The old Spanish dog for the hard road

Paddy Agnewgives an insight into Spain's manager Luis Aragonés who seems to be taking everything in his stride

THEY CALL call him "Grandad", "the old-fashioned one" or, more respectfully, "The Wise Man". Sixty-nine year-old Luis Aragonés risks earning himself some new, presumably highly enthusiastic, labels if his Spanish side can beat Russia tonight and make it to a European Championship final for the first time since losing to Michel Platini's France in Paris in 1984.

Aragonés could be forgiven for indulging in a deal of "I-Told-You-So" with the Spanish media just now. For much of the last four years during his time as coach to Spain, he has argued bitterly with the media. For a start, he had the nerve to drop Spain's most famous footballer, Real Madrid icon Raul.

Had things gone wrong at these championships, there would have been a queue half a mile long waiting to point out that clearly Spain could not be expected to do well without Raul, especially given that the ageing Real Madrid star ended the season by playing an important role in Real's title win.

Then, too, there was that infamous training ground incident when he made racist (and unfortunately overheard) remarks about black Frenchman Thierry Henry as he attempted to motivate Jose Reyes during a squad session three years ago. Aragonés picked up a €3,000 fine for that ill-timed little outburst but, frankly, it did little to change his hard jaw, tough attitude.

Aragonés was coaching football teams long before the term "politically correct" was invented. The fuss about those Thierry Henry remarks was simply water off a very tough old duck's back. It hardly cramped his style because his is a far from expansive style in the first place. Asked the other day why he chose to be understated in his celebration of Spain's penalty shoot-out win over Italy here in Vienna on Sunday night, he answered: "I'm not an emotional man . . . I've got the tranquillity of having done this for many years. I don't get beaten down when we lose and I don't go through the clouds when we win."

Indeed, as a former Atletico Madrid player and coach to clubs like Barcelona and Valencia, Aragonés has seen it all before. As Spain stand on the threshold of finally and gloriously defying that label of "eternal under-achievers", the Spanish might do well to reflect that it has been Aragonés' down-to-earth, "realistic" football thinking that has got them this far.

For example, most critics would blame Italy for the poor quality of Sunday's quarter-final. True enough, the Italians lived up to their own worst stereotype in an uninspired, defensive performance. Yet, to some extent, it takes two to play that game.

No one at the Ernst Happel Stadium the other night could fail to realise that Spain approached that tie with serious caution. There was no "Red Fury". Rather the Spaniards concentrated as much on not exposing themselves at the back as on attacking.

To some extent, this might not be the traditional Spanish game and the tactic certainly contributed to making it a very poor quarter-final, but Aragonés got the result he wanted.

Likewise, when people criticize his selections, in particular his decision to use Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas as a second-half substitute, Aragonés merely points to the results so far. Not only are Spain in a European Championship semi-final but they have lost only four games out of 52 under Aragonés.

Tactics and line-ups are only of relative interest to Aragonés. He is not the sort of coach who you will see feverishly scribbling notes and drawing complex diagrams on the bench. His solution for Spanish ills was much more fundamental - establish a winning mentality.

Before the quarter-final with Italy, he put it like this: "Anything can happen in a game of football, but I want my players to be convinced they can win as those teams that have that conviction usually do."

Given that Spain have finally laid that Italian bogey (they had not beaten Italy in a competitive game since 1920) and shown themselves to be mentally every bit as strong if not stronger than the world champions, there is good reason to believe Aragonés' work has not been wasted.

Anything can happen in a penalty shoot-out but this Spanish team, with four straight Euro 2008 wins under their belt, has increasingly looked strong on self-belief. The point is not lost on his compatriot, Tottenham coach Juande Ramos who commented yesterday: "It's going to be difficult, but the psychological advantage of having laid the jinx of the quarter-finals is very important for us," he said.

The Aragonés method, however, is not about psychology alone. To be fair to the coach, he has also resorted to a much more traditional Spanish strength, namely pure, unadulterated skill, even if that was not always visible against Italy.

He has always argued that when it comes to the passing game, there is no better side in Europe than Spain. It is in that context that, until now, he has remained faithful to the Barcelona pair Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez, at the expense of Fabregas.

They are more suited to the precise, first touch, mesmerizing game encouraged by him. If it does not go well for Spain tonight don't cry for Luis Aragonés. Triumph or disaster, he will take them in his grandad stride.

Just to prove the point, Turkish club Fenerbahce yesterday announced Aragones has signed a two-year contract with them, starting in July. The old dog for the hard road.