I’M NOT SCARY, BUT DE NIRO COULD PLAY ME IN A FILM!
Meet the cool, suave Serbian who has Fulham within touching distance of the Premier League
SLAVISA Jokanovic is chuckling as he recalls his first impression of a teenage John Terry at Chelsea. ‘I said to Mario Stanic, “Who is that old man?” And Mario turned to me and said, “No, he’s only a kid, 19, very good player.”
‘John had just returned to Chelsea from a loan spell at Nottingham Forest. To be fair, he doesn’t look much different now but he had an old face.’
Jokanovic, who was at Chelsea from 2000 until 2002, will see his former team-mate in football’s richest game next weekend as his Fulham side face Aston Villa in the Championship play-off final.
‘Chelsea had World Cup champions Frank Leboeuf and Marcel Desailly but within two years this guy was being voted (Premier League) player of the year,’ he says. ‘He was young, he would kick you, he had streetwise dirty tricks but he could play.
‘Everyone knew he was going to be good but sometimes he’d attract trouble and get in the papers. One time, before we played Norwich, he was arrested and he came from the cells to play. I’d say to him, “John, if you like I’ll go for a beer with you because nobody knows who I am — but they will when we get our picture taken.”
‘ When my boys go out at Wembley who knows what they may feel, but to John it will be just another game. He’ll be cool.’
When it comes to being cool, this suave 49-year- old Serbian could be straight from the pages of a John le Carre spy novel.
He won promotion to the Premier League as manager of Watford three years ago and has taken Fulham within touching distance of the same achievement. It is fair to say everyone knows who Slavisa Jokanovic is now.
Indeed a return to Stamford Bridge has already been touted, as Antonio Conte’s replacement.
‘When I arrived at Watford, people couldn’t even say my name,’ he says. ‘But I took time to listen to the English ways.’
In the chaos that followed Fulham’s play-off semi-final win over Derby County, this calm, dapper figure cut a swathe through the maelstrom that enveloped Craven Cottage. Jokanovic shrugged aside the plaudits of fans on the pitch to commiserate with Gary Rowett.
‘We are all actors, the way we dance around the touchline, shouting and waving hands but it’s important to have respect and be respected,’ he says.
As the sun pushes through the windows of his office at Fulham’s Motspur Park training ground, Jokanovic twirls the end of his moustache and paws at his beard, pondering his arrival in English football. His voice has a slight rasp as he converses in his thick, Eastern European drawl.
‘When I first played for Chelsea against Liverpool, I’d come from eight years in Spain. I wanted to play two-touch football but if I couldn’t find an option in front of me I passed it back. The crowd didn’t like it.
‘Ray Wilkins, who was a fantastic man with great experience as a coach, said, “Slavisa, I know what you’re trying to do but if you can’t go forward, don’t play so much two touch, don’t even play one touch... just play half a touch! Kick the ball forwards and don’t complicate your life.”
‘In the end, I just went “f*** off” and hoofed it forwards too. This was my first experience in England. It was faster. I wasn’t satisfied it was how I wanted to play but my legs were completely dead at the end. You have to adapt.
‘It’s not easy for people from outside England. Now I think people recognise that I have learned good ways.’ The lesson served him well. In November, the situation at Fulham did not seem so straightforward. The club had just sacked
When I put Sessegnon’s name on the board, some players thought I’d made a mistake
John Terry was young but had an old face. He’d kick you, had streetwise dirty tricks but he could play
data analyst Craig Kline, who called police to the club in a rage, they were 17th in the Championship and fans were questioning if things could get any worse.
Unruffled, Jokanovic refused to panic. ‘It was a tough moment for us. The key? A key is for a car, to switch on. In football you have to take little steps. If I knew then where we would be in May, I wouldn’t be a manager, I’d be in the betting shop instead.’
Those little steps saw the recruitment process change for the better. The team began to gel, fighting characters emerged and the additions of Matt Targett, Cyrus Christie and Aleksandar Mitrovic gave them balance plus a cutting edge.
A 23-game unbeaten run came next, with playmaker Tom Cairney and coveted teenager Ryan Sessegnon leading the charge.
Sessegnon, who turned 18 yesterday, is rated at £50million by the club. Jokanovic provided his debut after the teenager impressed in a pre- season friendly against Brighton two years ago.
He said: ‘At first I’d brought him in to see what he could offer for the future. After one month he was doing fantastic. He scored a great goal against Brighton and that’s when I knew I could trust him.
‘ Whether you’re 16 and two months or 36, it’s simple: he did a better job than others. I wanted to play him against Newcastle but I waited a week. When I put his name on the board, some players thought I’d made a mistake. But they were the ones who made the mistake itk of f thinking thi ki about b t themselves. th They hadn’t noticed this quality. Now he has played more than 80 games. He is special.
‘I’m not a father figure to him — he has great parents. I don’t know if they shout at him at home but here he is intelligent, he understands what I tell him, he’s a clever lad.’
Tottenham have tried to sign Sessegnon and will try again. Likewise, Cairney is not short of top-flight suitors.
‘Cairney is important to us, we missed him early in the season with injury. He’s never scared,’ growls Jokanovic. ‘I say it’s better for them to stay with me. Fight with me. I can make them better, they’ll play and we will have greater quality.’
It is difficult to disagree. Jokanovic talks, not quite with menace, but a no-frills honesty. ‘People think I’m scary but I’m not... not really.’
He is sharp, fluent in three languages and cultured. After all, this a man whose music tastes include The Cure and The Cult, he lists Sergio Leone’s gangster epic
Once Upon a Time in America as his favourite film — ‘ Yes, Robert de Niro could play me’ — and is partial to the theatre and watching tennis with the odd Pimm’s at nearby Wimbledon.
Friends say he is a typical native of home city Novi Sad, the ‘Serbian Athens’ on the banks of the Danube, where Jokanovic first honed his skills playing on the streets for eight hours a day. His father, a driving instructor, did not really encourage his football, so Jokanovic was a late developer.
He did not take the game seriously until he was 14 and was even scolded by his local club for preferring to play on the streets with friends rather than attend first-team matches.
Today he is not so easily distracted. His wife and three children — Stasa, Sara and son Marko — live at the family home, in Madrid, furthering their education. Though they will venture to London for next Saturday’s game, their absence allows him to focus on the task ahead.
Wembley and its reverence as English football’s home is a moot point considering Fulham owner Shahid Khan’s vested interest in the venue, but it is clear it is a ground Jokanovic holds in great regard ‘like the Maracana or the Bernabeu’. This will be his first competitive experience there.
It is also the first time Fulham have returned to Wembley since Alan Mullery and Bobby Moore led them in the 1975 FA Cup final. They lost 2- 0 to West Ham but a repeat is not on Jokanovic’s agenda.
‘It’s a great occasion. Being the first Fulham side back there in 43 years is special and a nice statistic but the job is not done until we are in the Premier League. The win over Derby will mean nothing. It’s not enough just to be there and say this is a nice place. We go to win. I will never give up and never surrender. We are close to the land of opportunity and our ambition must be to make it.’