Alex Dunn travels to Los Angeles to meet former World and European Player of the Year Ruud Gullit.
Gullit muses on management, life in LA, Newcastle, Capello and co
The average temperature for October in Los Angeles is 26°c but as Ruud Gullit takes my hand and utters 'Jesus. You. Again,' the air feels decidedly cooler in the foyer of the Wilshire Grand Hotel. It's not the most auspicious of starts to an interview but having spent the best part of five days in and around the two-time World Footballer of the Year, if nothing else I've learnt that the filter between his thought process and mouth is not one overly engaged. It's nothing personal. I hope.
Gullit is back in the land of those that dare to dream, a place where Gillette models take your coffee orders under the Hollywood Hills, as an ambassador for
Ford FeelFootball. It's only two months since he ended the briefest of sojourns as coach of LA Galaxy, where David Beckham plies his trade, calling time on his American dream nine months into a three-year deal. The Dutchman later concedes in conversation he doubts he'll be the last high profile Major League Soccer import to arrive at the conclusion Americans only understand football with a helmet.
From the moment Gullit broke into HFC Haarlem's first team as a precociously talented 16-year-old, becoming the Eredivisie's youngest ever player in the process, he has carried with him a reputation for being difficult, prickly, aloof even. On the field he was undeniably one of the world's finest ever technicians but off it, a life well lived has been fraught with entanglements which have encompassed three marriages and six children. Gullit is currently happily married to Estelle Cruyff, niece of Johan, but when asked if he harbours any regrets his response of 'I'd like to change many things in my life' perhaps tells a thousand tales. But for now, content and hungry for the game again after having his appetite for football whetted at Galaxy, Gullit is ripe for a return to management and it is England that still has a hold over him.
"Oh yeah, I will return. I have some things up my sleeve but I just want to wait until I find something that I want to do," he told
skysports.com.
"I would hope so, I would love to," he adds, with regards to managing in the Premier League again. "England is my thing, you know. I have a soft spot for England.
"At the moment I don't know about Italy. It never happened for one reason or another. I think England is closer to my own culture coming from Holland.
"The Dutch and the English have a similar sense of humour. It's close by. The countries are separated by a 45 minute flight.
"Maybe that is the reason but if it happens in Italy, you never know. It could happen."
Exacting standards
As part of Gullit's mandate as a
FeelFootball spokesman he puts a group of competition winners and journalists alike through a training session at Galaxy's Home Depot Center, an Americanism for training ground. The facilities are first rate but what becomes immediately apparent is the searing heat and subsequent problem the MLS face in terms of replicating the high-intensity of Europe's top leagues in such stifling conditions. At his most comfortable with a ball at his feet, a lean Gullit looks as though he could still do a job as a player; a stark contrast to the lardy-arsed hacks who in between wheezing fits hang off his every word. When he holds court Gullit is attentive and charming, while at the same time possessing a tongue as sharp as a pass in his prime.
When one Scottish competition winner, clearly not alien to the delights of a fried Mars bar, complains of being made to do push-ups he is met with the retort 'Trust me, it's for your own good' via a pat of his stomach, while every heavy touch or over ambitious pass is greeted with the type of look usually reserved for stepping in something unsavoury in flip-flops.
When he recounts a story of not being allowed to play in Milan's infamous head tennis games upon arriving at the San Siro from PSV Eindhoven (for a then record £6million fee in 1987) as his touch wasn't up to scratch, it's not difficult to envisage the exacting standards he demands from his players as a coach.
It was during his time in Serie A that Gullit was crowned European and World Footballer of the Year, with Arrigo Sacchi and then Fabio Capello ruling the Tifosi with iron fisted regimes. It must have been difficult for a character of such an individualistic persuasion to flourish under such draconian tenures. Gullit is a real football man but it's clear the game is only part of a life that owes much to a ball but is not entirely defined by it. Upon winning the Ballon d'Or in 1987 he dedicated his award to the then imprisoned Nelson Mandela; an act that was received by raised eyebrows and 'Nelson who?' in Italy. But thrive in red and black he did and later, in the hotel, he relays the highest of praise for current England incumbent Capello.
"He'll offer a lot of discipline. He is supremely disciplined. He wants things to be a certain way. No other way. So that's good, especially with the English.
"But they'll like that and that is how it is with him. It's his way and no other way.
"He is very straightforward. Doesn't take no bullsh**. Very grumpy. But that is how he is. I think he was a great coach when he was at Milan."
While in LA the news breaks in England that Beckham is considering leaving Galaxy on loan when the MLS season draws to a close in order to prolong his international career, and having taken in a game Stateside, it seems like an astute decision on Sir David's part.
But Gullit, who says he got on well and respected Beckham during their time together, insists there is no such need: "You saw him play the last game. How did he play? Thank you, he played good.
"Well then, there you go. That is how you have to judge him. If he plays in my team how I want him to play, then I don't care."
