Opinion | Friday, 8th December 2017
The Manchester derby: the view from Spain
Spanish lecturer and football expert Dr Karl McLaughlin previews Sunday's crunch fixture
by Dr Karl McLaughlin, Senior Lecturer in Spanish and a member of Spain’s Sportswriters’ Association.
Dr McLaughlin also worked as a pundit last season on Estudio Estadio, Spain's premier TV football show.
The potentially title-deciding Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Sunday could attract a worldwide audience of up to 1 billion people, a seventh of the planet’s population.
The eagerly-anticipated clash is already being billed as the most watched Premier League match in history, not to say the most expensive in terms of the combined player values (even without the suspended Paul Pogba).
This weekend is about much more than which team secures pre-Christmas bragging rights in Manchester or the Premier League. For Spaniards, it is the latest chapter in a riveting contest between two managers who are destined to clash on and off the field and seem unable to live without each other.
Nowhere is interest keener than in Spain, where the derby following is far from restricted to the tens of thousands of British tourists and expats who will cram bars on the Costas on Sunday afternoon to follow the duel between Reds and Blues.
Spain has long had a fascination with English football, which played a key part in the origins of the game in the country. Spain’s oldest club, Recreativo de Huelva, was formed in December 1889 by English expats working at the Rio Tinto mining company in the southern city.
Fast forward to 2017 and Premier League games attract some of the biggest TV audiences in Spain, with a sizeable contingent of Spanish journalists following United and City every week from the press boxes at Old Trafford and the Etihad. Both clubs employ dedicated social media teams to post news in Spanish around the clock for their respective Spanish-speaking following.
The current interest is far from surprising. In addition to a longstanding admiration for English football - considered a model of passion, excitement and fair play by Spanish fans - the day to day fortunes of iconic Spanish players such as David de Gea and David Silva are a massive draw.
That interest is heightened further by the joint presence of arguably the world’s two best-known managers at present. Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho have exported their well-documented rivalry to the English stage following several years of headline-making run-ins in Spain in a feud that escalated when, ahead of one crucial meeting, Barcelona complained that the grass was too long at the Bernabéu stadium, apparently in order to slow their slick passing game.
Barcelona players gave the usually mild-mannered Guardiola a standing ovation when he exploded at Mourinho’s use of psychological warfare against opponents, famously proclaiming in a press conference at the Bernabéu that “On the pitch, I try to learn from him every time we play each other. Off the pitch, however, I try to learn as little as possible from him”.
The prospect of further feuds between the pair in Manchester prompted Spanish TV, radio and newspapers - particularly top-selling sports dailies Marca, AS and Mundo Deportivo - to task their reporters with detailed coverage of both managers’ every move and word. Last season, Spain’s top TV football show (Estudio Estadio) introduced a live weekly link-up with Manchester to provide viewers with the latest on the two arch rivals’ fortunes at their respective clubs.
The Spanish media are obsessed with everything Mourinho says and does, particularly if it adds to the negative image he crafted for himself while at Real Madrid. The view of Guardiola is quite the opposite, largely because he is revered for his impressive playing career for club and country (something Mourinho cannot boast) and his success at the helm of arguably the best Barcelona side in history.
Catalan independence issue
In recent times, however, that image has been tarnished in the eyes of many outside Barcelona due to his staunch defence of his native Catalonia’s push for full independence from Spain. With the Catalan elections just around the corner, any utterances by Guardiola concerning the current tinderbox political situation are guaranteed to become a trending topic.
In short, Spaniards have embraced the Manchester derby as an English version of their own “El Clásico” between Real Madrid and Barcelona, which brings the country to standstill twice a year.
This weekend is about much more than which team secures pre-Christmas bragging rights in Manchester or the Premier League. For Spaniards, it is the latest chapter in a riveting contest between two managers who are destined to clash on and off the field and seem unable to live without each other.
