Ben Hayward Q&A
LLL welcomes Ben Hayward as he makes his debut on our Substack. Ben is a European football journalist formerly of the Evening Standard and Goal who lived in Spain for 15 years. What Ben doesn’t know about Spanish football isn’t worth knowing, so what better than to get you, the readers, to put your questions to him? We think he stood up well to a pretty testing examination…
Is there any one game you attended in Spain that stands out more than any other, and why?
Impossible to pick only one. I was lucky enough to live for many years in both Barcelona and Madrid. I have also moved around a lot in that time. Here are five which stand out…
Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid (2010)
This was José Mourinho’s first Clásico as Real Madrid coach and on his previous visit to Camp Nou he had led Inter to the Champions League final. I had been at that one and I think we all thought this match would be close. Instead, Los Blancos were blown away. It has to be one of the very best performances from Pep Guardiola’s great team. Historic. And a fascinating precursor to the series of four Clásicos across 17 days later in the season.
Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona (2014)
I have seen Madrid beat Barça in two Copa del Rey finals. Both at Mestalla. This one stands out for Gareth Bale’s brilliant winner. It has to be one of the best goals ever scored in a Copa final and I was right above it. Definitely one of the Welshman's standout moments as a Madrid player. The nine-year anniversary was on Sunday. Time flies, eh.
Atlético 1-1 Málaga (2014)
What was so special about this one? Atlético were playing for the title. They had made things difficult for themselves by losing to Levante in the previous game and had Barcelona away on the final day, but a win in this one would seal it. They went behind but equalised soon after. The last 15 minutes at the Vicente Calderón were electric and we were all on our feet as Atleti attacked, only to be denied on several occasions by Willy Caballero. They ended up winning La Liga at Camp Nou a week later and agonisingly lost out to Real Madrid in the Champions League final a few days after that.
Real Betis 1-0 Sevilla (2018)
This was my first experience of the Seville derby and the atmosphere was extraordinary. Disappointingly, the game appeared to be heading for a goalless draw as time ticked away. But Joaquín, who had been an injury doubt, came off the bench to score a late winner with a header to give Betis their first derby win at home in 12 years. At the age of 37. And five years later, he’s still going. Incredible.
Villarreal 4-4 Barcelona (2019)
This match was absolutely crazy. Barcelona were winning 2-0, later they were 4-2 down and it finished 4-4. At Villarreal you are up close to the pitch and it feels quite intimate. It's a great place to watch players like Lionel Messi up close. And this game had everything: brilliance from Messi and Suárez, goals galore, Cazorla turning it on for Villarreal after all his injury problems, and an epic finale. A pleasure to have been there.
How close is Eder Militão to being as good as Sergio Ramos, as they seem to share the same profile as a physically-imposing, ball-playing centre-back offering great aerial threat?
Carlo Ancelotti said recently that Militão is the best defender in the world. I’m not sure he is, but that’s always debatable. He’s certainly up there. I would agree with the Italian’s assessment that sometimes he can lack focus, which interestingly was often said of Sergio Ramos too.
They played together, of course, and the Brazilian has always praised his former team-mate. He has definitely stepped up as the leader at the back since Sergio left and is one of the first names on the team sheet for Real Madrid these days. That was evident at the weekend. Ancelotti rotated most of his team on Saturday ahead of the Champions League, but stuck with three pillars: Courtois, Benzema and Militão.
I think he can go on to be as good as Ramos as a defender, but where it is very difficult to match Sergio is in the big moments: the former Spain captain seemed to save his best for the grandest occasions when it mattered most, both defensively and in attack. His epic equaliser against Atlético in Lisbon, his goal in Milan, the late leveller versus Sevilla in the Super Cup, to name a few examples.
Militão may never have those highs as a Real Madrid player, but most players don’t anyway. But such is his form these days that Ramos is definitely not missed any more.
Will Jordi Alba go down as a Barcelona legend?
It is always difficult when an emblematic player nears the end of their career and starts to decline somewhat. Jordi Alba is no longer at his peak, but he is still a very good player. And he might be Barcelona’s best-ever left-back. He is definitely one of them.
Alba never played under Pep Guardiola, but he has been a key player for several coaches since. He is a treble winner, of course, and his understanding with Lionel Messi was wonderful during their time together.
I recently spoke to LA Galaxy coach Greg Vanney to find out more about Barcelona’s January signing, right-back Julián Araujo, and he told me that the Mexican-American has qualities similar to Alba. He definitely meant it as a big compliment. At a time when Alba is being questioned by Barcelona fans, it is worth remembering the player he has been.
Will he go down as a Barcelona legend? I think he will, eventually, despite some difficult moments over the years. Sometimes players are only truly appreciated when they have left or retired.
How do you see this latest Barcelona-Real Madrid fallout?
It’s unbelievable stuff. I think Joan Laporta has got what he wanted, actually. The Barça president has been promising a press conference to explain the Negreira case ever since it emerged in February that the Catalan club had made payments to the former vice-president of Spain’s refereeing committee over a period of 18 years, but even though he spoke at length when he finally met the media to take questions on it this week, I don’t think the explanation was completely satisfactory. Taking aim at Real Madrid seems like a clever distraction tactic and he must have known they would react after he called Los Blancos “the club of the regime”.
