Javier Clemente: "I was the best and nobody said it, but I don't give a damn"

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• IÑAKO DÍAZ-GUERRA

  @InakoDiazGuerra

Tuesday, October 13, 2020 - 01:58

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As teenagers of the 90s, we were clear about the three basic rules to be fashionable: say that you loved Nirvana even if you listened to Pearl Jam at home, wear flannel shirts even in summer and affirm without a doubt that you are

.

"They sneaked it into you," replied the former coach sarcastically since his forced retirement from Zarautz.

Can be.

The truth is that, with him at the helm, Spain dominated in the qualifying phases and fell short in

the great tournaments amid a permanent noise of sabers.

There have been better selections, but surely none more entertaining.

At least off the field.

So much controversy ended up blurring how good that selection was.

Yes, he had the level of a world champion.

What happens is that in football there are always three or four teams with that level simultaneously and, from there, you need luck.

We never had it.

We coincide with the great Italy, Brazil and Germany.

Then the France of

.

You play heads or tails most of the time and even though we were as good as they were, we never got heads.

That's football, details.

Details and Julio Salinas.

The play of

It was a clear chance to win, but no more important than the elbow of

to

.

It was a penalty and expulsion and the referee, simply, was clueless.

FIFA sanctioned Tassotti with eight games, but they made the referee whistle the final and we were left with stupid faces.

As for Julio, it annoys me that he continues to be held in his face, because he did not do it wrong.

He hit a run, arrived tired and, even so, shot well, but took it out

.

What can we do

There the World Cup94 escaped and, two years later, the European Championship was no less painful.

We fell on penalties against England after giving them a wiggle at Wembley.

They annulled us an incredible goal.

But it is the same as before, it is very difficult to win a tournament like this because there are a thousand factors.

You play England in London and the referee is always going to sweep home.

Is that Spain valued as it deserves?

No, not at all, but I don't care.

The media did not value her because of the ties they had with me and because they preferred to harm her than to agree with me.

Those were the principles of most of the press.

And I am sad that a piece of equipment like that, with exemplary behavior, was not recognized any merit or given the support it deserved.

He fucks me for the players, but I don't need the compliment.

I was the best then and nobody said it, but I don't give a damn.

I am a hard worker whose only goal has been good treatment, demand and loyalty to the player.

After 25 years, don't you think you were wrong, that it would have been better not to go to war?

No. If a sector of the Press touches my footballers, I will defend them.

I have always fought for respectful criticism, but that is not abundant in this country.

Here you do not criticize, you insult yourself, and I have never let that pass.

And I have not been afraid of any news media.

I have always accepted face to face, with my strengths and weaknesses, what I did not admit was cheating.

I don't care how important that journalist was at the time ...

Are you referring to José Ramón de la Morena?

Look,

he is a bad bug and a nefarious information professional, because he is a ghost, a puppet and a coward.

If he had been brave, he would have faced me face to face, but since he did not like what I was saying, he cut me off live.

Bad, liar and coward.

Full.

And the one that is bad, is bad all the life.

So it remains so.

But, Javier, two don't fight if one doesn't want to.

Yeah, but when I got to the national team ... their mouths fill up saying that

It belongs to everyone and it is a total lie.

Because if,

It belongs to everyone, but it always is.

Not with this coach yes and with this other one, no.

They are liars.

I had a very good team and they didn't support it at all.

They are journalists who brag a lot and lie more.

And a journalist who lies is the worst in society.

------------------------- Turning 70 in March, Clemente has not tempered.

He speaks in a tone that you never know if he is speaking to you like a family member or giving you the fight, but he is an excellent conversationalist despite that.

Or maybe just because of that.

It has its truth and it tells you without trying to convince you.

If you believe him, fine.

If not, it doesn't matter.

The truth is

there are few more complex Spanish soccer careers, with so many plot twists

.

From truncated promise to miracle coach, from revered to hated, from Spanish coach to unemployed firefighter.

A western character whose film calls for a classic linear narrative from John Ford or, better, Sam Peckinpah.

No time jumps or alternate stories to

Pulp fiction

, as much as he is also a pop icon.

So let's go back to the beginning.

How do you remember Barakaldo from your childhood?

