THIS IS NOT PRESSURE ... SYRIA OR IRAQ IS PRESSURE
Carlos Carvalhal, the charmer who’s got the Swans flying, on poverty, Netflix and philosophy
Carlos Carvalhal scuttles along the corridor inside swansea City’s training ground. It is st. David’s Day and he has swiftly adapted to his new life in the farthest reaches of the Premier league. he wears a yellow daffodil and offers Welsh cakes to journalists.
his smile is broad. In his press conference moments earlier, he seemed affronted when asked whether he felt any pressure as he strives to keep swansea afloat in the top flight.
‘This is not pressure,’ Carvalhal replies. ‘Pressure is in syria, afghanistan and Iraq, these kinds of situations.’
still, the demands remain high and Carvalhal’s work-rate is relentless. at swansea, club officials noticed early on that his mobile phone 4G usage was unusually costly as he worked out tactics late into the night.
sitting inside a side room, Carvalhal returns to his childhood. ‘I am from a poor background in Portugal. We were mediumdown, not down-and-out. My parents felt problems around food in the past but they made sure I did not miss anything. But there was nothing extra, no luxuries.
‘My mother drilled into me the importance of hard work. she had good talent at school but did not have the money to attend. she left at nine years old and started working. That was how life was back then. My mother sewed clothes at home and my father sold tins of paint. he would go to work early Monday morning and get back Friday night because he was covering the country. I needed to grow up fast.
‘My grandparents, one Christmas, they did not have anything. They did not have money to buy presents. so my grandmother went to the orange tree outside her home, and so her boys did not go without for Christmas, she took oranges to her sons as presents.
‘When we hear these stories, you hear how difficult life was for them.
‘so education mattered to me and I take the view that if you don’t want or wish, then you achieve nothing. If you do, you can achieve everything.’
STITCHED into the inside of Carvalhal’s matchday jacket is the phrase ‘Carlos had a dream’.
he grins: ‘I have a tailor in Braga. When I received the suit, he had done it for me. he wanted to do it on my suit shoes too. I am not a narcissist, I promise!’
But Carvalhal is imploring swansea to think big. This is the mantra propelling them towards safety. When he took over from Paul Clement in December, this club seemed broken. There was friction between supporters and the american owners, a long line of regrets in the transfer market and they were bottom of the league, five points from safety.
a run of four wins and two draws from his first eight Premier league games — and a place in the Fa Cup quarter-finals — have raised spirits. In all competitions, swansea have won six consecutive home games — a best run for 11 years. he is rightfully feeling rather pleased with himself.
‘If, when I arrived, you asked 100 football people “Will swansea be in this position after eight games?”, nobody would have said yes. They would have looked at the fixtures and said “relegation”. We are fighting, it will be very difficult, but we can achieve it.’
he has already overseen wins over liverpool and arsenal and he has charmed English football with his metaphors. his team’s valiant 1-0 victory over Jurgen Klopp’s side led him to conclude that he led the liverpool sportscar into a rush-hour traffic jam.
In his charm and colourful expressions, he appears similar to the early Jose Mourinho. Carvalhal did his Pro-license course with Mourinho who, he says, remains a great friend. he was a university colleague of Mourinho’s assistant, rui Faria.
‘ We are completely different personalities,’ Carvalhal says of Mourinho. ‘he is one of the best managers in history. I am on my path. But he likes confrontation and feels very comfortable with it.
‘I don’t like confrontation. I don’t care about it. If someone tries it with me, they will be talking to themselves because I don’t listen.
‘Don’t mistake that as arrogance. I am on the line. I just have big self-confidence in how I work. The game is decided in the four lines. Everything outside of that, whatever people say, it is zero to me.’
ThErE are times Carvalhal disconnects. he has become hooked on Netflix, most notably House of
Cards and Narcos. he attends daily spinning classes and disappears into the horizon on his mountain bike. But his true passion lies in philosophy. as a player in his twenties, he studied for five years at the University of Porto.
‘I have been preparing to be a manager since then,’ he explains. ‘Earlier, actually! When I was 15, I lived in a place with a lot of poor kids. I took a group of 10-year-old boys to a tournament at Braga and coached them. The final was in the big stadium and I won my first trophy as a manager!
‘I am fascinated by psychology and philosophy. still, now, I study for fun. I am reading the Portuguese -american neuroscientist antonio Damasio.
‘The book is about the physiology of the brain and when the first cells on Planet Earth started. It’s about how the world began and why we are different from other animals. I have read the French philosophers, Descartes, rousseau, voltaire. I see football through this prism. oh yes, a lot! a lot. a lot.
‘It is about complexity. life is complexity. Football is complexity.
‘If you understand complexity phenomenon, you understand football. In nature, two parts are in confrontation, they must be balanced all the time, and it is the same for a football team.’
NOW more than ever, Carvalhal needs the balance to be right.
swansea face relegation rivals West ham, huddersfield and West Brom in three of their next four games. over two decades in management, he has evolved through time in Portugal, Greece, Turkey and the United arab Emirates.
here at swansea, he already seems at home. after a brief grimace, he runs out into a snowstorm with giddy abandon to pose for photographs.
‘at Besiktas, I managed in one game where it was minus 24 away from home,’ he says. ‘Even in Istanbul, we needed a snow machine to clear it from the pitch.
‘We have trained at the stadium instead of training ground this week, but we will have no excuses about the weather.’ he jolts in his seat. ‘But Besiktas! The fans... unbelievable. The energy you feel.
‘I remember one game, 32,000 jumping and singing! You felt the ground shake beneath your feet. I stood there thinking, “I am being paid to stand here but I’d pay anything to be here now’’. With English football, I feel the same passion.
‘From age four, I watched games in black and white. We had rugby on saturdays and the final of the Fa Cup from England. I looked at the Fa Cup and dreamed of one day experiencing this kind of football. and now I am here.’
‘At Besiktas, I managed one game where it was minus 24. We’ll have no excuses about the weather today’