The Big Interview

There is a mix of reasons why David Moyes seemed to me to be a good guest for the next Big Interview podcast. 

I’ve known him and his brother for several years; like me, he’s a Scot who’s ventured to Spain and, above all, the more I read him talking about his short spell at Old Trafford the more I felt that what he’s achieved in a long football career was being pretty much obliterated by less than a season at United.

He made his mistakes, he was very ill-served by many around him, he left and then fulfilled a long-held dream – working in one of the major football leagues outside England.

More, he was one of the few coaches last season who managed to get any joy out of a Barcelona side which not only made history in winning the treble but played a brand of football which re-ignited the love much of the world’s footballing public has had for them over the last 12 years. I wanted to hear how he described getting up close and personal with that bunch of players.

His links to Sir Alex Ferguson, tracking back to the 1970s, interested me; sampling some of the feel of ‘saving’ Everton and leaving them vastly safer, financially, plus a good deal better at football interested me; as did the fact that there has been a good deal of interaction with some of the most colourful characters of the last 35 years in his career.

Prior to sitting down and recording in the elegant Hotel Maria Cristina on the banks of the river in San Sebastian we watched training, chatted to local fans, spent a lot of time talking to David’s interesting and shrewd assistant, Billy McKinlay, and we [the lads from BackPage and I] also noted how the public of this Basque city – who stopped him every five paces when we were in the old town – are currently brimming with affection and appreciation for what he’s attempted to do so far.

Football is quixotic and, clearly, neither the brand of football nor the level of results in his time with La Real is anything like sufficient for him. To retain that affection much more will need to be achieved. But his personality has made an impact and it’s been a positive one.

At Euro 2012 I met up with David in Gdansk where he told me that one of the presidential candidates at Athletic Bilbao had recruited him to take over at the San Mames should he win the election [he lost, narrowly] in 2011. How ironic, then, to find him trying to rebuild their historic rivals from an hour along the coast.

Tune in to part one to hear us chat about Iceland, Cruyff, Celtic, Van Basten, Peter Stringfellow, Tom Finney, Scotland, Fergie, Drumchapel Amateurs and David Beckham.

And stay tuned for the second part – coming very soon – featuring Robin Van Persie, Gazza, Duncan Ferguson, Bill Kenwright, Wim Jansen and Andrés Iniesta

Hope you enjoy.

G

Kevin Bridges is one of the UK’s funniest stand-ups and a serious football fanatic.

I’ve known Kevin for some time – when we started doing these interviews, I knew he was one of the people I wanted on the show. You know how funny he is, what a great storyteller – but maybe not how much he knows and loves the game we all care about.

In this conversation, he finds the funny in a brief encounter with his Celtic hero, Henrik Larsson; his love of FC Barcelona; a memorable trip to the Super Clasico in Buenos Aires; and the day he compared notes with Jose Mourinho.

I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please let the other football fans in your life know about these interviews.

G

Ten years on from Liverpool’s epic Champions League win over Milan in Istanbul, Jamie Carragher talks about how it felt to play through the pain barrier against the best team in Europe.

He’s great on another historic final – the UEFA Cup win over Alaves, and why Liverpool couldn’t celebrate it. If you want to know more about the myth of ‘continental’ management and what Jamie thinks of recruitment at Liverpool over the last 10 years, then I think you’re going to enjoy this.

I chose Gordon Strachan for the second of our ‘Big Interview’ podcasts because he was the Andrés Iniesta of my era. If you aren’t of an age to have seen Gordon play at his best then, boy, you missed something.

He was one of the most skilful, inventive, creative, brave players Britain has ever produced. Ever. Not identical to Iniesta, but cut from the same cloth. Great spatial awareness and technique so that, often, players who tried to close him down were ‘spun’ and left looking stupid.

That’s a habit Gordon has carried on into his managerial career. He’s intelligent, witty, really quick minded – sometimes even quicker tongued. Journalists can be left looking stupid too.

Two things stood out to me – this is a man who cares passionately about the game played the way that excites and interests me and who is both intelligent and practical enough to so something about it. Secondly, he’s very funny.

The fact that he can be a bit prickly when he’s asked foolish or rude questions means that he’s gained something of a reputation and I think it’s one which does no justice to a clever, curious, interesting mind … and so we sat down to talk.