A lot of field, few people and the kids, only football.

There was nothing else.

At school and on the street.

That street football has been lost because there is a lot of car and a lot of house, you no longer have a field to put two stones and play without a truck passing over you.

That has changed the footballer and the character of the young people, who now have a thousand alternatives to occupy their time.

Okay, but quality has been lost in football.

What did it mean for a boy from Biscay to play for Athletic Club?

It was the only goal, the dream.

That has not changed in Bilbao.

Even now, with globalized football, kids all over the world want to be

Here the dream of the children continues to be to reach Athletic, not Madrid, Barça or England.

That is why we still endure.

My idols as a child were

Y

.

Will now be

or

.

Was he as fine a footballer as legend has it?

They said that, but I didn't see myself that much.

I considered myself technically good and physically very strong.

He had a certain class, because he had a good vision of the game.

I always had that and that's why I ended up being a coach.

Do you often fantasize about how your life would have been without that injury at age 19, already fixed in the first team, which retired you?

No. It happened and period.

It was bad luck.

A strong game, a muddy field, a

... And that's it, it's over.

They did not find the right treatment and the first operation went wrong.

Then I got an infection in the military.

I had surgery for five years in a row to come back, until the doctor told me that I was not going to get it.

So I quit.

It was sad, but I assumed it normally and made my way into another facet.

I started selling Adidas shoes in the north of Spain.

Door to door with the suitcase.

I was like this for three years, while I trained at night at the Regional of the town, Arenas, and then at Baskonia.

In the third year I entered the Athletic youth team and I left Adidas.

From there, everything happened very quickly.

Yes, three years.

One in the youth team and two in Bilbao Athletic.

Then I went to the first team and I practically did that team.

I went up to eight or ten of the subsidiary and from the beginning I saw that we were very good.

So ... champions.

We were the best, neither Madrid nor Barça nor coincidences.

The best.

Winning a title at Athletic is different, it is much more important.

We play for our land and for our youth.

On a personal level it is a greater satisfaction.

Is Athletic's politics xenophobic?

No no no.

Neither xenophobic nor racist nor hostile.

We want to play with ours, but based on the fact that we want our kids to grow up with the illusion of being able to play for Athletic.

If we bring foreigners or people from outside, the chances of our children playing on their home team are minimal.

Whoever sees that as a problem and not as something beautiful is stupid.

During your time, ETA kidnapped the Athletic director Juan Pedro Guzmán and you were very hard publicly with the terrorist gang.

Did it have any consequences?

No, there was no problem.

All the staff were in favor of nothing of that kind happening and

He was a hell of a guy.

We demonstrated because we had a feeling in favor of a person who worked with us and we popularly defended his release.

And that's it.

I did not receive threats or there was retaliation or anything.

How does someone who wins two leagues (82-83 and 83-84) with Athletic end up going badly from there a year and a half later?

I don't go out, they force me to go out.

There is a mess and the club throws me out, but I would never have left and the proof is that, whenever they have asked me, I have returned.

But always in very delicate situations, when there was a team of young children or they saw that they could descend.

If not, they wouldn't have called me.

Was it all because of his confrontation with Sarabia?

I did not face

: I made a decision about him.

He carried out an act of indiscipline and wanted to assert himself publicly through a journalist friend.

He demanded ownership without earning it, he did not respect the group and I told him no, that he was one more in the squad with the same obligations.

The companions supported me, but he did not pay attention.

So I did without him ... and after 15 days the club did without me.

It was more of a lesson to the players for supporting me than to me.

At that time the clubs did not take into account what the footballers felt and did not want to give them power, so they fired me.

Then Espanyol, Atlético ...

Yes, at Espanyol everyone remembers that UEFA final that we lost after winning 3-0 in the first leg, but they remember less the piece of the tournament we did.

We take on Inter, Milan from

... And at Atleti, I worked very comfortably.

He was a great guy, but I had no fucking idea about soccer.

And I made decisions that didn't make sense, like firing me by going second.

Jesus things.

He moved by instinct and by the opinion of those around him, so I accepted it and left.

Soccer is a strange world.

------------------------- And after a couple of stumbles, in 1992 they offered him the Spanish team, who had just seen how a Eurocup was played for the one that hadn't even qualified.

