HENRY WINTER | JAVI GRACIA INTERVIEW
Javi Gracia: Pamplona’s special but I’m too slow to run with bulls
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The Leeds United manager tells Henry Winter why the Basque Country breeds great leaders and how he prefers to suffer in silence on the touchline
Gracia calmly watches his Leeds side from the touchline
Gracia calmly watches his Leeds side from the touchline
SIMON DAVIES/REX FEATURES
Henry Winter
, Chief Football Writer
Friday April 28 2023, 9.00pm, The Times
‘I suffer inside.” Javi Gracia is explaining why he can be so undemonstrative during games. While all around at Elland Road run through the full gamut of emotions, Leeds United’s head coach is determined to exude calm, displaying some control amidst the chaos. But have no doubt, Gracia feels the frequent strains and fleeting joys of games. His pulse rate races, his feeling of responsibility for Leeds’s fortunes runs deep.
Spending time in Gracia’s company at Thorp Arch reveals a manager who may be on a short-term contract but cares passionately for Leeds’s short-term and long-term health. “Football has been my passion since I was a boy and Leeds fans have this great passion too,” the Spaniard says. “Leeds fans give us everything, we realise this, and we have to give them everything.”
Leeds supporters perceive Gracia to be unresponsive on the touchline, a contrast to their emotional state. The Leeds defender Max Wöber describes his head coach as “calm, business-like”. Gracia laughs. “I don’t know. I’m more nervous than people believe. I suffer inside. I try to keep calm because I have to. It’s part of my job, to give calm, to give confidence, to help the people around me.
“If I feel nervous and transmit nerves to people, it’s not good for us. Of course, I suffer inside. Of course, I feel stress in the competition and after the game as well. I cannot sleep as much as I need. I suffer so much in the worst moments and the good moments I don’t enjoy so much. I always feel the responsibility. When I get a good result I always find something that doesn’t let me enjoy it. I always think about the players who don’t play.
“I sometimes celebrate goals because it is natural. But in other moments I’m thinking, ‘No, no, I have to take this moment to speak with one player, to organise the time left, the next change.’
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“Elland Road is amazing for me. It’s exceptional. The atmosphere we live in all the games we play at home is really special. I want to keep that special atmosphere until the end of the season and the last game, against Tottenham, give the supporters their reward they really deserve. Now, at this moment, we are not able to get the good results the fans deserve.”
Gracia succeeded Jesse Marsch on February 22 on what Leeds described as a “flexible” contract and, after a promising start, Leeds find themselves lying 16th on 30 points, probably needing six points for safety with a tough run-in. Gracia is sitting at his desk, surrounded by an array of reports on the opposition, the resurgent Bournemouth, whom Leeds face on Sunday, and on Manchester City. Leeds then finish with Newcastle, West Ham and that Spurs finale. So he is hard at work, plotting and preparing. Leeds revolve around this desk, around his ability to set up the team, and make the right substitutions, to keep them up.
Gracia says the atmosphere at Elland Road is “exceptional”
Gracia says the atmosphere at Elland Road is “exceptional”
ANNA GOWTHORPE/REX FEATURES
Leeds dominate so many lives, young and old. Downstairs, three young fans, all in full kit, wait patiently to meet Luke Ayling to thank him for being such a role model for those, like them, who have stammers. Ayling takes them out for a kickabout, making their day, week, month. Team-mates such as Rasmus Kristensen walk past and talk to the boys, and not just talk, engage, making them feel special. This is the power of Leeds, of football, of players understanding their impact on the world around them. Earlier, in the dressing room, Gracia’s players had a whip-round to buy a guide dog for a blind woman whose support dog had passed away.
Gracia is very aware of the responsibility of being Leeds head coach. “My day is: arrive here 7.20am, leave 7pm. All my staff and me … we don’t have family here. I have three boys back home. For me, it is difficult. I like to stay with my family. I miss them a lot. Of course, I do it because this club is something amazing for me.
“I sacrifice staying with the family. It is something I don’t usually do. In all my experiences in different countries I’ve always been with them. They are proud I am manager of Leeds United but the family is there [in Spain] and I am here [in England]. I miss them a lot, yes,” he repeats. “They came to the [Nottingham] Forest game. They spent only three days because my kids are studying. They have to study.”
It runs in the family. “I studied tourism when I started out as a football player,” Gracia recalls, reflecting on his early years growing up in Pamplona, going into the development systems of Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao. “Both my parents were teachers,” he continues. “I always lived in a family where to learn things was important. My brother’s an engineer. In that moment [as a teenager], I thought football is maybe not for the rest of my life, and I have a long life to do many other things, so I try to learn something I enjoy like tourism.”
Fitting, in a way. He played all over Spain, a midfield player continuing his career at Lleida, Real Valladolid, Real Sociedad, Villarreal and Cordoba. He coached all over, from Spain to Greece to Russia to Watford, whom he guided to 11th in the Premier League and the 2019 FA Cup final (in which they were thrashed 6-0 by Manchester City), then more recently in Qatar and now Yorkshire.
