From Matt : Klinsmann on Wenger: a leopard never changes its spots
Hi Myles,
Have you heard the recent BBC World Service documentary, ‘The Managers: German Football Legend Jurgen Klinsmann’?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01zq8q9
A great listen, and he comes across as a calm, thoughtfull, intelligent man.
Despite Tottenham connections he’d fit well at Arsenal, not that he’s about to swap the California sunshine.
In the documentary he talks about his time under Wenger at Monaco and is highly complimentary, talking about his vision, knowledge and ability to foresee things with players.
However, if anyone thinks Wenger has ever had different priorities over whether winning is more important than how you do things then how’s this for a quote: “The teaching part became more important than the winning part”.
He talks specifically about how he nurtured Youri Djorkaeff. and how he helped him through his early years to teach him what it takes to become a professional: “on the expense of a couple of points that we missed at the end of the year to win the championship”.
I should add that he believes the approach of Wenger was correct but maybe it’s true, a leopard never does change its spots.
Myles says:
He’s a tracksuit father with 35 sons.
And for 30 years his sons have stayed the same age and he’s developed family after family of athletic young men.
Only teachers and sports coaches have that life-experience.
I respect Jurgen’s bottle and a persponality. He changed Germany after 2004, when they didn’t score a goal in Portugal.
He made German football more dynamic in a short time and his Under 21 squad produced a cohort of talent.
The 21s were coached from 2004 by his mate Dieter Elts, who was Germany’s best player in Euro 96, which they won with a golden goal that I saw from the press box.
That was one of my most unforgettable moments.
German teams can win without great players.