It is difficult for a Mexican with Basque parents to choose: «A bottle of chacolí or a tequila? Well according to the time. I take both, but I don't know which one first, ”Javier Aguirre responds with laughter (Mexico City, 1958). The Basque visit today for the first time the Metropolitan Wanda that began to be devised when he was at the helm of Atlético (2006-09). His almost three years on the red and white bench were something extraordinary until Simeone arrived. Today he tries to save the Leganes in the most complex moment of his former team.

He has been on the benches since 1996. What have gray hair and wrinkles brought to you? Above all, patience. Suddenly you are less visceral, less impetuous. Now I am calmer and less impetuous than when I started. You think twice what you are going to say and keep that shout out to a referee or a player. My character also changed my red cards and my wife. It is the best coach I have. We've been married for 37 years. Do you regret anything? Of course, I've done things I shouldn't. Suddenly, matches that I lost due to disability, for not being as detailed as I should have been. Maybe I was unfair to some player, maybe I exceeded the referees. Some journalist also that you answer him in a bad way because he criticized you. Of those things I do regret it. I have been improving this over time and, as I said, I am now a more leisurely guy. What has hurt the most in all these years? Football takes away many things. I was not in the death of my father or my mother. The body asks you to be next to your old man, giving him the last goodbye and I couldn't. Nor did I go to my brothers' wedding. I was in Abu Dhabi, Madrid or I don't know where. Are they to start to shake their quarrels in the locker room? I will answer with an anecdote. In 2014, after leaving Espanyol, I went to Japan to look for new horizons and be their coach. I arrive and sign the contract. And the guy who broke up for me to go there (a Brazilian who played in Mexico and Japan and spoke Japanese) comes and says: 'Hey, the gentlemen are telling me that please don't shout at the players a lot' . And I answer: 'Tell the gentlemen that they were wrong as a coach'. That to start. We played a friendly match with Venezuela and they were running over us. In the first half 0-1, but kicking and moving. And we as 'kittens'. Then I arrive at the locker room and say to the translator: 'Do not speak, do not speak, remain silent'. And I let the players loose of what they were going to die in Japanese, in French, in English, in Spanish, in Mexican, ... In everything I screwed up on their fucking mother. The game is over, the team reacted (2-2), and a player comes to me, he gives me a card and says: 'Mister, go to this spa to relax and give you a massage.' to life to a team like Leganés? At the outset, you can't want to change everything: schedules, clothes, training, this is superstition, ... No, no, no. You have to take the change as naturally as possible, trying not to make mistakes in the game, not to make mistakes in the objective. Even if it is slow, you have to ascend. You can't go back.

Javier Aguirre, during the interview with EL MUNDO.SERGIO GONZÁLEZ VALEROMUNDO

What is more complicated: try to save a team from the descent or have the obligation to be up? Well, both are strong. In Mexico, with the Mexican national team and Pachuca, it was an obligation to be the best in the area. And it's fucked, huh. Because as soon as you tie with a weak opponent at home, they are already loading your inks. Or at Atlético de Madrid. My departure from Atlético (2009) came after losing at home with Valladolid (1-2). Large teams always have to maintain the level. To save a team you may not give yourself luxuries because you have nothing left over, but the focus may not be so much on you. So everything you do is good, it's for good. Until you got to Atlético, no coach had lasted so long in almost a decade. How complex is the club rojiblanco? It's true, I lasted almost three years. And we went back to UEFA and the Champions League. It is a team that today is another. At that time there were economic problems, they came from a period in Second. There were many projects: that of La Peineta to make a stadium, that of the Sports City or strengthen the quarry. Then they were starting to grow and there we arrived. We continue with that sustained, slow but sustained growth. We returned to Europe and today is another Athletic. They were almost three years very good for me. A constant learning of good people and I take that club inside me. We must give Miguel Ángel Gil, Enrique and Cholo a huge responsibility for success. Without these three pillars, Atlético would not be what it is today. He directed the first steps of Kun Agüero in Spain and now it is up to Simeone to do the same with Joao Felix. It is true that there are similarities. At that time, Kun was the most expensive player in club history. Young man, 18 years old, of a different football as was the Argentine. The adaptation period for anyone is complicated, so for a boy of that age imagine. They take away from your family environment, from your cultural environment, from your natural habitat and you take it to another place, with another climate, with other living conditions. Even football was different. Independiente is a great team in Argentina, but Atlético, although at that time it was not top 5 in the world, had a story that was 'top 10'. Diego Costa also arrived at that preseason, very young both. We had to show people, the press, the fans, the directive that Kun was going to take to emerge. And there was a hurry, there was no patience because they wanted immediate results. They invested more than 20 million. Yes, it was a bit complicated at the beginning. What would you recommend to Simeone? I have nothing to recommend. He has much more capacity than me for this kind of thing. Joao Felix this one has a brutal talent, of course. It's undeniable. It is seen in the form of running, of controlling a ball, of putting a pass. Surely he will do very well. Is Atlético more vulnerable this season? I don't think so. The team lost very important costumes in recent years. Fernando, Gabi, Godín, Filipe, Juanfran, ... People with a lot of weight, with a lot of experience. Tiago left before, in his day Antonio López ... And important players leave but there are youth players like Koke, Saúl and Thomas. And very important signings like my compatriot Herrera, Giménez has already taken the step. It is still a very strong team.