Now, instead of talking about the Negreira case, people are discussing Franco, fascism and which club has the worst past. It’s all a bit tiresome and a bit juvenile, really. And it comes after a period in which the two clubs had been perhaps closer than ever at institutional level as they joined forces for the Super League project. It is now hard to see how they can work together, with this latest spat set to run and run. It’s probably a good thing there isn’t another Clásico for a while, too.
What’s your take on the craziness that is Valencia Club de Fútbol?! Is there any way out of the madness, and if so, what is it??
I have written a couple of times about Valencia lately: once on the protests at Mestalla in February and again after the loss at home to Sevilla on Sunday. I’m worried for their fans and I empathise with their plight because they have an owner who seemingly does not care about the club.
I attended Rubén Baraja’s first game as coach and confidence was clearly low as they lost to Getafe. They have won a couple since, but not for a while. I don’t know if he’s the guy to save them and it would be sad if Baraja, as a club legend, took them down. I thought they might get some points from the games against Almería and Sevilla, but they haven’t and that’s a concern, although decisions went against them on Sunday.
Can they stay up? Most of their remaining games are winnable, so let's hope so. LaLiga needs Valencia. My worry is that if they do stay up, nothing much will change. I would hope that a narrow escape would act as a wake-up call for Meriton and Peter Lim, that they will seek a buyer because I don’t see anything much improving while they are there. Until that happens, I’m not sure what the way out will be.
And for me, perhaps the saddest thing about it is that it hasn’t all been bad since day one. In 2019, Valencia won the Copa del Rey and qualified for the Champions League, only to dispense with both Marcelino and then Mateu Alemany in the months that followed. Everything was great, then suddenly it was destroyed. That must be enormously frustrating for Valencia fans. Let’s hope for better times soon at Mestalla.
Spanish clubs have always been brave and innovative about their transfer window especially Sevilla. Monchi is well known for innovation - why did he suddenly ditch that and go for subpar, aged players a with low ceiling last summer?!
Last summer was definitely a difficult one for Sevilla and that is the root cause of the team’s problems this season. The Andalusians are on their third coach and are still not guaranteed survival. Monchi must take much of the responsibility, but the circumstances were also difficult.
Central defenders Jules Koundé and Diego Carlos both left in big-money moves, but Sevilla had hoped to sell a number of other players. That did not happen and their replacements have not really worked out: Tanguy Nianzou has made a lot of mistakes and lacked concentration; Marcão has been injured for much of the season.
The lack of funds available made it difficult for Monchi to sign some of his other top targets, so Sevilla had to focus on loans (Alex Telles and Kasper Dolberg) and free transfers (Isco and Adnan Januzaj). So it wasn’t ideal.
I also think it’s very difficult to get it right every summer. I would say other clubs are catching up now, too. Many teams across Europe have put a bigger focus on scouting and most of the money is in the Premier League, so Sevilla and other LaLiga clubs are finding it hard to compete. Several of Leeds’ signings last summer were Monchi targets, for example.
Who is the most underrated manager you’ve ever seen in LaLiga?
That’s a difficult one. Barcelona fans may not agree, but I still think Ernesto Valverde is underrated as a coach. The European collapses were, of course, desperately disappointing. I understand the style concerns, too, but I think Valverde was working in difficult circumstances. He has done a good job everywhere he has worked. I’m not saying he was ideal for Barça by any means, but many clubs in LaLiga would love to have him and I know he remains highly regarded in Valencia and Villarreal, for example.
Going back quite a bit, Jupp Heynckes won a Champions League and was sacked by Real Madrid because of a disappointing season in LaLiga. The German also had good spells with Athletic Club and Tenerife before moving to the Santiago Bernabéu, and later went on to win a treble with Bayern Munich. Not bad.
In terms of current coaches, I think Jagoba Arrasate at Osasuna, Imanol Alguacil of Real Sociedad and Rayo Vallecano’ Andoni Iraola are all doing a great job. They are probably underrated by many – and they are all Basque. All of a sudden, there is a wave of outstanding coaches from the Basque Country, with Unai Emery, Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso three more examples of top Basque managers working outside LaLiga.
Which LaLiga ground serves the best food in the 15 years you were covering football in Spain?!
This is perhaps the hardest question of all. I love Spanish food, but my advice to football fans travelling to Spain would be to eat before the game if you can. Have an authentic paella in Valencia, pintxos in San Sebastián, seafood in Cádiz, etc. Or great tapas pretty much anywhere in Spain.
In terms of stadium food, Leganés used to do a decent bocadillo de lomo y queso, but not so much these days. Most fans take their own, anyway. Mallorca now serve up freshly made pizza and I have been told that the food at Real Sociedad is good these days. You will probably need a VIP ticket, though, so try to eat in town before the game or somewhere close to the stadium if you can. It’s also a great way of soaking up the pre-match atmosphere.
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