Nuno Espírito Santo has an embarrassing story to get off his chest. The Wolverhampton Wanderers manager has been explaining why he tends to look the other way if one of his young players arrives at training in a flashy car or spends £500 on a pair of trainers. Instead of throwing his weight around, he prefers to act on instinct and take his cue from performances on the pitch. “It is not [my] money,” Nuno says. “What gives you the authority to decide?”
Anyway, he was young once and he has made mistakes. How about the time, for instance, when he bought a plot of land overlooking Santuário da Penha, a famous church in Guimarães? The Portuguese calls it an extravagance but he was going to build his dream home at the top of the highest hill in the city. All Nuno needed was permission from the council before pressing ahead with his plan. He looks back now and admits he probably should have asked the question before finalising the purchase.
“When I did, they said ‘no’,” he says. “Afterwards I went again and asked: ‘Can I build?’ And they said: ‘No, the area is protected.’ It comes up for application every 15 years when they allow some development. But they told me: ‘This area here? Forget about it. You cannot build there.’ I should have checked it out.
“But it was in 2002 and I was 27. It was perfect. We sometimes go and just sit there. The views are fantastic. But building? No, they don’t allow it. Because it’s over 200 metres they won’t allow it.”
Nuno is sitting with a group of reporters at Wolves’ training ground and he asks whether anyone fancies buying the land. He has his audience in the palm of his hand, mainly because sharing that anecdote has revealed a self-deprecating streak. It is believable when the former goalkeeper says he is strict but not overbearing.
He is professional and composed but he does not take himself too seriously. He is not the type to have informers tracking his players in Wolverhampton. “They have Instagram,” Nuno says. “They are so proud of showing themselves and the bullshit they are doing that you don’t have to chase them.”It is another witty line. Nuno has found happiness since arriving at Wolves in the summer of 2017 and helping them to steamroller the Championship last season. The former Porto, Rio Ave and Valencia manager insists he has no plans to leave Molineux – with the backing of the club’s Chinese owners, there is a belief that Wolves can challenge the Premier League elite – and he talks about his determination to build an identity that runs through the entire club.
Nuno, part of José Mourinho’s trophy-winning squad at Porto from 2002 to 2004, has an eye for group dynamics. He has created a culture where everyone greets each other in the morning. Perhaps it comes from his upbringing on the island of Príncipe. “I grew up with no shoes because my house was there and the beach was there,” he says. “There were no cars and we played. It was paradise.”
Wolves have set a Premier League record by playing the same starting XI in their first eight games, which is why Nuno paid tribute to the club’s medical staff after being named September’s manager of the month. “I hope I win it again,” he says. “That time it will be for the guys from the kitchen. Everybody is important. If you don’t have a kit-man then you are ruined.
“I give an example. Wolverhampton, January, a training session at 10am. It’s minus-five degrees. A player comes in a bad humour and it’s because the kit-man hasn’t given him his hat and gloves. We have a problem. You have to have a good support staff. If a player has had a bad night, the first person he will share his mood with is the physio. If you have someone in that role who is supportive, that’s the first message.”
What about the player who moans because of the weather? “It doesn’t happen,” Nuno says. “Because I have already talked to the kit-man. I say: ‘Whatever they want, if it makes sense give it to them.’ Instead of trying to solve things by punishments, we change the environment so the player gets educated. Another example. One player comes to training late, so you wait for him. Instead of fining him £1000, we say: ‘What happened in your life that made us have to wait for you to start working?’”
When the interview finishes, Nuno pulls out a couple of empty notepads and says he was hoping to sketch out a few tactical formations. For 75 minutes, though, the conversation has focused on his leadership qualities. Nuno loves talking about football but it is difficult not to feel that his views on life inform his attacking approach.
Some teams try to sit back after promotion to the Premier League. Yet Wolves have sparkled in their 3-4-3 system and occupy seventh place. They held Manchester United at Old Trafford last month and earned plaudits for refusing to be cowed when they drew 1-1 with Manchester City in August.
Most managers simply hope for the best against Pep Guardiola’s champions. Not Nuno, though. “We never play like that,” he says. “We will never play like that. It doesn’t make sense. How can you build a gameplan based on just drawing? You have a corner, you get one goal, you are losing, you lose your gameplan.
“The players look and say ‘now what?’
“What you have to become is really strong in what you do. That’s the point of building a team. You don’t know any other way – it would be absurd to do it any other way.”
It has been suggested that Rafael Benítez’s Newcastle United side have been very defensive against the big sides. “No comment at all,” Nuno says. “I am speaking about myself. We cannot build a gameplan built on a draw. Everything can change so fast. You have to prepare to win. How? Every last ball we can win. That’s the gameplan. Always to win.
“The way you analyse? How they build? What they like? They want to play on the outside, so let’s make them play on the inside. You take routines away from the other team. Your gameplan is to recover the ball here because you want to go there. We don’t do gameplans to draw.”
Nuno suggests that former footballers are more qualified to comment on tactics. But he also knows that some people are after attention. “Sometimes a polemic tweeter is more important than a normal view,” he says.
“You know how things move. What sells more, criticism or compliments? What do people like more? They enjoy blood. You? If you have to write ‘oh, they were very good’ or do you want to tear into them? You know what I mean.”
Does he enjoy blood? “No,” Nuno says. “I live in peace.”
The Guardian Sport
