Great article with Ossie Ardiles & Micky Hazard

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courtesy of @dompaczko from his blog http://whatafantasticrun.com/

Micky Hazard :bow:

The Ossie Ardiles & Micky Hazard Interview: We Can’t Make Every Kid A Messi…Only 99 Out of 100.

I might as well close down this site now.

I mean, it’s not often you get the opportunity to interview one Tottenham legend, let alone two. The fact that I have been able to bring Ossie Ardiles and Micky Hazard to What A Fantastic Run blows my mind. If this is your first time on this site I have to tell you now, it doesn’t get better than this.

Ossie and Micky are currently involved in the Ossie Ardiles Soccer School, where they are helping kids learn ‘how to play football the Ossie Ardiles way’.

Sadly the interview time with Ossie was limited but Micky gratefully filled in the blanks to talk about teaching children how to play football properly, the problems with youth development in this country and of course, our beloved Spurs.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this interview. It was an absolute pleasure to put together.

WAFR: Welcome Ossie & Micky to What A Fantastic Run. You are both currently involved in the Ossie Ardiles Soccer School. Why Did you decide to do this and how long has the school been running?

OA: We set up the soccer school last summer and since then we have run four very successful schools. Micky came up with the idea and suggested it to me and I was immedietly very excited about the prospect. Coaching is so enjoyable and I was thrilled to be able to provide high quality coaching to so many youngsters through this brilliant school.

WAFR: You talk about teaching kids to play the ‘Ossie Ardiles’ way. What are you hoping to pass on to the youngsters?

OA: Essentially we want to educate children to play football correctly. We all admire Barcelona for what they have achieved playing football the right way – a true example of the beautiful game. We want to allow players to express themselves with the ball without fear of making a mistake. We do not care if they make a mistake. Remember, the player that does not make a mistake does not learn a thing.

MH: It’s all about giving kids a life time of belief in the way football should be played. When you talk about the greatest teams and the greatest players it is also those who can pass, control, dribble and do all the exciting things about the game. You need to teach kids history. Who were the greatest players? Who were the greatest teams? and what type of football did they play? This will help you come up with the answers on the correct ways to teach kids. We can’t make every kid a Lionel Messi…..only 99 out of 100.

WAFR: Since the last World Cup there has been a lot of focus on youth development in England. What is wrong with how we teach kids in this country?

OA: The Premier League is partly to blame. It’s win at all costs and perhaps sacrifices the aesthetics and skills. The very best things about the Premier League – the styles of Chelsea, Woolwich and Manchester United – rely on the play makers being foreign. The issue for the FA is placing the priority on the national team. That is what Cesar Luis Menotti did with Argentina in the late 70′s and early 80′s. He insisted that the national team became the priority and now they are one of the leading protagonists. The FA Must do the same. The FA needs to press home the point that technique has to be uppermost. If you have the technique you can choose the football you want to play.

MH: This win at all costs mentality is so wrong. I was in a good school team in the north and we won everything we entered. No one knows about it, but most people could name who won and scored the winning goal in the 1981 FA Cup Final. Ultimately the winning comes when you are in the first team and you need to teach kids how to play properly first. If you have been taught football the right way and have been given a winning mentality then they both go hand in hand and you could become a very good footballer. Who gives a damn if kids win, lose or draw at the end of the game, if they are walking off the pitch and have improved as a player, well that’s the important thing.

WAFR: Are our players technically good enough now within the global game and are we doing enough to develop players. Do you think there is a problem within the country within schools and youth football teams and if so how do we solve it?

MH: Have you got about 3 years to talk to me? The problem is not the players. We can produce Messi’s, Ronaldo’s and Pele’s, the problem in our game is that it’s not the type of style to allow those players to flourish. I’ve worked in the kids game since I retired in 1995 and I have to tell you, some of the talent I see on show is incredible. The talent is there but what happens is coaches in this country don’t have the belief in the passing game. Take the great Spurs team I played in, we won FA Cups and the UEFA Cup and were a wonderful passing team with some gifted players. Think back to the FA Cup when Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the final, it seems like in England everybody else wants to follow Wimbledon and their style yet that’s the only time they have won the FA Cup in 150 years. And there lies the problem. The standard coaching is no where near good enough.

WAFR: There are already two legends participating in the soccer school. Who else have you got helping out?

OA: Well of course we have Micky and I cannot coach actively due to my ‘trembly’ knees but I am always on hand to advise. Micky coaches on all of our courses and is an excellent coach. He is also good with children and is always the centre of attention. Somehow he is always voted Man of the Match! Last year Graham Roberts did some coaching for us but he has now gone off to be the national manager of Nepal. We are introducing some famous ex-professionals to our coaching staff soon. I cannot say much more but watch this space.

WAFR: Our beloved Spurs are perhaps not the best known for their youth development with very few youngsters coming through the ranks. How difficult is it for players to break through?

