Giving a young coach a bench is not easy. Javier Clemente (31 years old), Víctor Fernández (30), Xabier Azkargorta (29) and their players remember the fall of the wall
Julian Nagelsmann will coach Bayern from next season. The coach is 33 years old, two years younger than Neuer, one more than Lewandowski or taking him to Spain six less than Joaquín.
Betting on young coaches in Spanish football they changed the careers of many. At the time, he seemed to be assigning the last penalty in a decisive shootout to a baby.
In June 1981, Athletic appointed Javier Clemente as coach. With 31 years He became the youngster on the First benches. In the squad were Txetxu Rojo, 34, and Dani, 30.
Clemente’s message
The coach rewinds: “He had been in the quarry for four years. Many of the players in that squad had been raised from the youth team. He had in favor that he had played for Athletic, that he knew the house and its philosophy. Against, inexperience, but he consulted everything, especially with Piru Gaínza “.
Clemente, who had spent a month in England with Bobby Robson, was unimpressed: “He was clear about the message that had to be given. Convincing must be convincing with football. You have a dialogue, you sit in the locker room, you speak, and you come to a conclusion. If there is no agreement, the coach has to make the decision. “
Change is a brand new book for everyone and “when a new coach arrives the players are freaked out. The one who plays because he thinks to see if with this one they take away my position and the one who does not play thinks he can play. Each coach has a personality, but in a new dressing room I have always expressed the same idea: you have to say your problems to your face. “
When a new coach arrives, the players are freaked out. Why can’t there be a 25-year-old engineer? The important thing is what you know
The technician remembers that in the locker room “was Txetxu Rojo, with whom I had played, one of the best footballers in the history of Athletic “.
The stars
From those days he also remembers being “studying English, I will have already done it thirty times, but I get tired and bored. I am one of those who has studied English the most without learning it … “.
Regarding Bayern’s bet, he believes that those decisions “depend on knowledge. Why can’t there be a 25-year-old engineer? If you have no idea, you can’t train. ”
What he does see badly is “the fashion of taking a recently retired footballer, a celebrity and they give him a First team, that’s outrageous.” Regarding the deal, he says that “almost everyone called me Javi, just as some more serious said mister”.
A star wardrobe does not see it as a barrier: “Stars? I was with many stars in the Spanish team and nothing happens. A locker room doesn’t work without camaraderie. If a coach does not treat everyone the same then it does not work well. The star has to set an example to the youngest, to the most festive “.
The 29 of Azkargorta
In September 1983 Espanyol (then Spanish) dismissed the Serbian Milorad Pavic and named his assistant coach, Xabier Azkargorta, 29 years old. Molinos was on the squad, with 33.
At that age he became the youngest in the category. This is how Azkargorta remembers it from Bolivia: “I accepted some of the conditions, others not, such as the bonuses for staying in the First Division, I believed they should be for being in the top ten.”
Cracks are also people; each one must be treated as he deserves. A boy recently raised from the quarry is not the same as the one who has a career made
The coach believes that he had in favor that “they already knew me at the club” and clarifies that “he was not the youngest coach, but the youngest”.
Azkagorta describes this as “an intense year, we even did a play in Barcelona with Maradona, La Venganza de Don Mendo, for the children of San Juan de Dios. He knew Diego, he was friends with him and he didn’t put up any problems. “
The entrance to a celebrity booth is not a wall for him because “the stars are people. You have to treat each one as he deserves. It is not a matter of treating everyone the same. You cannot do the same with a boy who has just come up from the quarry than with the one who has a career made and earns millions of euros. But you have to be fair, they are people. They always called me mister, here in Bolivia, teacher, “he concludes.
The impact of Víctor Fernández
In March 1991 the Zaragoza dismissed Ildo Maneiro and put the ship in the hands of Víctor Fernández, 30 years old. In the group were Andoni Cedrún, Esteban and Fraile, of the same age, or Víctor Muñoz (33).Víctor Fernández became the newest in Primera and recalls how “you had to be clear about several things: he was younger than many of my players and he had not been a Primera player. I thought he would have less time.”
