Jose Maria Guttierrez, otherwise known as Guti, took on his former club, the same club where he resided as a player for 15 years and returned as a youth coach for two seasons. In an interview with Jorge Valdano, the former Spain playmaker suggested he was not given a chance right after having had huge success with the Juvenil A team.
“I think the doors to Real Madrid are closed. Not for me, but for theirs. As a coach, they did not give me the opportunity to show in Castile that one day I could take the lead at Real Madrid. For this reason, it was the right time for me to go. I had already been with Juvenil A for two years, ”explained Guti.
“The first year at Real has been very good and the second not so much, I needed a bigger challenge,” Guti said of his time coaching in Madrid. “I didn’t leave because they didn’t give me Castilla, I left because Real Madrid and Castilla had their benches occupied. I wanted to continue to advance in my career. If I had continued for one more year at Juvenil A, I would have taken a step back.
In another part of the interview, Guti revealed that the player version of himself would have to do things a little differently to get into Guti, the coach, starting XI: “Yes, he [Guti the player] would play, but I would ask him certain things that he would have to give me to play. Football today has nothing to do with what I played before. Now the physique is very important, but only with the physical does not win matches. The important thing is to get talented players to do the same physical work as those who are less talented. With physicality and without talent, it is very difficult to win leagues and champions.
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