Author: neil

Michael O’Neill: The Player Whisperer

12 May 2016

Shortly after the interview you are about to hear, Michael O’Neill would be near the front of the field for the next manager of Celtic. It won’t be the last time he’s quoted for headline jobs.

We met in Edinburgh and he broke down in fascinating detail the way he shaped and guided a Northern Ireland squad to this phenomenal achievement of qualification for Euro 2016. He carefully separates the message and the delivery and explains why both need to be perfect to get the best results. If you can enlist world champion boxers or stadium rock stars to aid your cause, so much the better.

Enjoy!

Graham

Eddie Howe: The Best You Can Be

28 Apr 2016

What Eddie Howe has achieved at Bournemouth is remarkable and after spending an hour with him at that club, it’s impossible to imagine that this is the high-water mark in his young career.

Here’s a different kind of football mind: highly analytical, but also reflective, aware of the influence of his work on his life, and the other way around.

He started his managerial career operating under a transfer embargo, determined to improve the players he had to work with. It’s become his signature – if you listen to this and try to put yourself in his dressing room, I think it’s easy to imagine how it works.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

G

PS – If you’re enjoying these podcasts, please leave a review on iTunes or wherever you get them. It helps others find us. Thanks!

Hi Graham, it’s Johan

15 Mar 2016

This felt like going full circle. Berlin not Barcelona, but Cruyff again. 

Outside of my childhood Aberdeen heroes, it was Johan who absolutely riveted my attention from 1971 onwards on the brief occasions that I could watch Ajax dominating Europe on Sportsnight or when the BBC showed the European Cup finals, three of them, that the ‘other’ team in red and white won consecutively. 
 
By chance I was in Barcelona, working, when Cruyff was sacked by FC Barcelona and, unbeknownst to me, the tectonic plates of the football world moved irrevocably. 
 
Joan Laporta decided to protest, his movement led him to be president seven years later and ‘Cruyff principles’ were re-introduced to the Camp Nou. Coincidentally the ‘sop’ to the Barcelona fans for Cruyff’s sacking in 1996 was Luis Enrique being pinched, on a free, from Real Madrid. How did that end up for Lucho and Barça?
 
During my life in Barcelona I’ve met and interviewed Cruyff a few times – nothing was cooler than him phoning me at my house ahead of the 2011 Wembley final and saying: ‘Hi Graham, it’s Johan’. That’ll do it for me. 
 
While here I’ve seen football the likes of which has never been played before and while it’s been Ronaldinho, Xavi, Iniesta, Etoo, Piqué, Busquets, Messi, Neymar, Suarez performing it, rather than Johan himself, none of it would have taken root here, specifically, were it not for him, his teachings, his influence. Without Laporta, Begiristain, Guardiola all believing fervently in his football philosophy.
Basic RGB
 Dan Leydon’s art for my book on Barça, illustrating the through-line from Cruyff to Messi
But this picture shows the two of us in Berlin, last November, just a couple of weeks before his cancer diagnosis – so far, so good on that particular fight.
 
We were to talk about youth development, football philosophy, how to steer a modern club which wants to embed technique and tactics in its central nervous system. 
Around us, representatives from AC Milan, Sporting Lisbon, Athletic Club, Everton, Spurs, Zenit, Inter, Manchester United, Atlético, Feyenoord, Benfica, Borussia Dortmund – many many more. 
 
‘Be firm with him, don’t let him meander off into his own musings’ Johan’s minder affably warned me before the hour-long interview. ‘He’s in a good mood, he enjoyed that’ she said post event. 
 
Me? I knew that I’d spent the morning with, pound for pound, the most important and influential man in the history of football. 
Doesn’t get much better than that. 
About the book Barça

The Making of the Greatest Team in the World

Bergomi, Baresi, Tassotti,Battistini … and McAvennie

08 Mar 2016

There were a couple of reasons why I wanted to start an interview with Frank McAvennie not about Stringfellows, West Ham, court cases or putting Scotland into the 1986 World Cup, but about him knocking Italy out of the Under-21 European Championships.

When I began to be taken to Pittodrie in the late 1960’s my Dad would initially only take me to see the reserves play (in Chelsea-style all royal-blue). I would fixate on which young players I could spot and then follow as they forced their way into Eddie Turnbull’s first team.

Then, in 1973, when I was ten, someone gave me the SFA Centenary annual which contained every Scotland lineup, fixture and score. I pored over it looking for patterns – who emerged only to be dropped permanently, who disappeared for a year then came back to play 40 times… typical football anorak kid. I wanted to know their stories. I wanted to know ‘why?’ The Little Interview was carried on in my head.

But there were also details of B team games and Under-21s: I wanted to see who were the tyros who were spotted young and then made it big.

So in Spring 1982, as I was preparing to spend that summer in Spain for the World Cup, I was stunned to see Scotland go to Italy and knock the mighty Azzurri out of the Under-21 European Championship. Particularly as Aberdeen’s magnificent Neil Simpson was the dominant midfield player in that team and Jim Leighton was in goal.

Italy programme

Those with elephantine memories will recall that Scotland then lost a Euro semi-final to England who went on to win the tournament. Jolly well done, England.

But pre-internet and with no broadcast of that tournament, I didn’t know the caliber of footballer that Scotland team were up against. The following years would prove that Mauro Tassotti (three Champions Leagues and five Serie A titles), Franco Baresi (three Champions Leagues, six Serie A titles), Sergio Battistini (two Uefa Cups]) and Beppe Bergomi, all in the starting XI against McAvennie and company that day, were quite good.

Bergomi, Frank’s direct marker that day, was in the starting XI for Italy which won the World Cup final against Germany in Madrid only five months later. Think about that.

bergomi

I’ve never seen footage of the Italy match, I’ve never read anyone talking about it and I still think it was an standout achievement – something indicative of not only how much more talented our footballers were back in those days but how much more competitive, possessed of a mentality I yearn for in Scotland teams today.

So, that’s why I started The Big Interview with Frank McAvennie, who scored the only goal of the 180-minute tie, talking about a game 34 years ago (which seems like yesterday to me) and spent the rest of the Boys of ’86 discussion wishing I could get him back on the subject of Catanzaro, the locals throwing stones and bottles at the Scottish players and three of the Azzurri’s all-time greats being put to the sword by our own boys in blue.
Cheers Frank.