About the winning mentality that returned to Olympiakos, he spoke Jose Luis Mendilibarin an interview with Cosmote TV ahead of the great final with Fiorentina for the Conference.
The Basque coach of the “red and white” spoke about his personal coaching career, stressing that he did not expect to experience a European final at this age. In addition, he referred to the atmosphere he found when he took over the “red and whites” and the way he approached the players in order to “win them over”.
“I am what you see. I’m not hiding anything. I say things as they come to mind, whether I’m wrong or not. I hope that others see me as I see myself. I try to work well with everyone, whether I am facing someone higher than me or lower in the hierarchy, I treat everyone the same nice way. I want everyone around me to feel good, feel comfortable and enjoy it. I am quite an open and approachable person. I try to keep one normalcy and calmness to those inside the training center,” he initially said and added:
“When I came I knew that I shouldn’t make radical changes, because then I would lose many footballers before we got to know each other well. They would say, who is he now, what has he come to make us do? I didn’t want it to happen. I wanted to slowly win some players and as time goes by I win more and more. Is very difficult to accept you 28 football players at the same time.
At first there were others who smiled and greeted me and some who were more reserved. As the days went by I watched happy more and more people. What I always try to do is to have one good relationship in all departments in the training center. I never want the caretakers to be fighting with the players or the analysts with the technical team. I consider it very important to have a good relationship between everyone».
Regarding the element acquired by the team, he said: “our strongest element is the winning mentality. I missed coming here. I don’t want to say that I brought it, but together we managed to find that mentality and belief for victory”
On whether he had spoken to the “red and whites” before Carvalhal took over, Jose Luis Mendiliber said: “I myself had not spoken. There had been a discussion when Martinez left and before Carvalhal arrived. There was a Portuguese technical director and he had mentioned something but I myself I hadn’t spoken».
As for the course of his career so far: “Sometimes it’s also a matter of luck, circumstances. I started from the local, from the fifth division with the second team of Athletic and we immediately managed to get the promotion. We achieved great things with Valladolid and Eibar. Wherever I’ve been, wherever I’ve worked I’ve had great times and maybe that recognition wasn’t there, maybe not everyone knew my name like it is now after back-to-back European finals, but I’m very satisfied with my career and with my work in all the groups I went to. The fact that now that I have grown older, I have been at the top of Europe, is something that I did not expect»
Source: Sport Fm
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