It Takes Two to Tango : Part Two
Imagine the phrase “Elementary, my dear Watson” without Watson in it, or Han Solo without his trusted sidekick Chewbacca. Unthinkable, isn’t it?
Amidst the madness surrounding people’s on-pitch shenanigans, relationships off the pitch often remain unseen. In this article, we discuss how managers and their trusted assistants often share a tangible and unique bond that is also prone to the inevitable fallacies of human nature. These relationships are often like ship steered through troubled waters by the dint of sheer calibre and charisma, and then run aground by mere insolence and greed. Here, we will recount stories about people with sizeable egos mutually admiring as well as envying each other.
Hop on for a roller coaster ride! Here is continuing from where we left.
Bill And Bob Built a Dynasty together
One day in November 1959, Huddersfield Town were playing Cardiff City at their home ground “Leeds Road”. After the game ended, two men, both well dressed, ambushed the Huddersfield manager as he was making his way off the pitch. “How would you like to manage the best club in the country ?”[14] they blatantly asked. Bill, quite startled by the question, replied, “Why? Is Matt Busby packing it up?”. After managing lower division clubs like Brunton Park, Grimsby, Workington, and Huddersfield for over a decade, the Scot had become a vibrant personality with a very good eye for young talent. Bill’s next managerial outing was, however, not to be at Manchester United. Busby was still going strong there, and showed no signs of stepping down. Instead, it was to be at United’s famous Lancashire rivals at Anfield — home of Liverpool FC.
Liverpool, however, were far from the being the best club in the land and in dire need of a revival. Languishing in second division, they were not even the best team in the neighbourhood. Anfield and Liverpool’s training ground at Melwood were in shambles. Bill even went on to claim that Anfield resembled a “toilet”[14] – apparently the biggest one he had ever seen. The ground had serious drainage issues. The squad Bill inherited was also very average, with star player Billy Liddell almost at the fag-end of his career. Although Bill might not have understood the enormity of the task at hand when he took over, he vouched to work as hard as he could to improve this team. Bill would have to radically change the thought process of the entire club in order to get things right on the pitch. According to him, what players did on the pitch was only a manifestation of the effort that was put behind running Liverpool FC — all the way from the doorman to the club chairman.
It was down to serious business from the onset. On his first day, Bill had a discussion with Liverpool’s coaching staff, emphasizing the importance of good strategy and absolute loyalty. The trio of Bob Paisley (who had joined the coaching staff as a self-proclaimed physiotherapist), Reuben Bennett, and Jose Fagan (who were brought under previous manager Phil Taylor) had come in that day fearing about their job safety. By the end of the day, they were re-invigorated by their new boss. Bill and Bob would go on to establish a great partnership with each other. As Paisley would fondly remember later, “from the moment he arrived, we got on like a house on fire”[15].
Bill managed to get Liverpool to the third position in second division before the season ended. He managed this feat under extremely conditions, with very little financial help from the board. However, this did leave people wondering whether the management was really interested in leading the club to its rightful place among the elites. The club’s minor successes in those trying months were largely due to Bill and his coaching staff. If Bill was chief motivator, Bob was the chief tactician; if Bill was the orator, then Bob would be the medium. Their relationship was effortless. Together, they completely overhauled the training regimes, made the players play five-a-side games, and established new routines to increase everyone’s stamina and reflex. But even with all that, one crucial thing remained out of reach. In order to win, Liverpool still needed sign some quality players. This was when Eric Sawyer was appointed to the board of directors. Sawyer was an accountant working for Littlewoods Pools when his name was recommended by John Moores, owner of Littlewoods, and a very influential person in Liverpool. What followed was an infamous board meeting that supposedly went on to change Liverpool’s fortune. The board was initially reluctant to give in to Bill’s demands. However, it was sawyer who had the last say — “We can’t afford not to buy them”[16]. Bill was given the go-ahead to buy some new players like Ron Yeats from Dundee United and Ian St John from Motherwell. Yeats, also known as the “Red Colossus”, was an imposing figure both on and off the pitch mostly due to his physical stature. He was made captain within months of joining. Both Yeats and St John would be instrumental in helping Liverpool get promoted to the top tier of English football by the end of the 1961-62 season. “Bill was a very straightforward man”,[15] Paisley would say. This trait would sometimes make many, especially the club’s directors, uncomfortable in his presence. Liverpool’s management was content to enter first division. But Bill had better plans. He wanted Liverpool to be a dominating force, not only in England but throughout Europe. Their first season after being promoted to the first division, they finished at a reasonable eighth place. 