MH: The sad thing for me is the Academy, which is a fantastic idea in principle, isn’t working in practice as the standard of coaching is so poor. Usually academy managers are former school teachers who have never played the game at any level. I have worked in academys and have had people, who have never played the game professionally,tell me how I should be coaching the kids. Sometimes if there is a promising youngster and his Dad helps him sign for the club, the club will sometimes give the Dad a job. I mean he is just a Dad and he is trying to tell me how I should be coaching the team.

A another big problem with the Academy Manager role is a lot of it is around completing paperwork, I personally think there should be two Academy Manager roles within football. One to deal with the paperwork and another to deal with the football side of things.

WAFR: What is wrong with the way coaches are being developed in England?

MH: When you go for your coaching badges, its a bit like going for a driving test. They are teaching you how to get the badge. They are not teaching you how to train players. It doesn’t matter if you have played 500 professional games or never kicked a ball in your life. Both of those people come out with the same badge.

WAFR: Micky, you joined Spurs full time at 16 and moving away from home at a young age, how difficult was that period of time for you?

MH: At the time I had never been away from my Mum and Dad or my brothers and sisters and to be suddenly be thrusted into leaving everything I have ever known and joining a team like Spurs full of superstars it was incredibly tough. I found it very hard and was very homesick. I personally think if I wasn’t as talented or gifted as I was Spurs would have given up on me as I ran away on 6 or 7 occasions.

Spurs were brilliant though, after the 7th time I ran back home they arranged a meeting with me and my parents and they reached an agreement that on every 10th day I could go home and pay for it. After about 18 months I started to settle and didn’t want to go home any more, but I still wanted all the expenses I got. I kept telling the club I was still going home every 2nd weekend and claimed all the money. I soon got caught. I went out clubbing one night and bumped in to the then youth team manager Peter Shreeves. That soon put an end to my expenses.

WAFR: You retired in the early stages of the Premier League, and it has grown massively since then. What are your thoughts about the Premier League?

MH: To be honest it devastates me. As soon as I was born I wanted to be a footballer. It was a working man’s game. We used to have supporters come along to the training ground to watch training, I used to think it was fantastic. The supporters are being taken out of football. Take the supporters away and Sky is dead, Tottenham are dead, Chelsea is dead, Woolwich are dead. The greatest thing in football is the supporters, not the team. The supporters make the team what it is. The supporters made Micky Hazard, the supporters made Glenn Hoddle. I was very fortunate to play football, fortunate to play in these big games and have my name in the newspapers but there is not better feeling in the world than hearing the supporters sing “There’s only one Micky Hazard”

It really rankles me that teams have forgotten supporters with all the money in the game. To me, if football clubs are getting £60m a year from a TV company then they should be brining ticket prices down, not up. Clubs need to attract supporters. Football needs to get back to its roots.

WAFR: Where do you stand on this finishing 4th place as an achievement in the modern game?

MH: If anyone said to me, what would you rather, the League Cup, UEFA Cup or 4th place I’d take the League Cup and UEFA Cup. Finishing 4th may guarantee the club and extra £20m or whatever, but are we just there to take part or are we there to win something?

I remember when I left Spurs won the FA Cup in 1991, I was playing for Chelsea then and I am standing in Tottenham High Road with my baby son on my shoulders celebrating watching the open top bus go by with the players lifting the FA Cup..and I was a Chelsea player! Do the club know how exciting it is for fans to win something.

When we played the League Cup final against Leicester (2002) it was so exciting. I remember one of my son’s feinting because they were using some spray face paint so he could have Spurs written on his face. The joy of the game, watching the players walk up the steps to get the trophy….I’ve done it as a player, but to watch it as a spectator is something else. Who wants to watch their team finish 4th?

WAFR: Clearly Spurs’ priority is to finish 4th, what do you think as a UEFA Cup winner seeing the team they put out for the Europa League games?

MH: It really saddens me. The UEFA Cup was a difficult cup to win. We owe it to the history of this game to treat these competitions with respect and try to win them. People today talk about the FA Cup now like it doesn’t matter and it is one of the greatest cup competitions in the world. Who’s going to remember in 10 years time if we finish 4th?

WAFR: Rightly so the Spurs team in the 1980′s is regarded as one of our best, why was that team so special and do you see any similarities in the current squad?

MH: What was special about that team was we had fantastic players, some of the greatest players that England has ever produced. We gelled as a team to play skilful football which was lovely to watch.

I actually think we have a very good team at the moment players like Van Der Vaart, Modric are in the mould of Hoddle, Ossie and Ricky Villa. Bale on the left has phenomenal pace down the left similar to Tony Galvin. Chris Hughton at left back is very similar to Assou-Ekotto – there are lots of good similarities. I do miss Berbatov, the best thing he could ever do is come back to Spurs. Obviously now we have Adebayor, but I am reserving judgement on him as sometimes he can become a problem.

I think the team is more than capable of finishing 4th, even more so winning a cup if they play the strongest team week in week out.
 
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