Special effect

Every time I send a team on to a football pitch, I want to win.

But what I really look at is, how can I build something that is special, that is sustainable, that will leave a legacy?

Gotham FC was that kind of long-term project. I signed in 2023, for three years, with people who really believe in what I’m asking them to do. It was then a question of assembling everything and developing the team, to start building something special. To get to the first competitive game in the best shape possible.

The team had experienced a lot of disappointments the year before; we almost started from scratch. There was talent here, though, and we also brought in more. We knew it was going to be a bumpy road, but we had players who could make the difference if we got them to do the right things.

We had other players who we could develop and bring to another level, as we’ve done in the past at other clubs. So we put everything together, and started working.

It was probably better than everyone was expecting, but for us it was all about the next day of work, building something, helping them to win. We lose sometimes as well, of course, but that can help with understanding how much it means to us to win.

"It had always been a target for me to come to the NWSL"

During the 2023 National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) regular season, we were top of the league at times, and got into a fantastic position at the end of the year. With two games left it was in our hands to finish top. Unfortunately, we lost against Portland Thorns, and then drew against Kansas. That meant we finished sixth, which shows how competitive this league is.

The result was that we had the hardest route in the playoffs. No team had finished sixth in the regular season and won a single playoff game. In the quarter finals, we went to North Carolina Courage — the team that had played the best football in the league — and beat them 2-0. The girls were fantastic.

In the semi finals we played the champions, Portland, in their stadium, where they get 25,000 fans. They play on artificial turf and it was raining like hell. We won in extra-time.

It had always been a target for me to come to the NWSL. When I arrived here, the United States had been world champions twice in a row. The best players in the world were here, and they treat coaches in the most professional way.

I had first coached in the US more than a decade before, when I was 27. That was when I would say I took my first steps as a professional coach, because I was coaching coaches, helping them out with methodology. By that time I had, without really realising it, already picked up quite a lot of coaching experience.

Since I was a child growing up in Spain, football took up every minute of my life — playing, watching and studying the game. It wasn’t long before I took my first steps with coaching. When I was about 14 years old, my little brother’s team needed a coach, so I said: “Why not?”

"I realised that maybe my passion could become my job"

My first experience of playing abroad came in Holland. From the moment I went there, I understood how the culture of football — the training, how it’s played, what it means in the community — really changed from one country to another, always with positive values.

Then I ended up playing a bit more seriously in Scotland, for Edinburgh City, and did some coaching courses. Step by step, I developed myself as a coach.

I moved to London with my girlfriend — she is now my wife — and was trying to get more into the business side of football, with an MBA. But I started to find more jobs as a coach. I created my own company focusing on individual player development and worked for Bedhead Football Club, which was named the best grassroots club in England.

Around that time, I realised that maybe my passion could become my job. I had invested so much into it, that suddenly people thought I was good at it. The key, though, was that I enjoyed it.

I was coaching a lot of different people at that time. Young boys, girls, people in other sports with disabilities. I was coaching almost every waking hour of the day. It was when I came back from that first spell in America, in 2011, that I got a job at Tottenham.

I was there for 10 seasons, and it is where my coaching journey really took off. With my friend Karen Hills — and with a lot of effort — we were very successful. We were able to get promoted twice, from the third division to the Women’s Super League (WSL). Helping to take what was then Tottenham Ladies, from where they were to where we left them, was very important for both Karen and me, as well as some of the coaches who are still with me at Gotham.

"A lot of seasons it was work, work, work, without any obvious reward"

It started when I saw an advert saying that they were looking for a head coach for the Tottenham Ladies reserves. So I sent an email to Glenn Weaver at the club. Glenn is unfortunately not with us any more, but he was very influential both at Spurs and for women’s football in England.

I was scheduled to lead 20 minutes of a session, with Karen there to observe, but she was really enjoying it, so I ended up doing the whole session. When I finished, she said: “I don’t want you to coach the reserves. I want you to work with me, with the first team.”

At the beginning, almost everything there was a challenge for us. It was Karen, me, an assistant coach called Jojo Clarke, and a physio, Sarah Budd, who is still there. We had to do everything for the first team — we learned a lot! 

The year before I arrived, they had been promoted. The first year we won a little cup, but the second year we almost got relegated from the third back to the fourth division. From there, it was a question of developing a style of play and developing players.

A lot of seasons it was work, work, work, without any obvious reward. We were finishing sixth or seventh in a league that was extremely hard to get out of. There were two national divisions at that level of the pyramid, so you had to win the league and then win a playoff to get promoted.

In 2016 we won the FA Women's National League Cup, with a lot of the players who were originally in the team in 2011. That gave us the belief that we could do something special. The next year we completely smashed it; we won the league, unbeaten, and then the promotion playoff.

"I was the same person, but definitely a different coach"

Adapting to the Championship was really tough, because there were really professional teams in it and we had to reshape everything. We had already professionalised a lot of things — strength and conditioning, travelling, by then we had an analysis department — but we were still doing almost every job.

After a mid-table finish in that first Championship campaign, the following season we kept pushing. That was the year that Manchester United was created, with a team of superstars, basically. They completely ran away with the league, with Casey Stoney in charge, but we finished second and got promoted alongside them.