1964 saw the club win their first title after a 17-year wait. Kopites had every reason to feel optimistic or even ecstatic. Their club was back in the big league and rejuvenated by a hardworking managerial team. Interestingly enough, Bill and Bob Paisley were two very different characters. Bill was calm and sophisticated, a motivator-cum-orator extraordinaire, who could engross people for hours. Bob, on the other hand, was just “Uncle Bob” as the players fondly called him. A down-to-earth man with a particularly impressive skill of spotting injuries just by looking at them. In 1965, St John would score an extra time winner against Don Revie’s Leeds United at Wembley to give Liverpool their first FA Cup triumph — a day that Bill would forever refer to as his “greatest day” as a manager. Liverpool made their European debut in the same season. Here, one must tell the story of the club’s legendary all-red kit. Before a second-round match against Belgian giants Anderlecht, Bill and St John came up with an idea of making the team wear all-red uniforms instead of the red jersey and white shorts that had been their traditional dress till then. This was apparently their bid to make the players look taller and more imposing. Whether the Anderlecht players really got intimidated by the men in red is doubtful, but it did work as a lucky charm. Liverpool won the game 3-0 that night (with a comfortable 4-0 aggregate). After that encounter, the all-red kit became synonymous with Liverpool FC. In the semi-final Liverpool would go on to play the reigning European champions and Italian giants Internazionale. With goals from Roger Hunt, Ian Callaghan, and St John, Liverpool easily won that match 3-1. Back then, no English club had ever lifted the holy grail of European football. So, when Liverpool went to face Inter in front of a packed crowd at the San Siro, Bill was already dreaming of lifting the coveted trophy. But the Milanese had other ideas. The match was later described as a “war” by the Liverpool boss. Smoke bombs, contentious refereeing, ninety thousand people screaming for their heads — it was unlike anything the club from Northwest England had ever faced before. Not a single soul was spared the hostility. Even Paisley’s clothes were all covered up in smoke. It was indeed nothing less than a battlefield. Inter would go on to beat Liverpool that day 3-2 to make two consecutive European Cup finals. Two of their goals were rather contentious. Even years later, Bill maintained that his team was robbed and that they would have won a European cup much earlier had it not been for bad refereeing. In the following season of 1965-66, Liverpool would go on to retain their title and make it to the European Cup final at Hampden Park, finally losing to Borussia Dortmund in extra time. These years were followed by mediocre seasons as Bill and Bob focussed their attention on building a core group of players like Ray Clemence, Alec Lindsay, Larry Lloyd, Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan, Chris Lawer, Emlyn Hughes, and Brian Hall (who graduated from Liverpool’s Reserve Team). These players would go on to dominate the English and the European stage in the upcoming decades. In the 1971-72 season, Liverpool narrowly lost the League title to Derby County, who were headed by Brian Clough and Peter Taylor at the time. Bill, having built a strong and young core of the team was confident of eventual success. The following season, Liverpool won their third title under Bill, aided by an inspired and Kevin Keegan. Keegan’s brilliance was like the final piece of the jigsaw for Bill. The same season saw Liverpool enjoy European glory for the first time as they triumphed in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, beating Borussia Mönchengladbach — a European powerhouse back then. The 1974 FA Cup final was to be Bill’s last game with Liverpool. The players produced one of their finest performances of the season, beating Newcastle by 3-0 and giving a fitting farewell to their boss.
“You can’t pack it in, it will kill you”[15], Paisley was taken aback when he got the news of Bill’s decision to quit. For 15 years, Liverpool Football Club was Bill’s life — his very heart and soul. For 15 years, he knew nothing else but to take Liverpool back to its rightful place, to the “pinnacle of club football”. But time was ripe for a new beginning and for Bob Paisley to rightly take over and write the next chapter in the club’s illustrious history.
