Javier Clemente (Barakaldo, 1950) attends SPORT at the gates of the duel between his Athletic Club and FC Barcelona in San Mamés
The coach is out of work, but open to whatever arises: “The coach never retires, they retire”
That of which when he speaks the bread rises falls short with Javier Clemente. Barakaldo’s ‘Rubio’, as they say colloquially, has fired shots in all squares. Libya (two stages), Cameroon, Serbia, Marseille, Bilbao, Gijón, Murcia. Tenerife. Although the controversial Basque coach is best remembered for his his glorious time on the Athletic bench. With the Biscayan team he achieved a historic double (Cup and League) in the 1982/83 season. The last great title that the ‘athleticzale’ club won. He also had extensive experience in the Spanish team.
Clemente does not mince words. Not any kind of filter. He has always shown himself like this before the press and he will do so until the end of his days. “Who is it?” he answers harshly into the phone. At first, one may think that things are not looking good for a long and, if possible, interesting conversation. “If we can go fast, I have things to do,” she continues. It doesn’t improve the matter. But the truth is that as names and topics to be discussed come out, it becomes looser. And the ‘problem’ becomes how to stop it.
At 72 (he will turn 73 next Sunday, the same day as Athletic-Barça), Clemente is aware that his fire as a coach is fading. “A coach does not retire, they retire. I enjoy training. And on top of that they pay me. The last experience in Libya was good, but the conditions were very precarious. Travel, concentrations. I know that today the teams are looking for younger profiles. You have to accept it. When I started I was 30 and passed with those of 60. Law of life “.
How do you see the game on Sunday in San Mamés?
Barça knows that matches at San Mamés are always difficult. Athletic is strong in its field, it fights a lot. It is true that Athletic is up and down, it is a young team, Ernesto is moving forward, there have been good games. In others the level has been lowered.
Will you be watching it live? Do you often go to the Cathedral?
Sunday I can’t go because it’s my birthday and I’ll be there. I’m a partner, of course. I have never been to a box, I have only gone as a coach for Euskadi. I go to my town, I have a place in the stands.
A topic that usually arouses ‘curiosity’. How did you see the ‘scorn’ that was made after Barça won by going back and defending the last clásico?
I don’t understand much about style because at the Bernabéu they have played one way, then they have played another. I don’t interpret anything, if Xavi apologizes it’s because he didn’t like it. I listen to him every time Xavi speaks. I can’t judge Xavi’s comments too much because those from when he arrived, those from a month, three months, five months ago have been very varied.
Do you think that perhaps too many expectations were generated at the beginning of the season?
With Barcelona I don’t create any expectations, the expectations have to be set by coaches and players. This year it is said that they are going to win whatever. I don’t have any expectations, just let’s see how the team is doing with the squad it has made every year.
It seems impossible for Barça to grow and move forward with the external noise that there is…
There’s too much noise, it’s too much on the covers. It’s good that Barcelona is only on sports covers because of the results. It is on many front pages, at the beginning of the season, in market windows. Super League theme, signings. They are working on many fronts and the League is doing well, the team has been changed in a year. I think that Laporta and Mateu and everyone works against the current. All goals are very difficult to meet.
A blow to the Champions League.
They have beaten Madrid at home, they have the League to win. In Europe they have had rivals that are too strong for the strength they had at that time. The calendar does not forgive, the draw is the draw. Sometimes you’re lucky, other times you get milk bones and they send you home. Now to fight for the remaining titles. They started with a very big goal and now they have a less big one.
What do you think of the whole issue of financial ‘fair play’, the difficulties that Spanish clubs are having to register players?
The ‘fair play’ is a very beautiful English word, that we like even those of us who do not speak English. Honestly, they are rules that first I don’t know and second I don’t understand them. As long as the players get paid and the professionals get paid. I don’t care who puts up the money, if the partners or a tycoon. There are some rules, I don’t understand them, not even the League, much less the Federation and much less the VAR.
Doesn’t the current football format in Spain seem attractive to you?
I like old football, I wish we would come back. In England, for example, it is much more open, it is more like 30 years ago. Spain has changed a lot. The football, the rules, in the English League is more like what it always has been, regardless of whether Russian moguls or sheikhs go. The public continues to vibrate, a lot has changed here, Rubiales has arrived with his rules and economic situations, he rules what he wants, they put the VAR on, no one understands it…
We better not even talk about the ‘Negreira case’…
I have no idea, Negreira has charged, what you have to know is why he has charged. That they wanted to give him the money, I don’t know. That there have been referees sold, I don’t know. It is clarified, Barcelona says that they have not bought and that they have paid Negreira. Let them explain it. The strange thing is that a man linked to Spanish arbitration commits himself professionally in part to a club, no matter how big a fan he is. He does not want to say that Barcelona has bought referees, nobody understands that Negreira agreed to be hired by Barcelona to pass reports.
Entering the most football section. How do you see this new batch of Barça?
The new batch… You have thrown many rockets. When Messi left you said that you already had his replacement, who was Ansu. With 17 years. That is a machada, you forced this kid, you made him a starter at 17 years old. He is too young to give her the responsibility. Then they hit him with a tackle that wasn’t such a big deal, a very tough clash and a 17-year-old boy couldn’t stand it. Now you have already forgotten about Ansu. You made him with 17 substitutes for Messi… it’s just outrageous. Whoever he said that should have been kicked out of the club or the city. Soccerly it is a crime. Compare it with the best? Impossible. The same in five years, well. The media are pushing it away. Now it is Pedri and Gavi. You have to be patient. You have to give it its rightful place. You make figures of people who are not yet, team concepts that you are not.
Perhaps it affects the nostalgia of Pep’s time, of those glorious years.
The history of Barcelona is not even in Pep’s time. He is significant, of course, he is a fantastic guy, culé and smart on top of that, he did a great job. But before Pep there was Johan, who was not as brilliant as Pep. Before it was the time of Gallego, Eladio, Torres, Rifé. That does not count? Are they not in the story? Is Ramallets not in the story? Each era has his DNA, the sum of all the DNAs make up Barcelona. If you talk to the culés from 30 years ago, Barcelona was champion, for them it was the biggest team in Spain.
Going back to your Athletic. Does the current context make you think that you will never return to the glory days, to your time?
Since the year 82-83 nothing has been won again. We are a big club, we were the biggest in ’83. We want to go back. Athletic Bilbao can be champions again if they do things the way they have to be done. There aren’t many ways to be a champion with the kids from the quarry, they are very special ways to do it. If you don’t do them, you’re not a champion, that’s for sure. Barcelona can sign the best in the world, Brazilians, Germans, English. Although there is less and less prominence of La Masia.