Bootroom Staff

[RedSince1964]

cont

How does your family cope with your job. I assume your job involves very long hours...

I never stop. Even at the weekends I am still going to watch a game on a Saturday and Sunday. It could be an U17 or U19 UEFA tournament. Or during the season I might be attending a Champions League game on Tuesday and Wednesday and then a UEFA Cup game on a Thursday. It's a special job that you have to love a lot. If you don't then it would become impossible. I don't see much of my family, although they are very happy here. When my wife and young twins went to Spain recently she said it was too hot. That shows how accustomed they've become to life here. Another problem is the language. I try to teach them Spanish and also the dialect from my home town. While they're obviously learning English now. It gets very confusing at times. When they started saying: 'ta' for thank you I didn't know what they were talking about because I'd never heard of it! But I love this job and I'm proud to work for the club; it's a price worth paying.

What does an average day at Melwood involve for you?

We start with a breakfast meeting when we talk about everything that has to be done. I have to organise the scouting team. Some days I chat with Rafa and update him on different players. It's not a typical office routine. It varies from day to day. Scouting is not set every day. You are working looking for players and everything can change quickly. For example you might plan to watch an U18 game but if the player you are checking on doesn't feature then you can't work. It means you always need a plan b and sometimes even a plan c. You have to be flexible.

A very good read

Thanks for posting it

[Mike]

Just made me realised just how much Rafa has done for us, knew he had made lots of changes etc and improved the team, but never knew just how much work he has done bringing in the youngsters.

Class act.

[-V-]

Very good read. Just shows how much effort is going on behind the scenes. How many managers spend as much time with scouts working to find young talent the way Rafa and Wenger do? Not many is my guess. Benitez is a workaholic and we are lucky to have him.

[redtitan]

awesome read there chap makes you like Rafa even more for turning the club around like this ,people tend to forget the state Rafa got the club in when he arrived ,virtually a non existent scouting network we had no optimism of youngsters coming through ,now everyone talking about nemeth,spearing,darby,pacheco,hobbs possibly breaking into the first team ....future looks bright with Rafa at the helm