It makes me extremely happy to see that there are players from that team, like Ashleigh Neville and Jessica Naz, still playing for Tottenham in the WSL. To see players we worked with go into the pro world, succeed, and have them stay in touch — that is special.

I always say that a trophy or promotion never sends you a message when you are having a bad time, but people do. We can win titles, we can get promotions, but it’s also about changing people’s lives, giving something to the fans, and how we affect the day to day.

After 10 seasons with Spurs, I was the same person, but definitely a different coach.

I was always very sure that the most important thing for me was the people. How can I help the person and the player? At the same time, the development of Spurs Women, as a club, was amazing.

"What he did with the Spanish national team changed not only the vision of Spanish football, but the vision the world has of Spain"

I had learned how a professional club works. When I was there, Spurs had the best academy in the country and I was able to be around that and learn. It was about the contact that I had with the coaches there, such as Joe Staunton, who is one of the best coaches I’ve ever met.

When it comes to coaches I like, I always think of Rinus Michels and Marcelo Bielsa. Then there is Míchel, who has become more famous for what he has done with Girona in La Liga. But he had already achieved a lot of promotions with Championship teams.

Zinedine Zidane, for me, was underrated. But the most special one I would say was Luis Aragonés. What he did with the Spanish national team changed not only the vision of Spanish football, but the vision the world has of Spain. That really helped me as well.

Before Aragonés, Spain was a good football country, but we were not what we were after winning Euro 2008, and all that followed. That is when I felt in my career that people thought if you were Spanish you knew more about the game, because Spain had a special football culture. Of course, as a coach, you still have to show that you know what you are doing — but that respect for Spanish football culture was down to Aragonés.

After leaving Spurs in 2020, my next job was back in Spain. I thought that if I wanted to show people what I can do, I probably needed to do it the hardest way. So I took over at Real Betis Féminas after they had lost eight games in a row.

After I took over, we lost two more, so it was extremely difficult! We were bottom of the table, with four teams getting relegated from the league, and had played more games than some of the teams in that battle. It was probably the most stressful time of my professional career.

"Women’s football in England has developed a lot in the last few years"

After losing the second game, I came home to my wife Laura and found out that I was going to be a dad for the first time, to my son Luka. Everything changed from that moment.

I worked really hard and, with the support of the coaching team, we turned it around. The record was crazy. We were winning almost every home game, drawing away from home, winning, winning, winning. We finished six points above the relegation places, then in the second year we finished mid-table. 

But I was again finding myself in that world of having to fight for everything. With the women’s game — especially in some places in Europe — that’s how it is. You end up fighting for your players, fighting for your staff, fighting for better travelling conditions. That drains you a lot.

I met fantastic people and I loved Betis, but I knew at the end of that period that I needed to go somewhere where they really wanted to support me on the football side. To stop having to do all these things that I was doing for the last 12 years, of fighting for every inch for the team. Instead, I wanted to focus on the football.

Women’s football in England has developed a lot in the last few years. The Tottenham that I left has nothing to do with Tottenham now. Every WSL team nowadays wants to be at the top level. They’re really trying to support the players a lot more. Still, there is a lot more that can be done.

In Spain, the youth structures in women’s football are working fantastically well. The talent is amazing. That’s why in the last few years, they’ve been winners of World Cups and European Championships at every single age group. That culminated with the pinnacle of the senior team winning the 2023 World Cup.

"it is about making sure we have a group that is ready to go through good and bad times together"

In the youth ranks and academies, the Spanish FA works really well in terms of having a style of play and culture of playing. They develop players from regional teams that some people don’t know exist. There are regional selections where they choose the best players, from Under-12s up, so it’s really easy to have all the talent under control.

But with the professional clubs in Spain, there are still a lot of struggles — particularly outside the biggest clubs. America is completely the opposite. They are maybe struggling with the youth structures, trying to figure out the best way to do it, but the way they run the professional league is amazing.

After Betis, an opportunity with the Houston Dash came up in 2022. We qualified for the NWSL playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Unfortunately, we lost against Kansas, but it was still a successful season.

The year I was at Houston, Gotham had finished bottom of the table. Which made it even more remarkable that, on November 11 2023, at the end of my first season with Gotham, we lined up in the Championship final against OL Reign. Against some of the best players in the world, we dominated the game from start to finish. With a 2-1 victory, we became champions.

Now, as we look forward with Gotham, it is about making sure we have a group that is ready to go through good and bad times together. To play a style of football that we believe is different and can make us special. We call it ‘organised chaos’ — a name given by my assistant head coach, Jesús Botello, who works closely with me in regard to tactical work.

Every player must understand our principles on the ball; what we want in possession, out of possession, on transitions and with set-pieces. To be organised, where everyone knows their role and responsibility. 

To do that, we must be on the same page — always offensive, always aggressive, solid and versatile, but with enough freedom to be themselves. Because, as I always say, football is an art.

Author: Craig Bloomfield

Popular

Newsletter

The Coaches' Voice Weekly Superb insights and stories from the top names of football delivered to your inbox weekly.