Bill and Bob were a match made in heaven. If Bill lit the fire, Bob fuelled it. But they did have their share of differences. Bill’s unscrupulous method of freezing players out of the squad instead of telling them that they were simply not good enough anymore caused ripples in the team. Once decisions were taken, nobody dared alter them. As Paisley said in his autobiography, “Bill was a boss man”, in that “If he advised you, you had to take his advice … His word was law”[17]. In retirement also, Bill would act like as if he was still the boss. He would often go to watch the games and be critical of Paisley’s team. At Melwood, he would often come to hand out instructions to players during their training – oblivious to the fact that he wasn’t the coach anymore. As good as his intentions were, he was finally told to stay away by Paisley since the club didn’t employ him anymore and the latter didn’t particularly liked being undermined. This step, however, would leave Bill completely aghast. He would die seven years later with “a broken heart”[18] . Bob Paisley would go on to be Liverpool’s most successful manager of all time, conjuring up an astounding 19 trophies in nine years, including three European Cups. But seldom did he take all the credit for himself, always maintaining that it was all down to the foundations laid by his former boss.
Oh, did I forget to mention Bill’s full name? It’s none other than Bill Shankly.
Weighted in either successes or failures, football often confines itself to primitive perceptions. Love, hatred, joy, tragedy, dreams, and aspirations are emotional fragments of the game that cannot be boxed into trivial shades of black and white. As the great Bill Shankly used to say, “Football is not a matter of life and death, it’s much more important than that “[14].
A Pair of villanos
Some priceless silverware had been “taken” from Camp Nou – it was a heist! The Catalans were left speechless and teary eyed. The celebrations were euphoric! Red and blue mixed with the usual white in the streets of Madrid. It was as if everyone was out on the streets – unable to reign in emotions of a lifetime. It had taken them 16 years, but Atletico had finally done it. They had breached the impregnable fortresses of world football and lived to tell the awe-inspiring tale. As players and fans alike joined in the revelry, Cholo Simeone and his rock star henchman, German Burgos, sat back with satisfaction, plotting their next diabolical move.
I apologize for steering readers straight into the middle of a storm, but some stories are fragmented by nature. They need to be put together like a puzzle, piece by piece. So, bear with me while I go scouring through different timelines in an attempt to sketch the fateful and treacherous paths of Simeone and Burgos. Humour me as we delve into the reasons why they became the masters of deceit.
The year was 2003. Atletico had just got promoted back into the first division. The Santiago Bernabeu was playing host to the first Madrid derby in three years. The Atletico goalkeeper and his “bloody”[1] nose stood firm to earn a hard-fought draw. The man between the post that day for Atletico — Senor German Burgos — was anything but a quintessential hero. Unmissable due to his long fiery golden hair and unusually bright red caps, he had the passion of a school boy but the intensity of a raging bull. A funny and usually calm guy, Burgos also had the ability to strike a person down with a single blow. It was as if he was Dr Jekyll as well as Mr. Hyde in the flesh. In fact, he was once banned for 11 consecutive games because he struck an RCD Espanyol player Manolo Serrano. Serrano’s medical team later stated that he could have suffered from retrograde memory loss[2] as a result of this incident. Some punch it must have been indeed!
