Few coaches in football have a CV like Paul Clement's. The former Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich assistant manager has not only coached some of the biggest clubs in world football but also had impressive results.
In a wide-ranging interview with Tribalfootball.com, Clement discussed his experiences working with owners like Florentino Perez and Roman Abramovich as well as the differences he found between the great football institutions he found himself working for.
Firstly, it is worth looking back on a fascinating career which took off in 2009 when Clement became the assistant manager of Chelsea. He would remain there for two seasons, winning a Premier League and FA Cup double in his first season. That would kickoff a surreal next five years which saw him win domestic trophies at PSG, Real Madrid, and Bayern as well as a Champions League title with Madrid as assistant manager to Carlo Ancelotti.
Speaking about the similarities and differences between some of Europe's biggest clubs, he said: I mean I'll try and summarise it as well as I can.
I think the similarity between all those big clubs is that there is an expectation to deliver titles, domestic league, cup competitions and champions league.
When I was at all those clubs the desire was to win the domestic league and to win the Champions League. At Chelsea, a lot of the players were at the peak of their powers and in 2009-2010 and unfortunately, we got knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter finals against previous Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and they went on to win [it] that year with Inter. The previous year we had been knocked out at the semi-finals, when Gus Hiddink was the interim manager, to Barcelona, it was Guardiola's very first year [there].
Anyway, the players did well, they put that aside and went on to win the Premier League and the FA Cup, so it was a famous double. There are very few English clubs who have achieved the double over the history of English football."
Clement continued to discuss his time at PSG, Real Madrid and finally Bayern Munich. He said: When I went to PSG it was a slightly different time than where they are now. It was only a year or 18 months into the Qatari investment so it was a period of transition, and the idea was Carlo was appointed and when you appoint a manager of that calibre then you can recruit high level players as well. So, after Carlo joined, Thiago Silva came, Marco Verratti, Thiago Motta, Lavezzi, Ibrahimovic, Beckham.
The big names followed, and we were able to win the league then for the first time in 19 years but that was a team that was building and a club that was building and it's obviously a lot bigger now than when we were in 2013.
Real Madrid when we went there, monster of a club, the biggest. The history, the tradition, the trophies, the players that have played there an immense club.
And Bayern similar - another huge club but inside a lot more close, smaller, closer, more of a family feel,(for example) ex Bayern players were running the club.
So, all amazing experiences, I have to say, and I was very lucky during that period between 2010 and 2016/2017, I experienced all those different clubs and the amazing players who were there, all of them."
Clement also discussed the differences in method between two of the world's biggest owners Abramovich and Florentino. Two owners with elite but controversial reputations. Clement said: I think, they are both winners, very demanding, both pushing their clubs, their people to be the best they can be. So very similar in that way.
I think Florentino was more present and I think that's the way he operates. When we're travelling around Europe, he would be on the flight with the other board directors - supportive. {He would] regularly come into the training ground, come visit the staff and the players. He would be at 90% of the games home and away and he would come into the dressing room afterwards to greet the players and the staff whether the performance was good, bad, or indifferent.
Roman was much more distant but you felt his presence and as soon as anything went not so good, he would be present and he would want to know why the team wasn't performing, so he was demanding in that way.
So yeah, similarities in their demands and expectations of their clubs but different in terms of the way they lead people."
- adapted by Harry Dunnett
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