The Big Interview

Welcome to our Big Interview Icons series where we shine a light on a legend whose name has lit up some of the conversations I’ve had with my guests over the years. This episode focuses on Pep Guardiola.

Rio Ferdinand reflects on Manchester United’s two Champions League final defeats to Pep’s Barcelona and is bighearted enough to wax lyrical about Pep’s genius. He is gutted that he was not brought in to manage at Old Trafford.

Germany midfielder Ilkay Gundogan loves playing for Guardiola at Manchester City. He’s not an easy man all the time, but ultimately you know that he has got your back, that he adheres to an almost familial sense of personal loyalty.

Namesake and Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders considers Guardiola as one of the best coaches ever, because he is a master at drilling teams to their maximum potential in training, but does so while never impeding the individual class of great players.

When Guardiola took over at Barcelona, experienced Catalan coach Domènec Torrent was one of his trusted lieutenants. They endured a sticky start but the golden Barca era soon dawned, and Domènec gives us engrossing insights into what it was like behind the scenes.

Scot Gemmill is currently a very successful manager of the Scotland under-21 team. In part two of this absorbing Big Interview, you’ll hear how he hadn’t planned a transition from playing to coaching, and got there through his own initiative, effort and a little slice of luck. He expanded his coaching brain by observing how it was done at Barcelona, Espanyol… and Paisley. And we hear how Scot nurtured Scotland’s most brilliant young talent, Billy Gilmour.

Being the son of Scotland and Nottingham Forest legend Archie was normality for Scot Gemmill when growing up, but having Brian Clough critiquing your performance for a Sunday youth side was downright surreal in anyone’s book.

Despite his initial self-doubt, Gemmill jnr. went on to play for Cloughie at Forest and nowadays he realises the spell the great man cast on him when he coaches footballers. He learned to play like you mean it, like you are competing in the last game you will ever play.

Also in part one: indie gigs and New York, New York.

Welcome to our Big Interview Icons series where we shine a light on a legend whose name has lit up some of the conversations I’ve had with my guests over the years. This episode focuses on Paul Scholes.

Michael Carrick describes how when he arrived at Manchester United he was slated for passing to midfield colleague Paul too often – but why wouldn’t you utilise the talents of one of England’s greatest-ever players?

Another former Old Trafford team-mate, Owen Hargreaves, rated Scholesy so highly – not least his game intelligence – that he places him in the pantheon of true footballing greats.

Darren Fletcher says that Paul was technically one of the best players of all time, so much so that the Scotsman had to redefine his own role as a midfielder at Man United.

Quinton Fortune says it was sheer joy playing with Scholes, who he believes taught World Cup winner Paul Pogba everything he knows.

In part two of my extraordinary conversation with Graeme Le Saux, we hear about dressing-room bigotry and bullying, and the seismic culture change that needs to occur at a club in order to smash the conspiracy of fearful silence that sustains it.

If Graeme felt like an outsider at Chelsea, at Blackburn Rovers he was part of a band of brothers whose incredible work-ethic and self-belief narrowly won them the league against the mighty Manchester United in 1995. It was Graeme’s finest hour, and he lauds the leadership of Kenny Dalglish and his assistant Ray Harford.