He believes that it was key to “earn authority, not impose it. This must be achieved through knowledge, respect, justice and decision-making. That can lead to success or to be short-lived. It was the chance of my life in the team of my dreams and of my land. I did not expect”.
In his favor was “Having been Antic’s assistant before, something enriching because it gave me room, it was not just the one who put the cones or distributed the bibs. That had allowed me to know what a professional locker room was like. “Víctor Fernández admits that” being so young you are more adventurous, you don’t analyze everything so much and you take more risks. “
He argues that a young coach must “show personality from the start. The locker room will eat you up if they see you’re weak. Before a group you have to show strength and determination. Being younger than the players is a risk factor. They watch you, they analyze you from the first moment. They always look at you. They can do it out of respect or admiration. But if you’re young, you might think, who is this guy? You are always under surveillance. “
You have to show personality from the beginning, the wardrobe devours you if it sees that you are weak
The magic hit
The beginning was not easy because “Valencia passed us by in the first game. He needed a magical stroke of fortune and it was to achieve salvation in the promotion against Murcia, 0-0 there and 5-2 at home. It was the first time that I had seen the stadium full only of ours, not with fans of Madrid or Barça. The way to achieve permanence was what gave me the push to offer to continue. “
Víctor Fernández poses at MARCA with the Recopa achieved in 1995
The coach admits that he preferred in those days that “they didn’t call me mister. It was like making a difference and I still had to earn it. “
Regarding Bayern’s decision, he estimates that Nagelsmann “will enter with the respect that never so much was paid for a coach. They already know him. Players may think, ‘this is very good.’ Bayern have shown that after criticizing the business each one goes to his own way. It’s as if the mask had been removed. ”
Humility or pride
Andoni Cedrún was in the dressing room of that Zaragoza. “It was a complicated situation. Ildo Maneiro had been dismissed and there were players who cried the day they were fired. It is important that at a time like this the veterans tuck in a young coach. He realized. It did not come to mount a revolution, but we had to get results and we were saved in the promotion against Murcia, a before and after “.
With 30 years to win a dressing room you need humility and not arrogance
Cedrún assures that with 30 years “to win a locker room you need humility and not arrogance. Present direct messages. Victor came in humble and grew as a coach. He applied common sense. Later in the field, as what was seen, he liked the Cruyff method, a happy way of playing “.
The former goalkeeper believes that Nagelsmann “will know where he is getting and will be ready to lead the stars. I imagine a locker room with a lot of egos. It is not the same to work with young people as with Lewandowski, who has been in the elite for many years, working and scoring goals “.
For him the key “is communication with the players, if you want to be the king of the mambo, it is not a good path. You see a tremendous future. I don’t care that 25 million have been paid, but it doesn’t go with Bayern’s recent speech. “
The reception and the ‘little ones’
In Clemente’s locker room there was Dani, 30, a guy with the map of the area in his head. Whoever was a forward believes that everything depends “on character. At 31 you can be a piece of furniture that he does not move or be like Clemente, an active uncle, with desire, who knew what Athletic was. He had a lot in favor of knowing philosophy, Lezama etc, but he also had character and knowledge “.
For Dani, one of the key factors of Clemente was “instilling the fact of being one of the team, that it was a family. It psyched us up. Fight, fight and fight. He knew how to do what had to be done. The most important thing in a coach, more than tactics, is knowing how to convey the message and he knew how to lead the group. “
At 31 you can be a piece of furniture that does not move or be like Clemente, an active and eager uncle
Thus X-ray the arrival of a new coach: “You are always with your ear up, Let’s see what happens, how it is, there are always expectations, you have to beat the booth and the team. “
Dani adds an anecdote about the deal with Clemente: “The truth is that mister I called him a few times, He called him Javi and he called me ‘little’ and I told him why did he call me that if he was smaller than me “.
De Nagelsmann states that “Bayern know what they are doing. Being 33 years old is not an impediment. A technician is not always asked for experience. Even if he has a lot of name, if he does not go six or seven games, he is thrown out on the street. “