It was the Spain of the

Quinta del Vulture

, which had not given continuity to the illusions unleashed in Mexico 86. Meanwhile, in clubs, Barça de

Cruyff

he was the new king and had just won the European Cup.

As soon as he arrived, Clemente decided that it was also time for the generational change in the national team.

A sensible move footballingly, but diplomatically risky.

His decision to do without Butragueño and company to bet on footballers of much less press was widely criticized.

From minute 1, he was already at war.

Was it smart to stop having La Quinta?

With La Quinta, each case was different.

I loved it and wore it until it got injured.

TO

I never called him, because I liked the central type more

,

or

.

But it was a mistake that I admit, because I think Manolo had the level to have come to the national team.

it didn't fit.

I liked him a lot, because he was a pure area player, but we weren't in the area: we reached the area.

So I did without him.

And with

yes there was more problem.

I took him off because at home he played well, but outside he wasn't up to scratch.

He did not put his foot in, he did not squeeze, he did not score, he did not take physical risks.

He was a quality player, but of comfortable quality.

So I opted for

, which I liked much more because he was brave, aggressive and fast ... and his substitute in Madrid.

He did not take it well and began to criticize, but I played the stew for the good of the team.

And I was right.

Nor did he bring Buyo, which in Zubizarreta's last era generated much debate.

He was accused of cronyism, especially as a result of the failure against Nigeria in the 98 World Cup.

he was still the best, but the good guys fail too.

One thing is the theory of journalism and another is being a coach.

A coach knows and assumes that every great player fails and does not hold him accountable or take action for a mistake.

I have coached Zubi for 12 years and the only time that his failure cost us the game was on Nigeria day. Well, bad luck.

Many more games we won.

I had no place in my team because he was worse than Zubi and because I didn't like his behavior within the team.

It wasn't helping the group.

Who is the best player you have trained?

I've never liked to individualize, but

it was very good.

A footballer who was not honored at all.

Neither in quality, nor in physical condition, nor finishing with a header, but nevertheless he was a player with a winning spirit, a lot of dedication, a lot of enthusiasm and, above all, a tremendous performance.

Although I don't like to highlight anyone, I usually name Raúl because, without being the best at anything, his performance was extraordinary.

It's funny, because with Raúl and Luis Aragonés the same thing happened with you and La Quinta.

It was necessary to dispense with him with controversy to start a great selection.

I was very friends with

and I will always defend his decisions, but in football terms he caught a different era.

Raúl was already more veteran and the change of cycle of

,

and company.

Therefore, he chose to do without Raúl.

And I respect the team that all the coaches make, although I don't like all of them, because I have always asked that they respect me.

The minimum is to do the same as you demand.

Was it reflected in Luis when, before winning Euro 2008, many asked for his dismissal?

TO

The same people who later ran to beatify him were killing him.

It was a shame and it was very good that he gave them the title on the nose.

I'm glad.

Every time I spoke it was to defend him, because not respecting a teammate is a sin that a coach should never commit.

Some time ago on Twitter I did have to criticize

because he had horrible behavior with

.

And I do not tolerate disrespect towards another coach.

Although it was not bad: to Barça.

In Spain this happens a lot: coaches who to thrive and make water to the press say what they want to hear.

Well, Setién's adventure at Barça did not end very well ...

No, but I do not judge him, everyone understands football as they want.

I am simply against the contempt with which he treats his fellow professionals.

I can't laugh stupidly because he did badly, but Soccer Setien knows just how right it is.

Let's get to the 'crux' of the matter: are you such a defensive coach?

, lie.

Silly stuff.

What happened is that they were looking for something to be able to criticize a team that did nothing but win.

We had the record for undefeated games and the whole football world respected us.

So, the smart ones needed something to attack that team, because I trained it, and they decided: "Damn, well let's say it's defensive."

I have never thought about how I like to play but about how I am going to win.

I study the opposite and look for the form, without paying attention to whether I put more forwards or more defenses.

I focus on victory.

But anyway, my team almost always played with three points and it was an eminently offensive team.

There were games where I put a lot of players who were central to their teams, but they were also good midfielders.

