"FOOTBALL TALKS" is the new section of SHOWMYBIZZ where visitors will see us interviewing fan clubs , football journalist or individual football personals. Andy West is our guest for this episode of FOOTBALL TALKS.
Andy West, sports writer and author of 'Lionel Messi and the Art of Living'. He has been writing professionally about football for 20 years, working in a number of different roles for the likes of Reading FC, Manchester City and the Football Association. Since 2012 he has been living in Barcelona and covering Spanish football for a variety of international media outlets such as BBC Sport.
SHOWMYBIZZ got the chance to get his views on his journey and recent developments in FC Barcelona. Here it is-
Q: Welcome Andy West to this Q and A interview, I would like to begin by asking you, what was your first memory of 'the beautiful game' ?
Andy West: Showing my age…my very first memory was the 1977 FA Cup Final. I was only four years old but I remember watching it on TV with my Dad and his friend. Manchester United beat Liverpool 2-1!
Q: Please Tell us more about your upbringing and what made you contemplate having a career in journalism?
Andy West: Like many kids I was always a total football fanatic. When I was growing up, if it didn’t have a ball I wasn’t interested. I would watch any game possible on TV, play as much as I could with my friends, and much of my education revolved around football – improving my maths by working out attendance averages, getting geography knowledge by finding out where all the clubs were from, developing writing skills by compiling my own match reports and so on. So when the time came for me to grow up and become an adult, working in football in some way was an obvious step. In 1998 I was fortunate enough to get a job at Reading Football Club, editing the matchday programme, and even more fortunate when Reading had the best spell in the club’s history, even getting promoted into the Premier League, which presented me with lots of new opportunities.
Q: Mate, my next question will be related to your book 'Lionel Messi and the Art of Living' where you mentioned about his adaptable nature whether it is false 9 role or right winger or as a striker like what makes him so good?
Andy West: I think that’s certainly one of the things that make him so good. There are many ingredients, but the way he has adapted to change throughout his career – on and off the pitch – has certainly been one of them. Maybe the biggest of those came when he was 13 years old and uprooted his entire life by moving thousands of miles across the Atlantic to Spain, leaving behind his family in Argentina. That’s one of the lessons I think we can take from Messi’s story and apply to our own life on a daily basis, which is really the idea behind the book.
Q: Do you think it's unfortunate with the way Messi's international career is portraited as a failure?
Andy West: I think that perception has now changed because of winning Copa America, and just wait until he also wins the World Cup next year! But seriously…yes, anyone who believes Messi has ‘failed’ at international level simply has a flawed understanding of how football works. It’s a team sport which means the best individuals don’t always win, especially at international level where so many variables, beyond the control of individual players, can make all the difference.
Q: what is your thoughts on Joan laporta as President ? Could he revive the club after the mess created by Bartomeu's management?
Andy West: I like Laporta and think he has the force of personality to make the tough decisions that are needed after the shambles left behind by Bartomeu, who must be one of the worst administrators in the history of sport. It won’t be easy because the financial crisis is huge and complicated, but Laporta is better qualified than perhaps anyone else to turn things around. He just needs to make sure he moves with the times rather than trying to repeat what he did 20 years ago because it’s a very different world now.
Q: What's your thoughts on koeman as manager, is koeman the right man to take the club forward and also what happened between him and laporta at end of the season clearly laporta wasn't happy with the way barcelona bottled the league?
Andy West : I think Koeman did a good job last season, considering the state of the team that he inherited, but there are still legitimate doubts about his ability to take the next step and turn the team into title contenders. The main concern for me is his in-game management – knowing how to read the flow of the game and make sure his team are the protagonists rather than reacting to circumstances dictated by the opposition, especially in the big games.
Q: If we look at the last season, there's a certain feeling that defence is not good enough likes of umtiti or lenglet or even pique ( only based on last season) isn't showing the levels once they were, what is your views on Barcelona's defence?
Andy West : For me the defence is less about the individuals than the structure around them. Any defender will struggle when they are left isolated and unprotected by the midfield, which we have seen many times from Barca in the past few years. A big issue is Pique’s lack of pace, which means he doesn’t want to defend high up the pitch and leave space behind him. That prevents the team from remaining compact by holding a high defensive line, stretches out the team and gives more space to the opposition.
Q: If we count on the positives of last season's then we need to talk about likes of pedri ,ansu fati or araujo or mingueza or dest? How do you see them growing and how far they could go in their respective career?
Andy West : The emergence of those young players was a huge plus from last season, and Araujo, Pedri and Fati could form the bedrock of the team for years to come. I think it’s vitally important for Barca to continue progressing young players, partly because of the famous ‘DNA’ and partly to get the club back on track financially. Last season was a reminder that young players can quickly become very productive first team performers.
Q: How do you see Barcelona's next season going or what fans could expect from them?
Andy West : Honestly, it’s too early to say. The financial crisis is so big, we just don’t how what the squad will look like when the season starts. I hope fans aren’t underestimating the scale of the financial problems and that drastic decisions that will have to be taken to overcome them. Let’s see what kind of squad Koeman can work with.
Q: How do you handled adversity in your career?
Andy West : Working hard. My motto is that success doesn’t come from the good or bad things that happen to you, but from how you react to them. If opportunities come your way, you need to work hard enough to make the most of them and make them meaningful in the long-term, or they will soon disappear. And if you have setbacks, you need to work hard to overcome them and not let them deter you from your goals.
Q: What advice would you give to all aspiring young journalists?
Andy West : you want to be a journalist, BE a journalist. These days, anyone can write, edit, present podcasts or whatever else you may want to do. It doesn’t matter if you audience is zero at first. If you want to do it, DO IT. That way you will develop your style, find your personal ‘voice’, improve your technique, learn how to produce good content quickly and under pressure (which is crucial), and hopefully even grow an audience. And if you get into a position of somebody asking you or even paying you to work for them, be reliable, be consistent and be available. Find out what your audience wants and deliver it, every time. It’s a competitive world so you have to be prepared to show up every day, and give your best every day.
Thank you Andy West for an insight in your career, and I wish you the best of luck going forward.
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