People were disappearing off the streets of Argentina in an alarming rate during the 1980s; it was an oppressive time for the country. The military junta ruled with an iron fist. Misuse of political power was rampant and quite often inhuman. They called it the “Guerra Sucia” or the Dirty War[3]. Respite came in the form of football. When Diego Maradona punched that ball in the air and carried his team to win the 1986 World Cup, it would be known as the “Hand of God” and “El Diego” would become the undisputed champion of the sport. This win re-invigorated and fuelled a newer and hungrier generation of Argentinian footballers. A young Diego Pablo Simeone was one of them. In 1987, Simone was shuttling between amateur clubs like General Paz of Mataderos[4] and the youth team of Velez Sarsfield[4]. He would play for one team during the day, and put on another team’s jersey in the night. Apparently, everybody wanted him in their team. He was that good. His stamina and loyalty on the pitch stemmed from the values of respect and order he had learnt from his parents. In 1990, Simone would cross the Atlantic to make a career in club football. Pisa in the Italian Serie A would be his first outing. A topsy-turvy ride with Pisa (which saw them relegated in the 91-92 season) and a similar stint with Seville in the Spanish Premier League taught a young Simeone the nuances of European football. This would eventually take him to the heights of his playing career. The Los Rojiblancos snatched him up in the beginning of the 94-95 season. The club, however, was going through a rough patch under the stewardship of the infamous mayor of Marbella, Jesus Gil. Simeone’s second season at the club would see Gil massively overhaul the club, paving the way for both Atletico and Simeone to leave their mark on Spanish football. Radomir Antic, the new manager, bought in some key recruits like Milinko Pantic, Luboslav Penev, Jose Francisco Molina, and Santi Denia to help restore the faith of the fans. As a result, the team got off to a blistering start – shooting to the top of the table and refusing to budge from there. The Spanish powerhouses, Barcelona and Real, were having an indifferent season. So it was down to Atletico and Valencia to fight it off for the crown. The top two were only separated by two points heading into the last round. It was a tense showdown. However, Atletico held their nerves to beat Albacete in the Vicente Calderon to secure their first top flight title in almost 20 years. Simeone finished the season as the second-highest scorer for the club. Atletico would also go on to lift the Copa Del Rey, beating Johan Cruyff’s all-conquering Barcelona. Simeone, the staunch Argentinian, had already entered the folklore of the working class Madrileños.
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone and assistant coach German Burgos during training REUTERS/Sergio PerezBurgos had formed a rock band. Not only that, he had named the band after himself. Flaunting a sleeveless denim jacket, he would stand on the stage as if the spirit of Mick Jagger himself had possessed him. Not even the mythical Maracanã dared to intimidate him[5]. The subtleties of life are often hard to explain. Senor Burgos was between the posts one day, beating cancer the next day, and on the stage screaming his lungs out a few days later. The man was an enigma. It was as if his life’s orchestra easily found a balance between those delicate low notes and the high vibrant ones. “The Footballer dies, the musician lives on”, he would hum on.
Nelson Vivas, apart from having the distinction of being the first South American to play for Arsenal Football Club, was more famous for an unlikely partnership with Simeone at the fag-end of his career. Together, they would dive headfirst into the world of management. Racing Club would give them an opportunity that would help them transform the fates of numerous prestigious clubs across the country, and make Simeone a household name. Like the common man in R.K Laxman’s sketches hovering in the background of every significant event in India’s political history, Vivas would often find himself a witness to many notable events throughout his footballing life. Be it sharing the pitch with the likes of Tony Adams, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, and even Luiz Ronaldo to playing the full 120 minutes in Argentina’s famous acrimonious win over England in the 1998 World Cup, to being coached by the likes of Arsene Wenger and Marcelo Bielsa. Vivas would also bear witness to one of the most iconic coaching evolutions of the modern era — where grit, passion, determination, and the unorthodox style of futbol would become synonymous with the man they call “El Cholo”. From Racing to Estudiantes to River Plate, the manager in Diego grew from strength to strength. “We were all very obsessive and hard workers and we had a great time”, Vivas would recount his time with Simeone later on. Simeone’s teams were not only hard to beat, but also flexible and robust. As he himself reiterates, “You can’t have a favourite formation for the simple fact as managers we have to adapt not to what we would like but to what we have to work with”[6]. Pablo Gerchunoff, a renowned academic who teaches at the Torcuato di Tella University in Buenos Aires, also found Simeone to be an obsessive and unrelenting learner, whose style would often reflect Hiddink’s and Bielsa’s ideas in a more tactically astute fashion[6]. Simeone would also draw inspiration from an Al Pacino film, “Any Given Sunday”,while motivating his players. Successful spells with Estudiantes and River Plate were followed by a horribly mediocre one at San Lorenzo, which made Simeone realise that he was still a novice and had much to learn.
