Keeping standards high with Sociedad

Michael Walker speaks to the former Liverpool player who has found a home from home in Spain and tomorrow night gets the chance to play a key part in the destination of La Liga

Sander Westerveld produced a smile as broad and perfectly formed as the beautiful bay by which he now lives.

San Sebastian can do that to a man on its own. But the fact that the city's club, and his, Real Sociedad, enter the last weekend of the Spanish season a neck behind Real Madrid at the top of La Liga is of even greater satisfaction to the former Liverpool goalkeeper.

"Life here is brilliant," he said. "A car radio being stolen is a crime wave. Not only San Sebastian, the whole area, it's the best place in Spain. People always talk about Barcelona and the beach, about Madrid, about Seville, but the people of Seville, Madrid and Barcelona come here for their vacations. And the people here, they say to us: 'Don't worry, you are already our champions.'"

The last comment matters to Westerveld. He was sipping coffee in Real Sociedad's Anoeta Stadium, where tomorrow night they would have been readying themselves for a title-clinching fiesta had they not lost 3-2 last Sunday at Celta Vigo.

Real Madrid's victory the same night at the home of their neighbours Atletico meant Sociedad moved down a place to second, two points behind Raul and co. With Real Madrid hosting Sociedad's Basque rivals Athletic Bilbao in the Bernabeu tomorrow, it appears Sociedad's chance of a first championship since 1982 has slipped through their fingers.

Yet as the fans on the streets of San Sebastian have been telling Westerveld, the scale of his club's rejuvenation this season is enough. Merely being challengers has the city drenched in Sociedad's blue and white stripes. Every balcony has a flag, it seems.

Westerveld is fully aware of the achievement. A comparison he drew was with Bolton leading the Premiership ahead of Manchester United until the penultimate day. Sociedad may be a bigger club than Bolton historically, but when Westerveld joined in the middle of last season they were bottom, seven points off safety. Eighteen months later they are in the Champions League.

Liverpool, of course, are not, but if Westerveld feels triumphalist about that he kept it suppressed. His eventual exit from Anfield - he was dropped and excluded after a mistake at Bolton months before he was sold - was painful. Gerard Houllier bought two keepers to replace him.

Having won three trophies the previous season with Liverpool as first choice, the then 26-year-old Dutchman was suddenly and unexpectedly "in a strange and difficult moment", he said.

"The deadline had passed for UEFA competitions and I had to wait for the transfer window to open."

John Toshack, then in his third spell at Sociedad, called Phil Thompson.

"I had other options," Westerveld explained, "in France, Belgium and Greece. I always wanted to play and live in Spain, even when I was in Holland, but I had to have a good think about it when Sociedad came in; they were last in the league.

"I phoned Makaay, Overmars, Frank de Boer, Kluivert. They were all very positive. They said: 'Sign - it's a great club and a great city. All Sociedad need is a good goalkeeper and a goalscorer. They've been unlucky.'

"I had a word with Toshack and he said he'd sign [the striker] Darko Kovacevic. I spoke to Van der Sar, who was at Juve with him. I thought 'All right'. The fairytale started."

For Westerveld it began with scepticism. Not only are Sociedad a proudly Basque club who still struggle to love foreign players 14 years after John Aldridge left Liverpool to be their first, Basques also consider themselves goalkeeping connoisseurs.

"They knew I was coming from Liverpool but still they thought, 'A foreigner? And a goalkeeper?' They had \ Arconada; this club is famous for goalkeepers. So it was difficult at first. But a couple of weeks ago I was compared to Arconada; that's the ultimate compliment at this club, like being compared to Ray Clemence at Liverpool."

Along the way another Liverpool connection, Toshack, was removed. From Nantes, in came Raynald Denoueix, not unlike Houllier, a 50-something French coach. Via Denoueix's eggs-and-rice diet and twice-a-day training (unusual in Spain) Sociedad ate themselves fitter.

"We score regularly in the last 20 minutes," Westerveld said. "We scored twice in the last 25 at Vigo last week." Sadly for Sociedad, Celta were two up by then and got an 80th-minute winner. It's advantage Madrid now and Westerveld is not banking on the David Beckham sideshow diverting them from beating Bilbao tomorrow.

"I thought that once Barcelona said they weren't getting him he would stay at Manchester. Real need defenders more than midfielders.

"Some Madrid players like Iker Casillas are saying Beckham is only a face, but Beckham is being underestimated. Honestly, I think he's one of the best players in the world - his work rate, his free-kicks. But they don't see much English football here. They will see in the first couple of weeks what a player Beckham is."

There is no doubt learning Spanish will be the key to Beckham's assimilation, as it was to Westerveld's.

"I was doing press conferences in Spanish after three months and that was good for me. But it's also good for the people you work with. The Basque language is like Arabic to me; I know how to say hello and thank you. It has nothing to do with Spanish. But the people see that you are trying to adapt." Success and San Sebastian have made that easier for Sander Westerveld.