Sporting interviews
There are three types of sporting interviews – those that promote a book, those that promote themselves and those that choose to reveal.
The Times yesterday had examples of each.
Jamie Redknapp is bringing about a book this week. Aged 47, it is about his career. It’s familiar stuff about his apprenticeship, when he was bullied and treated as a dogsbody.
He argues that it shapes you but then refers to the quality coaching that his son Beau, 11, receives at Chelsea Academy.
He says how upset when, after a move to Liverpool, John Sadler of The Sun said his – and the signings of David Speedie and Jimmy Carter – showed that Kenny Dalglish, the then Liverpool manager, had lost his way.
Few were better than his father at working the press so you might have thought he could give his son a few wise words.
A few pages on, there is an interview with Dizzy Gillespie.
He loves County Cricket and has not ruled out another coaching gig.
This was such a interview of self-interest that the interviewer did not point out – as our own Ivan Conway did recently – that Gillespie won nothing at Sussex.
Gillespie cites Jofra Archer’s rise to England and IPL star status, but Archer was already well on the way before Gillespie took over.
With even moneybags Surrey complaining of drastic loss of revenue it’s hard to think of a county that could afford him.
Finally, in the Magazine, there was an interview with Arsene Wenger by Robert Crampton.
Wenger does not need to look for a job, even at 70 he would be sought.
No one did more to change the landscape of English football than him with his emphasis on diet, fitness and conditioning.
All the more impressive as he had to confront and convince a strong dressing room of drinkers.
He bought Thierry Henry, arguably the best striker in the history of the Premiership.
He acquired Nicolas Anelka for £500.000 and sold him for £23m.
He won the double twice and in 2005 the title without losing a game.
Arsenal reached the Champions League final in 2006.
A bank loan to Arsenal was conditional on Wenger signing a 5 year extension. He controlled every aspect of Arsenal – transfers, the new stadium, the training ground – but he was ably assisted by David Dein.
After Dein left, Wenger lost his mojo and his final years were characterised by poor transfers, particularly in defence and, with the emergence of Chelsea and then Manchester City, Arsenal were no longer perennial title winners.
He has never gone back to Arsenal. He also reveals that he has faith, smoked, likes cards, his daughter Lea is a Cambridge post-graduate in neuroscience and he speaks regularly to his old nemesis Ales Ferguson.
Arsene Wenger was promoting his book but his willingness to reveal made this a wholly different interview to Redknapp’s.