By his own admission, Burgos never wanted to get into coaching. But one’s affection for the game never really goes away. As fate would have it, life was about to give him a second chance. Repeated attempts by Simeone, who was once Burgos’ club and national teammate, to bring him back into the fold had left “El Mono” in a dilemma. Choosing between heart and soul can often be difficult. However, football triumphed over music in the end. “I killed off the musician”[7], Burgos said. In 2010, the duo would venture on their first assignment, Catania in the Italian Serie A. Five months on the little island of Sicily (that is famous for its diverse culture, exuberant landscapes, and association with crime syndicates) would give the world the first glimpse of the eccentric duo that rather resembled the fabled pair of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. The pair landed in the island in the midst of a storm. The Sicilians were battling a crisis. Their former boss Marco Giampaolo had exited in an unceremonious fashion — leaving the club hovering dangerously above the relegation zone. Simeone and Burgos went to work from the get-go — quickly asserting their influence over the team, tweaking personnel and formations, and motivating dejected players. In Burgos, Simeone found the perfect partner, a gritty motivator who was as passionate as himself. Those were testing times. Results in the first few rounds after the duo’s arrival weren’t that great. But the pair stuck to their guns and created a cohesive team spirit, instilling a “never say die” attitude in the players. The persistent nature of the duo eventually transformed Catania, as they became an unflinching side, tenacious in their pressing and positional play. They finished the season at 46 points — 10 points above the drop-zone. This was their highest ever return in a top-flight season back then, after draws with Bari and Turin giants Juventus as well as crucial victories against Cagliari, Brescia, and Roma.
Back in Spain, chaos seemed to be on friendly terms with the Gil family and its muse, Atletico Madrid. Atletico owed much of its recent successes to the Gils, but suffered greatly when Jesus Gil disbanded the youth system, leading to players like Raul leaving for their more illustrious neighbour, Real Madrid. After more than a dozen managerial changes since the turn of the century, the club, then under Jesus’ son Miguel Angel, appointed Simeone and Burgos to take over the reins in 2011. This was an attempt to bring much-needed stability to Atletico. It was undoubtedly a daunting job. Gregorio Manzano was sacked halfway through the season. Sitting tenth on the table, and already knocked out of the Copa del Rey by third-division team Albacate, Atletico’s previous year’s Europa League heroics seemed to be a distant past. Manzano’s sacking was expected. But Simeone’s unexpected appointment managed to raise many an eyebrow in the Spanish media. The duo arrived in the midst of a transition, hoping to calm the storm. The squad was depleted as young Argentine striker Sergio Aguero, goalkeeper protégé David De Gea, and star player Diego Forlan had all left at the beginning of the season. Their replacements — Arda Turan from Galatasaray, Thibaut Courtois on loan from Chelsea, and a certain Radamel Falcao from Porto were struggling to find any kind of consistency. As the Calderon filled up for the duo’s first home game against former compatriot Jose Francisco Molina’s Villarreal, excitement ran high. Mundo Deportivo called it “The day of the Cholo”. The game proved to be a showcase for the duo’s ever-evolving playing system, with Diego Godin, Tiago Mendes, and Falcao forming the spine of the team. Atletico managed to stop Villarreal at midfield, with Tiago and Turan’s relentless pressing and Juanfran’s unerring wing support. Falcao scored one goal in each half. Fellow Brazilian Diego notched up another, leading Atletico to a comfortable 3-0 win. It was as if warriors of a bygone era had returned to help their club back on its feet. But as the duo started working their magic at the club, people started whispering. Whispering that whatever was being played at the Vicente Calderón was a crude version of the game. It was ‘Anti-Futbol’. This perception had its origin back in South America. Victorio Spinetto was one of the main influencers of the regressive sibling of free flowing futbol in Argentina. He was also associated with the Velez youth system when Simeone was learning his trade and this is where Diego picked up his rigid tactical cognizance. Spinetto was fond of Simeone and one of the first people to recognize his talent. But with Atletico it was not only about Simone. Behind “El Cholo” stood Senor Burgos. He had become an efficient analyser of the game from his time spent in Catania and Racing. Learning from statistics and scouting reports, he gave Simeone’s fanatic defensive system a much-needed attacking intelligence. Cries of anti-futbol were ignored as Atletico went on to finish the season in the fifth position, winning the Europa League for the second time in three years. Simeone and Burgos were on their way to becoming cult heroes.