Gracia led Watford to the FA Cup final in 2019 but his side were comprehensively outplayed by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City
Gracia led Watford to the FA Cup final in 2019 but his side were comprehensively outplayed by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City
JOHN SIBLEY/ACTION IMAGES VIA REUTERS
“When I studied tourism I didn’t do it with the objective that I would work in so many different places,” he says, laughing. “When I was 15, in Pamplona, if you’d told me, ‘You’re going to have these experiences,’ I’d tell you, ‘No, I feel best with my family, my friends, in my city.’ ” But football took him on the road. “If I didn’t have the chance to go out from my city with football, I’d have stayed in my city.”
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Gracia loves Pamplona. “Now we are happy because Osasuna is going to play the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid [on May 6],” he smiles. Pamplona also has the famous San Fermín festival, so did he ever run with the bulls? “Never, never. It was easy for me because I always had the excuse that I was a professional and I couldn’t do it. And I’m not too fast. But my friends — yes, yes — many ran in front of the bulls. I watched them many times. San Fermín starts July 6, at 12 in the morning, and if I can, I always go. It’s something special for us. People come from all over the world, the bulls running along the streets in the morning and, in the evening, the bull fighters make the corrida de toros.”
His region breeds managers. Unai Emery was a team-mate of Gracia’s at Real Sociedad. The Aston Villa manager is from the Basque Country, as are Mikel Arteta, Wolves’ Julen Lopetegui, Xabi Alonso, impressing at Bayer Leverkusen, and Andoni Iraola of Rayo Vallecano.
“It’s something about our culture, about our character from the north of Spain, from Basque Country,” Gracia says. “When you’re young, you compete in difficult weather conditions, it’s raining a lot, it’s colder than other places. It gives you a competitive character that can help you in the future, in coaching.”
Now 52, Gracia has needed his competitive streak in this draining period for Leeds. He has needed to work hard on the confidence of players, such as Illan Meslier after the goalkeeper’s mistakes against Fulham. Meslier responded well in Tuesday’s draw with Leicester City.
“All of us have ups and downs, young players even more,” Gracia says. “He’s 23. Young players make mistakes. Then we have to believe in them, give them the stability and confidence they need. In their worst moments, that’s when they need their confidence and we need to give it to them. In Fulham, when he was criticised, you could see the level the next game. He can do it. He is a great ’keeper.”
The 19-year-old winger and fans’ favourite, Wilfried Gnonto, is widely regarded as a great prospect. He didn’t start or come on against Leicester, much to fans’ bemusement and ire. Gracia willingly addresses the issue, emphasising his range of left-sided options. He started against Leicester with Luis Sinisterra, who vindicated the decision by scoring. Unfortunately, he damaged ankle ligaments when challenged by Caglar Soyuncu and is out for the season. “I decided to put Cry [Crysencio Summerville] on, because in that moment of the game I thought it would be better.” It was only 32 minutes in, and Summerville offered more defensive protection for the left back, Junior Firpo, than Gnonto would.
Rodrigo tired in the centre, so Brenden Aaronson came on after 68 minutes. “So we have [Jack] Harrison, Summerville, Patrick [Bamford] and Aaronson. Then I didn’t find another way to put another player up front. I know Willy [Gnonto] can help us. He didn’t do it in that game because he didn’t have the chance to play but I am sure in the next games, the vital games we have to play now, he will help us for sure.
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“I believe in the young players. I believe in the experienced players. The experienced players are important at this time of the season. We don’t need them all the time speaking about the situation, it’s sometimes just from the example, the way they train hard, the way they work every day, is a way to lead the group.”
Gracia’s Malaga side overcame Messi and the rest of Barcelona’s stars at the Nou Camp in 2015
Gracia’s Malaga side overcame Messi and the rest of Barcelona’s stars at the Nou Camp in 2015
DAVID RAMOS/GETTY IMAGES
Gracia is relatively experienced too. He’s coached 272 games in Europe, and enjoyed some special moments in La Liga. He guided Osasuna to a 3-0 victory over Diego Simeone’s title-winning Atletico Madrid side that included everyone from Diego Godín to Diego Costa in 2014. “I will always remember the three goals.”
He masterminded Malaga’s 1-0 win over Lionel Messi and company at the Nou Camp in 2015. “I enjoy those challenges. When you are working in [smaller] teams like Osasuna and Malaga and competing against these big, big teams, you have to do something really special to compete and get good results. That’s my objective here now with Leeds: give always my best, prepare the team as best as possible. All the games in this league are very, very demanding so we have to work our hardest.”
That’s why his relentless routine has been of hotel, training, stadium since he arrived. Yet Thorp Arch is surrounded by beautiful countryside, so has the tourism student had a look around? “I didn’t have,” Gracia replies, before adding quickly. “No. I am lying. After one game we lost, the next day we had two days off, and the first day I said to one of my staff, ‘Let’s go out, we needed a change, five hours out, and come back again.’ So we had a morning in Whitby. Nice place. I liked Whitby. I saw the beach, I went up to the church [St Mary’s] and, yes, I had fish and chips.”
After that, Gracia was back to work, to the suffering inside, determined to bring hope and joy to Leeds United.
