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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

Michael Carrick: Inside The Box

09 Dec 2015

During a brilliant afternoon in the company of Michael Carrick, he took us inside some of the high-pressure situations elite footballers experience and the rest of us can only imagine.

Like showing up for your first training sessions at Manchester United and taking on the Class of 92 in The Box, the make-or-break exercise where the ruling cabal at Old Trafford would test the mettle of the rest.

Or the long yards between the centre circle and the penalty spot before you take a penalty in the Champions League final (I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better description of that particular ordeal). Or the feeling when you’ve been hit and you’re out of ammo and you’re screaming for a fellow soldier to help you as the enemy approach and Sir Alex Ferguson is wondering what all the commotion is about.

Honestly, it’ll all make sense when you get there.

Enjoy!

Graham

Harry Redknapp: The Second Half

30 Oct 2015

In the second part of my chat with Harry Redknapp, we talk about Gareth Bale, Didier Drogba, Elvis Presley, Kanu, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard (both of them), Bobby Moore, George Best and Joe Jordan.

If you’d like to know more about our KickStarter campaign to keep The Big Interview going, you can do that here. If you think a year’s worth of the show is worth £5 – or more – we’d really appreciate it, and you can get yourself some great rewards at the same time.

The Big Interview Needs You!

06 Oct 2015

I hope you don’t think that just because talking to Chris Waddle was a feeling like winning the Champions League final for me and BackPage that we’ve got a bit carried away with ourselves!

No danger.

We’ve been quiet these last couple of weeks without a ‘Big Interview’ for quite a different reason.

Making this podcast has not only been hugely enjoyable for us it has surprised us the degree to which you’ve become fanatically keen on it – none of the three of us has ever had so much positive, enthusiastic feedback in our careers before.

So, thanks.

However the fact remains that we have funded all of them ourselves.

All the travel, in three different countries, all the accommodation, some nice red wine for the guests, the editing, the equipment – and the career time it takes us to make the Big Interview happen.

Moyes and GH 3

We’ve been low profile since meeting Chris (how good was he at talking about his career, this game of football that we all adore and at letting his idiosyncratic personality shine through?) because we’ve recorded three new podcasts.

Pretty soon we’ll share with you who spoke to us – but I can assure you that each of them was colourful, fascinating, open, honest and fun. If you’ve lapped up the previous interviews, these will be really satisfying to listen to. And funny.

But unless we can generate some funding for what we do then these will be the last three.

We are dead-set against putting up a paywall and charging for these podcasts. None of us enjoy that approach to content as customers, so why inflict it on our loyal audience?

We want The Big Interview and its approach to telling big, broad, interesting, sometimes challenging football stories to be available to the widest audience – age, geography, experience, budget.

So we will ask for financial support via crowdfunding. All that means is that, via Kickstarter.com we’ll give you the chance to ‘own’ the Big Interview by paying what you feel you can afford, or want to pay.

In concept it’s like the famous idea of fans owning the clubs they support.

If you like it, if you want it to live and thrive then a relatively small investment will make you a co-owner.

More details and the first new podcast from October 19. We’ll announce a whole series of what we think are exciting, valuable and fun rewards which correlate to how much you want to shell out – starting at about a tenner.

Then we’ll release one podcast per week for a month.

Meantime we thought: ‘Let’s put out a fun, short compilation which nicks little phrases and answers from our interviews so far.’

It’s been fun so far – let’s keep The Big Interview alive. Between us.

Cheers y gracias a todos.

Graham and BackPage