The bruised demeanour, aggressive antics, and anti-futbol label often hid the radical evolution of Simeone’s system from Racing to Atletico, and how Burgos’ tactical nuances helped provide a cutting edge to what often seemed to be a brittle apparatus. Back in Argentina, Simeone used to experiment with attacking formations such as 3-3-1-3, with Ariel “El Burrito” Ortega as the playmaker and Radamel Falcao the focal point. While it garnered him much success, the system was visibly prone to counter-attacks. Teams would ruthlessly carve them open while they pushed bodies forward in search of goals. The paradox was very evident during his time at River Plate. After finishing 14th in the 2007 Apertura Championship, in 2008 they would go on to lose to a nine-man San Lorenzo in the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores, and then miraculously win the Clausura Championship the same year. Simeone needed new ideas. No one knows whether the meeting between Simeone and Burgos was pre-planned, but it cannot be denied that they both needed each other. Burgos needed to hold up the mirror to “El Cholo” and point out his mistakes. Simeone needed to provide an exhilarating life experience for Burgos. Catania saw a different, more conservative, and psychological approach from the two of them. Formations shuttled between 4-3-1-2 and 4-2-3-1, depending on the personnel at hand. Burgos took over handling the training activities, briefings on oppositional play, and tactics. The team’s attitude and mental cohesion became of paramount importance. It has remained the very definition of their coaching style ever since. “Catania was a learning curve”, Simeone said in 2014. Present day Atletico bears an uncanny resemblance to that team from Sicily from 2010. However, the likeness ends with their rigid defence and commendable work ethic. In 2010, superior players and exciting new coaches meant that Atletico had more than just brute strength in its kitty. Having better midfielders like Gabi, Koke, Turan, Adrian Lopez, and Juanfran meant Atletico were equipped to play the “waiting, pressing, attacking” game with precision and deftness. With strikers like Radamel Falcao and Diego Costa being merciless in front of goal, Simeone and Burgos finally perfected their system.
It may be a cliché, but relationships are always based on trust. The one between Simeone and Burgos is no different. As Burgos puts it, they are good at adapting to each other’s moods and tempers. “If one of us loses our temper, the other will put up with it until it fizzles out…” Balancing out each other both on and off the field, the duo has made Atletico a household name in world football. They are a side to marvel at, a role model for all those clubs that can muster the courage and the will to punch above their weight and make it among giants. Winning La Liga in 2013, making the Champions League final twice in three years, and recently winning the Europa League again stand as testaments to the duo’s calibre.
However, not everyone sees them as the working-class heroes they are portrayed to be. Their “pretentious” underdog nature often irks people. With an “us against the world” attitude, they are constantly on the edge — bullying referees, eyeballing opposition managers and being consciously anti-establishment. Is it always necessary to be obnoxious and crude? Probably not. But would a former bin man and a Latin American street fellow with the name “Cholo” get anywhere by playing fair? According to Burgos’s own admission, “I couldn’t play at Real Madrid because of how I look. They’d make me cut my hair.” On the forefront of a class and cultural divide, they have carved out a niche for the themselves and for the brand of football they endorse. It hardly matters if some people depict them as villains.
With Sicily and Al Pacino serving as important backdrops, I cannot help but imagine the figure of a young Michael Corleone and his henchman Busetta hugging the touch line at Metropolitano (Atletico’s new home ground) — carefully planning and plotting their next move. Oh, don’t we all love these kinds of villains!
References
1. The World Game
2. El Pais
3. Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training
4. lifebogger.com
5. El Pais
6. The Guardian
7. FIFA
8. The Guardian
9. The Telegraph
10. These Football Times
11. FourFourTwo
12. Hasta El Gol Siempre
13. The Guardian
14. shankly.com
15. shankly.com
16. John Roberts, Shankly My Story by Bill Shankly – Centenary Edition, ISBN-13: 9781906802066, p.87.
About Abhinav Maitra
A football enthusiast and an ardent Manchester united fan, keen on writing about human behaviors and the power of the beautiful game to bring in subtle changes and happiness in people’s lives
