Graham's Blog

So, after speaking to Mark Noble, the West Ham captain kindly signed a shirt for us. And you have the chance to win it! Here’s what you have to do…

Just scroll down and put your email address into the ‘Subscribe’ box directly underneath this post. That means you’ll be on the Big Interview mailing list (if you’re already on the mailing list you don’t need to do anything).

On Thursday, we’ll email you a Noble-related question. Hit ‘reply’ to Thursday’s email with your answer, and we’ll announce a winner on Friday.

And if you don’t win, don’t worry. You’ll now be on our mailing list and will have the chance to win more goodies in the future, submit questions to our guests and get the latest podcasts sent directly to your inbox.

Good luck!

Graham

OUR latest clip show follows on from a previous episode, when The Big Interview zeroed in on those very special footballers: the mavericks.

Harry Redknapp has known more than his share of those players during his career and he talks about the likes of The Ghost John White, George Best and Paolo Di Canio.

Harry also coached two true mavericks at Portsmouth: Paul Merson and King Kanu. Listen out for the story about how the Nigerian was taken home from the airport – it’s one of the funniest anecdotes I’ve ever heard while recording these podcasts.

Of course, we Scots also know a thing or two about idiosyncratic footballers, and in this podcast you will hear about two of the best. Listen as Joe Jordan reminisces about the genius of Jimmy Johnstone, while Graeme Souness talks about Alan Gilzean, the king of White Hart Lane.

They were all special players. And this is a special Big Interview.

Enjoy!

THE Big Interview with Neil Lennon was a wonderful evening and we gave those who attended a chance to get involved, holding a Q & A with the Hibs manager at the end. Remember that you can still play your part in this podcast by donating to Ardgowan Hospice – who we were helping to raise money for on the night.

Neil held court brilliantly as he fielded questions from the floor, talking frankly about player development and giving his views about where clubs and coaches are going wrong.

He was also asked about the most talented managers in football today and reveals which one he would most like to have worked under as a player.

And there is a wonderful tribute to a coach from his past: the late Tommy Burns. Neil recalls how the former Celtic coach once “refereed” a training ground confrontation between Derek Riordan and Gary Caldwell.

Enjoy!

HE shifted uncomfortably in his seat, turning his head quickly to find an exit. It had only been 20 minutes and already Neil Lennon was ready to leave. About half an hour earlier he had idled outside to watch the crowd gather, amused by the excited chattering of those around him. But now that he was inside and the evening was underway, Lennon suddenly felt uneasy.

This was the scene the Northern Irishman described during his Big Interview just before Christmas last year – the first we have recorded in front of a live audience. Fortunately, Lennon had not been referring to his experience that night at Greenock Town Hall, but had instead been offering an insight into an evening four years earlier, when he had flown to Spain to scout FC Barcelona.

He was Celtic manager then and his team were due to play the Catalan giants in the group stages of the Champions League.

Lennon, accompanied by his assistant Johan Mjallby, had chosen to attend a Liga match between Barcelona and Deportivo La Coruna at the Estadio Riazor, hoping to witness something rarely seen in that Barca team of 2012: weakness.

After just 18 minutes the Celtic coaches had already considered calling off their expedition – with Jordi Alba, Cristian Tello and Lionel Messi putting the visitors three goals up. But Lennon kept his vigil and was rewarded when Deportivo hit back, scoring in either half as they fell to a 5-4 defeat.

Lennon watched carefully each time Barcelona conceded a goal. He had seen a chink in their armour which his Celtic players might be able to exploit it. “Of the goals Deportivo scored, one was an own goal, one was from a corner, one was a penalty and the other was a free-kick. So, straight away, you are thinking: set plays,” Lennon says in the podcast, which we recorded live to help raise funds for Ardgowan Hospice in Greenock.

He took that little idea and turned into a tall order for Barcelona, with Celtic scoring from a set piece in both of their group matches against the Catalan side. In the Camp Nou, Charlie Mulgrew clipped a free-kick towards the front post for Georgios Samaras to nod in, while Victor Wanyama scored from a corner kick at Celtic Park.

Samaras’ goal at 1:08 in the video above shows how Celtic exploited Barca’s zonal marking in Spain, allowing the Greek to use his superior height to beat Javier Masherano in the air. “We had studied them zonally and they had  Mascherano, Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta, Jordi Alba – they didn’t have a big team,” Lennon recalls. “Take Gerard Pique out of the equation and we knew we had a chance.”

Celtic made sure that size mattered when they were defending too, closing the gaps through the middle and forcing the ball wide, leaving Barcelona to fall back on crosses to their diminutive attacking players.

That tactic had been used successfully against Barcelona in the Champions League before. Lennon found the evidence following a not-so-anonymous tip – a phone call from a certain Sir Alex Ferguson.

“Sir Alex rang me and said: ‘Look, if you want to know how to play against them then watch Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan,’ the match in 2010,” Lennon says. “They were 3-1 up from the first leg and Mourinho had world-class players like [Marco] Materazzi, [Wesley] Sneijder, [Samuel] Eto’o, Diego Milito . . . but, basically, they camped in the first third of the pitch and made Barcelona play wide. Inter forced them into crosses.

“Inter hung on and hung on – they lost 1-0 – but in the first 20 minutes the possession stats were 72 per cent to Barcelona and 18 per cent for Inter Milan. I thought that if it’s good enough for these guys, then it’s good enough for us.”

It was certainly good enough for a special night in Glasgow, inspired by their performance in Barcelona two weeks earlier. “After he lost narrowly at the Camp Nou, I told them to hold on to that feeling about how close they had been and use it as their motivation for the next game,” Lennon says.

“They had shown they were good enough to take something off that Barcelona team and, a fortnight later, they did.”

JUST about every guest I’ve spoken to on The Big Interview had a tale of transfers which went right, others that went spectacularly wrong and those which fell through at the last minute.

During this clip show you’ll hear Charlie Nicholas talk about a move to Nice which went so far off track that he ended up at Aberdeen. And there is Peter Beardsley’s tale of how he ended up at Manchester United, which is one of the finest on any podcast I’ve done. Damien Duff, Gary McAllister and Alan Pardew also reveal the details behind the big transfer stories in their careers.

Then there are the deals which didn’t happen. Jody Morris’ exit from Chelsea was a saga, while Darren Fletcher still regrets the collapse of a move to Spain and Michael O’ Neill looks back at how an early Bosman switch to Sturm Graz hit the buffers.

David Moyes and Jamie Carragher will also talk about player recruitment, and there will even be time for a couple of tales about Eric Cantona before The Big Interview’s transfer window slams shut.

Enjoy!