And there the mental straws of many ignorant journalists came to light.

Not all critics would be ignorant.

The problem in the world of football, also now, is that there are some who write or go to social gatherings and it is ashamed to hear them talk about football with that ignorance.

They have the right to speak, they have the right to live, they have the right to earn money, but they have no right to say the nonsense they say.

For example,

It seems infumable to me.

It is a program that incites violence.

The atrocities that are said cause later incidents between the hobbies.

It is a bad program for football and society ... but it is successful.

He's very stupid, but very hard-working, and the Americans explain this well: if you're stupid, the more you work the more you screw everything up.

You are a Basque nationalist and you were a Spanish coach.

Is there a contradiction?

None.

I am a nationalist, the same as another is from the PSOE, the PP, Vox or Podemos.

Each one is from the party they want.

And it has nothing to do with being chosen to lead the national team because you are the best coach there is.

And I was when they chose me, because no other Spanish coach had my resume.

They put the best and it does not matter who they vote for.

Which Spaniards have won two leagues without having trained Madrid or Barça?

,

and me.

But what was your feeling towards Spain?

Absolute respect.

I have worked in Seville, Madrid, Valladolid ... and I have been comfortable in all cities.

I respected their customs and I have never had a problem for being a Basque nationalist.

I defend what is mine and wish the best for mine, that does not mean that I want the rest to do badly.

Simply, I care more about what happens in the Basque Country than in the rest of Spain and I am the political party that I like the most.

Hopefully all parties functioned like the PNV.

But none of that prevented me from giving my best as a professional to the Spanish team.

Do you think that the PNV has managed the pandemic better than other governments?

Well, note that right here I am very respectful of all the parties that govern somewhere, because the bug is very bad.

The richest in the world are the Americans and they are the most screwed up, so we who do not have a real and say that we are less smart, because the logical thing is to be wrong.

He's such a bad bug that even the rich don't understand him.

Returning to your case as a coach, now put Guardiola in charge and you will see what a laugh.

Yes, four of Vox would come out to say that if you don't feel Spanish, then yes, but there is a very Spanish phrase for this: foolish words, deaf ears.

If they wanted to

We would have to see first what he would say, because I don't know if he would accept it.

But in that case, what Spain would do is choose a fantastic coach and a very good kid.

Pep, in football terms, thinks almost the opposite of me, but he's very good.

The now classic 'patapum' vs tiqui-taca.

They wanted to confront us, but it's ridiculous.

The same if I had been in teams like yours, in which to be able to choose players, it would have been different.

There are many topics.

I always carried Pep until he was injured.

In fact, we still did not pass the group in France 98 because he was missing: I was waiting for him until the end and we were not lucky enough to arrive.

That is, Pep was not a player of strength or claw, but he had a place in my team like many other class players.

So fewer wolves, Little Red Riding Hood.

------------------------- It is 2020 and

Javier Clemente wastes the afternoon talking to a journalist because he doesn't have a job

, beyond the almost honorary position of coach of Euskadi.

He has not had it since he stopped directing Libya in 2016, one of those extravagant positions that have marked his career in the 21st century, where he has alternated unsuspected teams (Serbia, Cameroon) with the role of Mr. Lobo, hired urgently to solve problems almost always already unsolvable.

A few games to fight against relegation and back home, to wait for someone to offer him the project from the beginning that never comes.

Although he is still active.

Here he cuts me: "Well, that ... You are active when you are working and I haven't had a team for a long time. So it's more theory than reality."

How do you explain that a coach with his background, after the selection, only had a job as a firefighter?

For fear of the press.

The presidents did not want to risk hiring me in case they were criticized, but then, when they were desperate, they did turn to me.

Faced with a crisis, the critics did not care and it only mattered if I was good.

In short, I have danced when I have danced.

And if I have not danced anymore or danced with the greats, then what are we going to do.

I don't tear my clothes for that.

I have done what I could and I have reached as far as it has given me and they have left me.

When you review your career, what has remained pending?

Retire at 75.

Well, there is still time.

Yes, but I have it difficult, at least in Spain.

And things come from outside, but we are not to live badly either.

I go to a meeting, watch football, hang out with friends and play golf.

I have not finished so bad.

I live like God.

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