EXCLUSIVE Nuno Espirito Santo for Mozzart Sport Kenya: The EPL is the best competition in the world

Nuno Espirito Santo certainly is an interesting manager. With just 47 years of age, The Sao Tome and Principe-born already has a 10-year managerial career and a Champions League trophy as a player with Jose Mourinho’s Porto. A former goalkeeper who used to shoot penalties, he forces attacking football in all his teams. He was a bit of a journeyman during his playing days (Guimaraes, Vila Real, Deportivo La Coruna, Merida, Osasuna, Porto, Dinamo Moscow, Aves), and he continued the tradition during his managerial career (Malaga, Panathinaikos, Rio Ave, Valencia, Porto, Wolverhampton Wanderers).

As a rookie coach, he led Rio Ave to both Portuguese cup finals and a Europa League place, before he took over Valencia and made them a fourth-place team in La Liga, qualifying for the Champions League. His only failure so far has been at his beloved Porto, but as soon as he took over Wolves, things were better again. He got them promoted after 6 years in the Championship and finished seventh in the Premier League, two years in a row while reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League, the club's best performance since 1971!

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So, there is no wonder why Santo is „the talk of the town“ in Wolverhampton, going into his third year with the team. Just before the important game with West Ham, the Portuguese coach gave an exclusive interview for Mozzart Sport Kenya, and talked about his philosophy, the current season, playing in front of empty stadiums, and Jose Mourinho. He emphasized the team spirit as the most important thing for a coach while adding:

„The squad, the players, the way they work, their relationship, the spirit of the team. This is the most important thing. This is what gives you a chance to work. If you don’t have a team spirit, nothing is possible. It’s not about me, or somebody else, it’s about everybody in the club, working together for the best of each one of us“ says Santo. 

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Unlike two seasons before, when they finished in 7th place, this season, the Wolves have been average, and it’s clearly shown at the Premier League table: they occupy 13th place. They are 9 points clear of relegation and 14 points behind the place in the Europa League. Still, Nuno Espirito Santo doesn’t want to analyze the season or try to make any predictions.

„It's been a very difficult season, due to the circumstances, but I think the moment to analyze how we’ve been working during the season is a little bit in front of us. There is still a lot of games to be played and we have to focus on that. We have to try to improve our game, to improve the players and play good football. This is the main idea: try and play good football in the games that we still have ahead of us. We don’t look at the table, it’s about what we have to do, how we have to work, how everybody has to improve together“ explains Santo.

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Being a journeyman both as a manager and a player, Santo has always embraced the different environment which helped him get more experience, which he can fully use now when he is in the most demanding league – The Premier League. 

„Having the chance to work in different countries with different cultures with different people only can make you better. I’ve been traveling around the world as a football player, as a manager, meeting a lot of interesting people. That gave me the possibility to work in tough, but in a very good competition, which is the Premier League, which I think is the best one. So all these experiences together are really making me better“ says Santo.

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The Wolves coach had the opportunity to play under Jose Mourinho, even winning the Champions League with Porto. This experience certainly helped him when he decided to start his career.

„I’ve learned a lot of things from Mourinho, because Mourinho is one of the best managers in football, so you only can learn from him. Of course, I’ve learned from many many people, but Jose Mourinho was always an inspiration, regarding the knowledge of the game“ acknowledges Santo.

Julen Lopetegui, Dino Zoff, Walter Zenga, Nigel Adkins, Nuno Espirito Santo... a line of successful managers who used to be goalkeepers. The first thing that comes to mind is a good defense, but Wolves manager doesn’t think that former knowledge as a footballer will determine your style.

„Position which you played as a football player doesn’t determine the way you approach the game when you are a manager. You can see strikers being managers, goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, even people that never played football before are managers. If someone didn’t play football, how is he gonna play? So every manager has his own philosophy, it’s not because of your past“ explains Santo.

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Like all the other managers (and players), the Wolves coach finds it difficult to play in front of empty stadiums for over a year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But, Santo tries to motivate players anyway, looking for the day when the stadiums will be filled again.

„It’s very hard because football is about the fans and when you don’t have fans, it seems that nothing makes sense. But we have to be professionals and this is what we are trying. We try to make the players focus on the game, enjoy the game, hoping that we’ll have fans again soon, and then the fans return, we have to again deliver good games, competitive games because this is what the fans love. Keeping and being relentless in our game is what we can make, so when our fans return, we can give them joy and happiness“ explains Santo.

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This week, the Premier League continues after an international break, and Wolves will host in-form West Ham, led by David Moyes.

„Very hard, very difficult game, like all the games in the Premier League. West Ham is a very good team, playing well and we have to prepare, but we are at home, at Molineux. We are gonna try our best because this is our main target: to compete and play good football no matter who you face, and always focus on ourselves“ says Santo.

By: NEVEN CVIJANOVIĆ, Sport Klub TV reporter