Jorge Valdano explains why he compared Liverpool v Chelsea to 'shit on a stick'
"Some shit hanging on a stick in a New York art gallery could come across as a work of art. A bad football match played at Anfield could come across as a decent match ..."
Jorge Valdano burst into a chuckle as he went on to explain that with those words started his first draft of his infamous column this time last year. "But the article, let's see, had the problem of length, right? I had to write exactly 495 words and, as always, ended up having to cut. I had 600 and something words. I started trimming and ended up with 'shit on a stick at Anfield could pass for a decent match'.
"I'm not trying to justify myself. I am fully responsible for it. I'm not making excuses. It was what I wrote and obviously it can sound disrespectful, which is why I apologised a week later. But I still maintain the essence of the article: I think that the Liverpool v Chelsea match was unworthy of the level we're at, in terms of football I mean. It was a match where intensity won over precision, and the lack of fantasia and of goal chances was disappointing."
Our conversation took place in Madrid in early March, a few hours after Lionel Messi left a Champions League pitch before full-time with a serious injury and a few hours before Real Madrid were knocked out of the Champions League by Roma. We didn't know then that the semi-finals would turn out to be what they are, and the repeat of Liverpool v Chelsea was not the context in which our conversation took place. Rather, I was asking on behalf of a friend, a Liverpool fan, who knew I was meeting Valdano and wanted clarification on the controversial statement. What happened when we spoke is that we opened up thousands of interpretations – a possible one being a judgement on Liverpool fans.
"I felt it was a betrayal to Liverpool's history," Valdano said again of the quality of the football that night. "I remember a wonderful banner in the Liverpool stands from the days when TV was in black and white – it read: 'For those of you watching on telly, Liverpool are the ones with the ball'. I used to support Liverpool just for that.
"Like now I 'support' Arsenal just for that. Last night Barcelona played, Sevilla played. But of the teams I will have to write about, I chose to watch Arsenal v Milan live because of Arsenal. I like their respect for the ball, the daring attitude, the risk taking. Nil-nil and a 17-year-old forward [he was 18] – Walcott is it? – comes on for a midfielder? I like that.
"For me football has to do with a sense of adventure, with risk, and he who respects that makes me feel supportive of his team. I mean, when I see a guy wearing a Barcelona shirt in somewhere such as El Salvador, I suffer, because I would rather see him with a Real Madrid strip. But I understand it perfectly: I can conclude that this is a guy who is fascinated by the dream team and fascinated by the culture of touch, of attack, of risk that Barcelona has upheld for the past 15 or 20 years.
"That's where I write my articles from. I've always said, nobody should ask me for objectivity. I try to be as subjective as possible. When I write, all my football-related experience passes through my sensibilities. And that's what comes out."
Exit Arsenal and Barcelona from the Champions League. It's crunch time now: fantasia and the touch, touch, touch philosophy are all very well, but the first stone on the road to Moscow has been laid by a Paul Scholes goal. We'll see what school of artistic representation Stamford Bridge offers tonight and who joins Manchester United in Russia. I would be curious to know Valdano's take on the re-match, one year on.
But our conversation was officially about the written word, about process and motivation. And the essence of how Valdano approaches this, I think, remains unchanged. There is an idea, an informed opinion. There is a word count and a deadline. And there is the impact of the published message.
"At the time both [Jose] Mourinho and [Rafael] Benítez were very cross with me," Valdano said. "Indignant, Rafa Benítez devoted pages and pages of Spain's mainstream press attempting to 'kill' me in all manner of ways. Just before a Champions League final, that seemed to me a considerable expenditure of energy. Mourinho, on the other hand, I got the chance to explain it all to him in an airport; he understood perfectly and we're friends again."
Could this not be, I wonder, informed by the personal history between the characters? Is it not the case, I ask, that between Valdano and Benítez there is more tension, historically? "Above all else," Valdano concludes, "I have to be loyal to myself when I write. Not to other managers, or to the managerial profession."
As a man of football with a gift for writing, I wonder now if he thinks of himself more as an outsider in the industry. "I have a huge capacity to renew my dreams," he tells me, "but it is essential to occupy a place within football from which to dream. So now, I like being both in and out. Within football I can take the obsession to its last consequences. Outside, I recover some perspective."