Unsurprisingly, he’s brilliant on Iniesta … but what took me a little by surprise was his strong contention, and explanation, about this being the all-time golden age of football. No rose-tinted specs about the past with Gordon.

When he talks about being driven by anger, when he describes Shunsuke Nakamura’s unusual training regime, when he talks about Eric Cantona and why it was right for him and Leeds to do the deal which changed Manchester United’s history – during all of this Gordon is fascinating.

I deliberately chose not to raise Sir Alex Ferguson because I knew, I just knew, that if the chat was going well then Fergie would be brought up by my guest. So it proved. What he says about the former Aberdeen and Manchester United manager is remarkable. If not for Fergie then Strachan would have been a legend at Real Madrid.

There’s punch-ups in Aussie Rules football, weeping football psychologists, alcohol bans and then the daddy of them all – what Gordon does for half an hour in his garage when he’s frustrated about the state of our skill deficit in UK football. What comes out strongly is the power of his voice. He speaks like a leader, like a thinker, like someone used to communicating his message.

We don’t speak about it in this interview but I know that Gordon is devoting loads of personal time to helping kids who have fallen away from football and lost their path in life to find discipline, education, improved diet, a second sporting chance and, in some instances, financial support to study for a career. I wish there were more people like him in our society and in the sport we all love.

Little wonder, knowing him, that he won 18 major trophies, numerous personal awards and achieved that rare feat of winning the FA Cup and league title in both England and Scotland; plus he became part of a small band of men, numbering just 10, to start in two UEFA trophy winning sides as part of a Scottish club side.

There’s something specific in there for fans of Barcelona, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Celtic, Southampton, Scotland, Leeds – and Aussie Rules team Melbourne FC. But if you are a fan of football in any shape or form you’ll lap this one up.

Tune in. Enjoy.

Thanks

G

Before I tell you about Gary Neville, how fervently and interestingly he speaks in this podcast, the first, of what I hope to be a series of substantial interviews, I think it’s important to explain why you and I are here together.

His views on everyone from Leo Messi via Gareth Barry, Pep Guardiola, Richie Benaud, Alan Hansen, Eric Harrison are coming right up. But I’m writing this blog entry and you are reading it because of BackPage Press – my publishers for my books on FC Barcelona and Spain.

What I mean by that is that Neil and Martin, who formed the company, wanted to know, specifically, what it had taken to produce the brand of football which FC Barcelona played between 2008 and 2012. The Pep era. They wanted details.

The chain of events was: they had the bright idea, they, literally, badgered me into writing Barça – the Making of the Greatest Team in the World and it turned out that they were right.

Such was the reception for the books that they added the idea of the podcast that we are launching today. Set-piece interviews with people I admire, like, find funny or find inspirational. And we started with Gary for obvious reasons. In terms of his unrelenting demand to know not what happened, but why and how, he’s cut from the same cloth as these guys.

What Neville does now is, in my opinion, easily amongst the most spell-binding, most riveting, most thought-provoking analysis of sport I’ve ever heard. Radio, television, in person. Anywhere. He’s both forensic and able to communicate an electrifying degree of ‘THIS MATTERS!‘

It would be easy for him to achieve one, but not the other. In fact many lesser talents would find the two concepts mutually incompatible.

For years and years football in the UK was described only in terms of win/lose, happy/sad, personality, declarations, ball in the net/ball not in the net.

Sky, over the years, has first tried to address that analytical deficit and then to completely rip up the form book. And in Gary Neville, the excellent Jamie Carragher and also their shrewd orchestra leader Ed Chamberlin, Monday Night Football has taken that quality of analysis to an entirely new level.

In this interview Gary is particularly interesting on: when and why he stopped enjoying watching FC Barcelona playing football; Alan Hansen’s broadcasting career; how disinterested he is in goals (normally the staple diet of a football co-commentator or analyst); Luis Suárez; Paul Parker; Denis Irwin; the intelligence deficit in English football; the ultimate sin which Kevin Miralles committed and whether he believes Bayern Munich will be European champions.

Pep Guardiola features … so does Jupp Heynckes, Richie Benaud and, naturally enough Leo Messi. Buried in there, too, is just about the single best and most practical suggestion for the betterment of English football I think I’ve ever heard.

Listen to it. Enjoy it. See whether you feel, like I do, that this is one of the great football brains which the UK has at its disposal.

If you like it, if you think we’re giving you value, then please take a minute to leave a short review on iTunes here.

Thank you!

G