. The first time I engaged in small talk with one of them I felt like a concert-goer who had crossed the path of a record company executive wearing an invisible ‘access all areas’ badge around his neck.

“Likewise, some of those who, much to their chagrin and despite their best efforts, were not asked to sit at the master’s table or who were told to leave it, contributed much to darken the player’s reputation out of sheer spite and resentment, with scant regard for their target’s outstanding achievements.”

Auclair, who makes no secret that his favourite French player and the one he considers the most charming is Robert Pires, said: “Thierry didn’t exploit that as many other players have, but if that was unusual, it wasn’t to have a select group of journalists who he used as PRs, so to speak. When you surround yourself with people who will not criticise you it is not the best recipe for having as open a view of the world as possible.”

When Henry reads Auclair’s book what does the author believe the subject will think about his efforts?

“There are elements in it that might not please him, reminders of difficult moments in his career, not just the Ireland episode but his early days when things almost went pear-shaped at Monaco. He made some mistakes which he paid for. But I hope he will feel that this book is also, in the end, a love letter to a magnificent player, whose greatness is not always recognised as it should”.

THIERRY HENRY Lonely At The Top: A Biography by Philippe Auclair (Macmillan, £17.99) is out on November 8.