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Helenio Herrera is the best manager football has forgotten. In his heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, Herrera won four titles in Spain, three in Italy, and two European Cups. He was the first superstar manager, and promoted the idea that matches were won from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
Herrera was notorious. He wore three-piece suits, alligator shoes and a black cape that evoked Dracula. He practised yoga \u2014 naked \u2014 every morning for 50 years. His managerial style combined the strictness of Alex Ferguson with the antics of Jos\u00e9 Mourinho. He mixed the energy of J\u00fcrgen Klopp with the attention to detail of Pep Guardiola. Moreover, he had the ethics of Lance Armstrong.<\/p>\n
In HH: Helenio Herrera, Richard Fitzpatrick tells a story of elite sport, arrant misconduct and exorbitant ego. Fitzpatrick explores \u201ca mysterious man\u201d who \u201cchanged the profile of coaches\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. in football\u201d. Before HH, he explains, \u201cfootball coaches were in the background. No one knew their names.\u201d<\/p>\n
To abet his intense game plan, Herrera supplied amphetamines, which he insisted were plain vitamins<\/p>\n
Herrera was born in Buenos Aires in 1910, but grew up in French-controlled Casablanca, in a wooden shack on stilts. As a player, he was unspectacular (his memoirs describe him playing for France, but there is no evidence that he did). His qualities were speed and endurance \u2014 traits he would lionise as a manager.<\/p>\n
Herrera began coaching in France in 1944, but made his name in Spain \u2014 first with Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and then Barcelona. When he arrived at Barcelona in 1958, the club was in deep debt and performing poorly. He quickly set to work on morale, and negotiated salary increases for reserve players and backroom staff. In Fitzpatrick\u2019s words, \u201cHH was buying their loyalty.\u201d On the pitch, he changed Barcelona\u2019s style from languid and elegant to swift and direct.<\/p>\n
To abet his intense game plan, Herrera supplied amphetamines, which he insisted were plain vitamins. Doping was becoming common across Europe but, in Spain, Herrera was the first. Under him, the club won the Copa del General\u00edsimo (now known as Copa del Rey) and two Ligas. However, two years after his arrival in 1960, he left Barcelona in disgrace \u2014 chased down La Rambla by fans who believed he had taken a bribe to lose to Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
Herrera joined Inter Milan where, despite fines and suspensions, he continued doping. He also kept winning \u2014 Serie A three times and the European Cup twice. He led Spain at the 1962 World Cup, where they were knocked out following a controversial 2-1 defeat to the champions, Brazil (Spain were denied a clear goal and an obvious penalty, but were using amphetamines).<\/p>\n
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It can be hard to separate Herrera\u2019s success from his habitual doping, but Fitzpatrick demonstrates that he was a coaching pioneer. Herrera transformed players\u2019 diets, and revolutionised tactical preparation \u2014 he kept a personal record of players\u2019 weight, and conducted detailed analysis of future opponents, sometimes attending their matches in disguise. He developed player psychology, and exerted a \u201chypnotic influence\u201d.<\/p>\n
Often, however, this went too far. He was reckless with player health, and when striker Giuliano Taccola died of heart failure in 1969, Herrera was charged with involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n
HH is assiduously researched. Fitzpatrick provides extensive social, political and sporting context, such as life in Barcelona under Franco; but he often loses focus, and too many quotes overlap in theme. At his best, however, he tells Herrera\u2019s outrageous story with verve.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Fitzpatrick, that story might become more familiar. As it is, aside from within Barcelona and Inter Milan, and among football historians, Herrera remains largely unknown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want players to bomb forward at great speed, with no more than three passes to get into the box,\u201d Herrera said. He would regard today\u2019s dominant tactics \u2014 the quick passing and the intense pressure to retrieve the ball \u2014 as a tribute.<\/p>\n
HH: Helenio Herrera \u2014 Football\u2019s Original Master of the Dark Arts by Richard Fitzpatrick Bloomsbury \u00a320, 304 pages<\/p>\n
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