Problems Stateside
Sunday evening promises a trip to sample the MLS as LA Galaxy - minus Beckham who is on England duty - play host to Colorado Rapids. There is one former Manchester United winger in action though as Terry Cooke's familiar scamper can these days be found on Colorado's right flank. Cooke drifted over the Atlantic after spiralling down the Football League and eventually finding himself without a club and facing up to the prospect of the dole. Cooke's an honest pro but if Pele, Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer and George Best can't sell soccer to the Yanks, then what chance Terry? Gullit, long since exasperated by a lack of finance and complicated league structures in America, believes a horse that should have been resigned to the glue factory continues to be flogged.
"I doubt if they want to make soccer, as they call it here, a really big thing.
"I really doubt it. Because of the rules, because of the control the league has over it. If you look at every major sport the salary caps are $30-40million, only with soccer it's $2million - come on.
"If you want to attract the best players in the world then you have to pay them. That's what they do in all the other sports. That's why they became so big.
"Therefore, for that reason, I have a doubt about how much they really want it.
"I don't confirm that it won't work but I just have that feeling. They haven't convinced me."
Gullit's love affair with England began in 1995 when after becoming exasperated by the once inspiring but now suffocating adulation Italian supporters bestowed on him, Chelsea's call proved too luring to resist. After being marginalised at the end of his time at Milan, a move to Sampdoria rekindled his spirits as a spell under Sven Goran Eriksson's more indulgent brand of management got him back in the groove.
"I enjoyed working with him. I think he was good at Sampdoria. All the stories that came out in England, that was a different Eriksson to the one I experienced. I liked him very much, he was a very nice person."
Although happy in Genoa, the aesthetically appealing football Glenn Hoddle promised at Stamford Bridge, when allied to the hassle-free environment of London, brought the world's most iconic dreadlocks to England. It's worth remembering though that English football was still in the throes of change in 1995, with the top flight having only franchised itself as a separate entity to the rest of the Football League four years earlier. Sky money was only just manifesting itself in the shape of foreign imports and Gullit admits that after the uber-professionalism of Capello and co, life in England was a real eye-opener.
Different gravy
"It was much different when I first moved to England. Chelsea was at the beginning. I was going from training camp to training camp with Milan and then all of a sudden, Saturday you play, you go to the stadium, do your thing and then go out," he remembers with a smile.
"Sunday you were then off. In Italy, that never happened. I don't say one was better than the other but just that they were very different.
"It was hard. For me it was more about discipline, it was about food, what you ate, what you drank and how you lived. All these things were important. You can't go partying, smoking, drinking. You have to live for it. Slowly these things were changed.
"The English were screaming (affects comical British accent) 'F****** hell, that pasta again, f****** vegetables - no gravy!
"You have to eat the right things. If you have a normal car you don't put diesel in it. You have to put in the right fuel otherwise it doesn't go."
When Hoddle got offered the England job Chelsea elected to promote from within as Ken Bates gave Gullit his head in the dugout. Forever synonymous with his 'Sexy Football' comment, Gullit's Chelsea were precisely that as he delivered the club their first silverware in 26 years as the FA Cup took pride of place in an otherwise dust-laden trophy cabinet. Nine months on, with Chelsea second in the Premier League table, a cloak and daggers boardroom coup saw Gullit usurped by the man he brought to the club - Gianluca Vialli.
Gullit insists Chelsea still occupy a fond place in his heart and he is pleased that the foundations he helped lay, with Hoddle, have bore such rich fruit in recent years. After Chelsea a spell at Newcastle followed but again it proved a short-lived appointment, as his decision to drop fans' favourite Alan Shearer ended acrimoniously. Again, though, he takes little delight in the club's current period of instability. Only the fans' treatment of his old pal Dennis Wise rankles.
"I think it's a very difficult situation," he muses. "They have to start from the top and make sure everything is right there and then build slowly, slowly, slowly down. Make a structure and work from there.
"Dennis has been put there by the owner for a certain reason. I think it's unfair.
"He gets the blame but it's what the owner wants. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been put in there."
Toon pride
When asked if Newcastle supporters wield too much power at St James' Park he charitably says: "I don't think so, they just want to be a little bit proud of their team.
"I don't think they ask to win the Champions League or anything like that. They just want a little bit of success. If they could get to the first four for them that would be a great success.
"That is what they want, they just want to compete with the big boys just a little bit. If they get that they would be happy.
"It has always been difficult at Newcastle for one reason or another. The money is there but you have to spend it wisely.
"You have to spend it wisely - that's it."
Back at the Home Depot Centre, Gullit is bored. I'm filming a separate interview with Anders Frisk and have to contend with my charming Swedish interviewee being distracted by carrots being lobbed in his direction. Clearly Ruud's not happy with the dips as he offers a sardonic 'take your time' as we conclude our chat and make our way to the marquee, where chilled water sweats in the cloying heat.
At times being in Gullit's company is to be transported to the set of Liar Liar. When I ask him to pose for a photo he sighs and laments: "Man, every day you break my f****** balls." To be fair, it's done with a smile and his open irritation with the photographer Patrick - who has admittedly been in his face for the whole trip - has myself and a journalist from 4-4-2 Magazine creasing up in stitches.
I guess that's the power of charisma.
Ford's Feel Football programme engages fans debate with Champions like Jose Mourinho, Anders Frisk, Patrick Vieira, Stefan Effenberg and Ruud Gullit online at www.FeelFootball.com and at live events around Europe.
