In My Sporting Hero, a new podcast series from Nutmeg, footballers talk about the athletes who inspire them. Sometimes those sportsmen and women are also footballers. Sometimes not. You can listen to the audio on this post, on the podcast app of your choice (just search for ‘My Sporting Hero’) or enjoy the written version below.
Our next guest is John ‘Yogi’ Hughes.
John was a dependable defender for clubs including Falkirk and Hibernian. At Celtic, he played under the late Tommy Burns who John considered to be a footballing visionary. John’s management career started at the Bairns where he guided the club to promotion and a Scottish Cup final. At Inverness, he reached the final of the League Cup in 2014 and won the Scottish Cup the following year. Yogi is a footballing connoisseur, always willing to expound how he believes the beautiful game should be played.
Unsurprisingly therefore, John’s sporting hero is Pep Guardiola, whose successes at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now Manchester City, and the style in which they were achieved, are beyond compare.
My heroes growing as a Celtic supporter were Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain and Jimmy Johnston. I moved on to Hibs and it was Pat Stanton, Jimmy O’Rourke and Alex Cropley. So when did Pep Guardiola come into the equation? It was initially when he was part of The Dream Team, the Johan Cruyff Dream Team. That Dream Team with Michael Laudrup and Pep who won the European Cup by beating Sampdoria. They played in an orange strip, then they changed into their regular strip to lift the cup at Wembley. I’ve got a magazine in the loft, and Johan Cruyff’s got a bit in it where he talks about playing an outfield player in goals, and that was way back in the 1990s. And nowadays, many of the best passers of the ball are in fact goalkeepers! When you consider the success of Cruyff, I’m quite sure it was he who inspired Guardiola. Pep is just a guy who has always intrigued me. When you watch his teams play, you realise it’s football at its best. He’s really moved the game on. For myself as a coach and a manager, there’s been nothing but total inspiration from watching how his teams play.
Pep Guardiola got lucky because when he went into management, it was with the Barca B team. Barcelona have an identity and a philosophy, and he was the ideal man for the job. He did very well with the B team and won the league. At Falkirk, I was lucky enough to work with a player who had worked under him: Arnau Riera. He was the captain of the B team when Pep was there, and we signed him from Sunderland. So I would ask him about his experiences working under Pep, and the best compliment I got was when he told me our training drills were very similar to Barcelona’s. The difference was that they were doing it with a higher-quality player.
Every manager needs a bit of finance and time in order to bring their philosophy to fruition. I don’t think Pep would have got the job with the Barcelona first team if he didn’t match their philosophy. There were rumours that Jose Mourinho was going to get the job, and I think he was interviewed for it, but Pep got it. I can remember the first pre-season when they wore a brown kit and they were up at St Andrews. I was at Falkirk at the time, and I really wanted to see what this guy was all about.
In one sense, money has nothing to do with how he sees the game being played. If he was the manager of an amateur team, or a Scottish Second Division team, or a First Division team, or a Premiership team, he wouldn’t change his philosophy, because those are his beliefs and he has the courage of his convictions. When he got the first team job, he had big decisions to make. Deco and Ronaldinho left, and in came Busquets in that sitting midfielder role. When you look at that midfield: Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, with Messi dropping in – I don’t think you can go far wrong. So in a way, he got lucky again, but then he went to Bayern Munich and they too were successful. And he wasn’t afraid to change things; for example, he had regrets about a cup final defeat and he resolved never to repeat the mistakes he made that day. Over the years, you can see his system and tactics evolving, but he’s always sort of had that 4-3-3 with the sitting midfielder. He’s a visionary, he’s always thinking about the game.
I had to laugh when Pep first came over to Man City and the pundits were saying, he’ll not be able to do it over here. Why? What’s different? It’s still all about the P’s: possession, pressing, position. Recruitment is important and I look at how Pep has recruited. That first year at Man City he changed it all, and in his second year, he went out to win. He’s always evolving. When you hear great players talking about Pep, you realise that this guy is miles in front of everybody. Of course he doesn’t win everything, but I will still always admire his football philosophy. I was watching City playing against Real Madrid recently. You don’t dominate the ball against Real Madrid, but Man City did.
When I was growing up, when the World Cup came round, the team you wanted to watch was Brazil. They were highly entertaining, they never gave the ball away, they moved and passed beautifully, and they controlled the pace of the game. Then came the great Spain side. I used to take my teams to Holland for pre-season. Every time we went to Holland, we used to get battered. We would start off playing a village team, and we would beat them by double figures. But even the village team would try to play football. Then you would go up against an amateur team, and win 4 or 5-0. Then you would play two or three professional teams, and suddenly it was us who were getting the runaround. I remember we played Vitesse Arnhem, and one of their defenders played a long ball, and he was booed by his own fans! After every game, I couldn’t get to the opposition manager quick enough so that I could pick his brains. There was no embarrassment, I just asked him to demonstrate his tactics on the board. Then I would try and implement it, because that’s how you evolve as a coach and a manager. The culture in Scotland is hard-working and hard-drinking and we get stuck in and that’s all brilliant; but I think what the fans want affects the way we play football. Whereas in Brazil and Spain, it’s different. Unfortunately, I don’t think Scotland will ever change.
He’s set the benchmark for everybody else… that’s why Liverpool have been so great
Jurgen Klopp has taken time out because he says that football has drained him. Football does that, because it’s 24/7, seven days a week. So I don’t know how long Pep will be at Manchester City; hopefully a few more years, because he’s taken the English Premier League by storm and he’s set the benchmark. That’s why Liverpool have been so great because they’ve been on City’s shirttails. They overtook them and then City had to go again. And that’s been absolutely fantastic for British football. You’ve got a lot of Scots playing in England, such as Scott McTominay at Man United. He’s been coached by Erik Ten Hag, who in turned learned under Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich. So even the coaches who have come into English football during Pep’s time at City have improved everything. Just look at what Mikel Arteta is doing at Arsenal.
I’m still watching Pep Guardiola now and wondering, what is he doing? What’s he up to now? What’s new with him? Because I am always keeping up with the trends. Just two days ago, I was drawing up training drills, etc. and planning how I would set up my team if I ever return to management. If somebody’s looking for a football coach, I can give them total football. Guys like Pep and Tommy Burns are my inspiration, because it’s not just about winning, it’s about how you win. If you have two football teams, and one is getting stuck in and playing the long ball game, while the other is playing total football, if the latter team are on their game, they’ll not let the other side get a touch of the ball. That’s what Manchester City do. Teams sit in against them now, but City dominate and all their plans are ruined.
If you’re a coach or a manager, take inspiration from wherever you can, but you have to look at the best and Pep Guardiola is most certainly the best. I would love to spend two or three days in his company.
My Sporting Hero: John Hughes on Pep Guardiola