AAGS 2021

16 you know, he analyzed everything very quickly and very well. I must say that in my long career that I have found common things for all the top players and top people. Number one is that all of them have a very objective analysis of their performance and they know why they missed something and if they meet the same situation again may correct it. The second thing is that they have a good mixture of intelligence and motivation. They analyze well what they do wrong and they are motivated enough to change, to become better. You mentioned your father never told you “Well done but you could have done better”. I just wonder how football and how coaching has evolved. Did it work for you? Would it work today? I agree with you that the language and the speech have changed, but the modern educator must adapt and give responsibilities to young players to develop. I would say yes, I was educated in a tough environment, and it was never good enough. When you had the strength to fight against it, you wanted to show that you have the quality. So, it was a bit more to help yourself and you might have a chance in life today. The language in sport now is more about how we can support people and the balance has gone the other way around. I would say that the modern challenge is to find a better balance again between supporting what is needed for the young players to develop initiative individually or to force them to develop individually. The speech today has to be rebalanced. One of the modern challenges of all the young coaches who develop players is to forge the character. I say it because society doesn’t do it naturally anymore, and the technical quality of science has helped a lot to develop people more in the mental side. The challenge as well is to forge strong characters during the education because after, it’s too late. That means reliability, accountability and a helpful attitude in the team sports are absolutely the major qualities that have to be developed at a young age. Which advice would you have liked to receive at the beginning of your career? Well, I think I had one quality. I tried to be open-minded which it is an important quality when you’re a coach, no matter which sport. From my education I targeted to try to get better, and I was always open to science. If you look at all the major science that exists today, we were always the earlier ones to incorporate and integrate science. Why science? Of course, I knew I’m also making important decisions and as well because science could help me to understand better the world I live in and make more objective decisions. When I started at a very young age, I had to fight to get information. On the other hand, the modern challenge for the coaches is to use well the quantity of information they get and to select which data can help him to make the right decision. So, the problem has been reversed. Today you must select, before you had to chase. Nutrition was an instant factor that you changed at Arsenal football club. Many of those players always tell the story that it was the shock of their lives. How much do nutrition and good lifestyle impact the performance and career of the athletes? Nutrition was just a part of what I call the invisible training which is different from the visible one. What you do on the football pitch is the visible while the invisible is what is outside the football pitch and it’s how you prepare. I tried to bring that in, but I must say the players were intelligent enough to understand it will get better performances and last longer in the job. Let’s not forget if you look at how science helps people, it shows you that the best goal scorers today are all people over 32. The ones competing for the Ballon d’Or this season were Messi, Benzema and Lewandowski who were all born in 1987 (34 years old). That shows you how much science has helped people to last longer in top jobs. The game is evolved, you evolved and help evolve. How difficult was that for you at times? I would say that the real change was a thing that I have liked. I have tried always to be in front of other clubs because you compete with all the clubs from all over the world. Even today, what is interesting for me is to see where the world is going, where the sport is going and how we anticipate the evolution of the game. That’s it. I didn’t feel that as a burden, I felt excitement and a possibility to compensate the less financial resources we had, to compete with the guys which had more. In the way you see football, you like to see it played in its purest form. That’s how you did it with Arsenal. Do you still hold this belief?