Javier Aguirre, during the interview with EL MUNDOSERGIO GONZÁLEZ VALERO

Why didn't Riquelme sign for Atlético? I got to interview Riquelme. I welcomed him and we talked about what was coming. It was all closed. I went to a UEFA match in Serbia and my surprise was capital when they call me and tell me that it will not be done. Well, Holy Easter. I talked with the player. We were Riquelme, García Pitarch and I and I remember the three leaving the meeting with the certainty that it was done. But football has those things. Did you expect Kun to achieve everything it has achieved in the Premier? It's amazing. The truth is that when he left for England I was a little shocked because it was not the profile of the center forward for England. Those 1.90 tanks, who play with their backs to the bow, who lower you 20 balls, who win the air game ... Kun was the opposite, but fell with the perfect coach (Mancini) in the perfect team ( Man. City). In addition, English football has changed a lot. Today Liverpool has Sadio Mané and Salah, which are Kun style. 20 years ago you saw a Crystal Palace-West Ham and your head hurt. English football has changed a lot and Agüero has done very well. Then he learned a lot with Guardiola and still continues to learn. How many times has he remembered that clash with Ablanedo being a Osasuna player (1986)? Phew! Many. It was a long wall, I shouldn't have gone, I knew it wasn't coming, but I felt such pressure from the fans because they whistled at me. They were waiting for another Hugo Sánchez. And I was a 'matao', a containment flyer, a round trip. So I said: 'I am going to show you that I am bad, but that I have a lot of eggs ... a lot of courage (laughs).' And, pumba !, I arrived late, I felt sorry for Ablanedo because I put a good slap. I hit with my tibia on his knee. They insulted me, they told me everything. The referee: 'Get up, Mexican!' 'Get up, you have nothing!' And he had the fractured tibia. I needed 11 months to play again. It was the end of his career in Europe. Yes. I played six more years in Mexico, but in Spain it's over. I had three more years of contract with Osasuna, but Michael Robinson came to me. It was the best contribution I made to Spanish football. Michael came and I stayed in the squad without dorsal, I recovered and when I was ready I realized that Robinson had brought a friend, Sammy Lee, and they erased me. And that's it That's where my story ended: how have you lived with that shade of adjustment of the Levante-Zaragoza? As naturally as possible. I fully understand that it affects my profession. Somehow there were people who waited until the end. Not that it prevented me from signing for a club but they did ask. The worst is the family, which is the one that can take it worse. Much more with social networks. But well, I was always calm. I trusted justice and, look, that's it. Your parents were Basque, how do you see the political situation in Spain? The truth is that history is a bit messy. I would not like to get into things that do not compete with me because, first, Spain is a country that has given me work, it is my parents' country and I love it very much. And, second, because I'm Mexican and I don't want to get into things that don't concern me.

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