Adi Hatter thinks the style of play implemented at Red Bull Salzburg, Young Boys and Frankfurt will suit the Premier League. Telegraph
Adi Hutter has faced similar reactions every time he started coaching in a new country and hopes that English football fans will soon be wondering who he is.
“When I left Austria to train in Switzerland, it was like, ‘Who is this?’,” Hutter laughs. “The same when I went to Germany, and probably the same if I come to England. Anyway, I hope so, because maybe it was luck.»
After leaving Austria and Switzerland as league champions and winning the German Manager of the Year award twice during his time at Eintracht Frankfurt , Hütter is now feeling well. known in all three countries.
London football fans may already know his name, as Hutter's Frankfurt team took Chelsea to penalties in the Europa League semi-finals and beat Arsenal at the Emirates in the same competition the following season — a result for which Unai Emery was fired. /p>
“We completely beat Chelsea, but remember that we also had Marseille and Lazio in the group,” says Hatter. “In six group games we scored 18 points, a German record, then Shakhtar Donetsk in the last 32, Inter Milan [last 16] and Benfica in the quarter-finals.
“It was in the group stage when we beat Arsenal at the Emirates. In the first half we were really lucky, but in the second half the team played very well. It was a great night.»
Eintracht Frankfurt's Daichi Kamada scored against Arsenal in a 2019 organized win Hatter. Credit: Reuters/Paul Childs
Hutter was at the end of a five-day UK tour when we met for over an hour at a central London hotel before his flight home to Salzburg.
At this time Hutter was at Elland Road to watch Leeds United's draw against Leicester City and was at Stamford Bridge to see Brentford beat Chelsea. He watched Tottenham Hotspur's return draw against Manchester United in a London pub.
Of course I had a pint. I liked it,” Hatter says. “The Premier League is the best in the world – so many fantastic players, the style of football, the emotions. I like all this very much. My goal is to come to England. I have a lot of experience and I am ready for it.”
Hutter has already been linked to Crystal Palace and Leicester and credits the style of play he has so successfully implemented at Red Bull Salzburg to Young Boys. and Frankfurt, where he was in charge of releasing the «buffalo herd», would suit the Premier League.
“I enjoy playing inspiring attacking football,” says Hatter, who speaks almost perfect English. “I love working with hungry players who want to succeed. In Frankfurt, I looked at Luka Jovic, Sebastien Haller and Ante Rebic and said: «I want to play with all three.» In Germany, they were called “a herd of buffalo.”
“Haller and Rebic were ahead. Jovic always wanted to play #9 but he's a creative player so I put him behind them. Jovic scored 17 goals, Haller, who was injured at the end of the season, scored 15, and Rebic, who is one of the best pressing players, scored nine.
Jovic and Haller left Frankfurt for a total of £100m in the summer after reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League, while Rebic was traded for Andre Silva, who scored 28 goals under Hatter next season.
«I like to think that strikers score with me because of the style of football,” says Hutter.
At Salzburg, Hutter worked with Sadio Mane and Naby Keita during his only season, which ended in the league and cup, before before deciding it was time to try coaching outside of his native Austria with Young Boys in Switzerland.
Hatter compared winning the Swiss title in 2018 at the end of his third season, the first time since Young Boys did so in 1986, to Arsenal's Premier League victory.
«Until my third season “I told them I wanted to be a champion and they looked at me like I was crazy,” Hatter says. “But we won the championship, ahead of Basel by 15 points. It was quite unusual, maybe a bit like how Arsenal won the Premier League after not doing so for so long.”
If English fans study Hutter's work, they'll find that his birth name is Adolf, which the 53-year-old knows will generate interest and wonder, just as it did initially when he first moved to Germany.
“ My father’s brother was 27 years old, and he and his wife went on vacation to the mountains, and they were buried under a rock avalanche,” Hutter explains. “They both died, and his name was Adolf, and this is the story of my name.
“My grandmother was very sad and told my parents that she would like another child in the family to be named after my uncle, and then I came. I didn't know my uncle at all because he died.
«My mom said, 'OK, he [my father] did a favor for my grandma, but I call my son Adi.» Everyone always called me Adi, no one ever called me Adolf. I wish I had a different name and I asked my parents why they agreed to this, but Adi is fine. I also told this story in Germany on the radio, and then no one had any problems.”
Hutter turned down two offers from England during his three seasons in Frankfurt, during which he was twice named German Coach of the Year, an achievement only Jupp Heynckes has matched since 2010. Other winners include Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel, Julian Nagelsmann and Hansi Flick.
Hutter turned down two offers from England in three season in Frankfurt. Photo: Paul Grover for The Telegraph.
“I'm very proud of this because the players vote for the award,” says Hatter. “The journey from Austria to Germany was a long one for me. I coached 400 games before I went to the Bundesliga and being on the list with these guys is very important to me.”
Frankfurt were unbeaten at home for a year when Hatter accepted an offer from Borussia Mönchengladbach to replace Marco Rose. But the departure of sporting director Max Eberl, who convinced him to join the team, prompted Hütter to leave after one season and take time off to recharge his batteries and meet up with old friends like Ralf Hassenhüttl, the only Austrian to have managed the team. in the Premier League.
Hütter, a former midfielder who reached the 1994 UEFA Cup final with Salzburg and played 14 times for Austria, says: «I played Ralf twice in my career and we always stayed in touch so we get along very well.Of course I talked to him about the Premier League and he always told me 'you have to come'.
Свежие комментарии