Shota Arveladze still talks a good game even if lack of German cost him a job at Bayern Munich under Louis van Gaal
Bayern Munich manager Louis Van Gaal gave Shota Arveladze a job at AZ Alkmaar
Graeme Macpherson
Share 0 comments 21 May 2010
Shota Arveladze can speak five languages, maybe six, as a result of a wandering playing career that began in his native Georgia and took in Turkey, Holland, Spain and, of course, Scotland, where he spent four seasons with Rangers.
If only his linguistic prowess extended to German. Arveladze will watch tonight’s Champions League final between Internazionale and Bayern Munich in Madrid on television while pondering what might have been. Louis van Gaal, the man who signed Arveladze for AZ Alkmaar from Rangers and who later gave him his first coaching job at the same club two years ago, was keen to take Arveladze with him when Bayern Munich came calling for the Dutchman to replace Jurgen Klinsmann as manager last summer.
Arveladze’s lack of coaching experience and his inability to speak German counted against him, however, and he stayed put in Holland while Van Gaal went to Munich and flourished, winning the Bundesliga and the German Cup as well as leading Bayern to tonight’s European showpiece.
Arveladze, 37, who is now in talks to become the new manager of Kayserispor in Turkey, has few regrets about how things turned out. Instead he thanks Van Gaal for taking a chance on him by bringing back to AZ as a coach when the striker was at his lowest ebb during an injury-blighted stint with Levante in Spain.
Then I got an offer asking if I wanted to start something new and it was the best offer I ever had. It meant so much that it came from such a big coach as Van Gaal. Shota Arveladze
“I spoke to Louis about me going with him to Bayern and there was definitely a chance,” Arveladze told the Herald. “But I don’t speak German, so that would have made it very difficult. If you go to a club like Bayern Munich you really should speak their language, I think.
“Secondly, I only had a year’s experience as assistant coach, so maybe it wasn’t the right time. Now Louis has the Champions League final to look forward to and that’s incredible.
“He is one of the top managers in football in my opinion. He has achieved so much and maybe I should think I was lucky to have learned from him as a coach, even if it was only for one year. I had a very hard last year of my playing career in Spain. I had two operations there and was at a stage where I was starting to hate football. I had seven months on crutches and didn’t play much at all in the last year, maybe just five games or so.
“Then I got an offer asking if I wanted to start something new and it was the best offer I ever had. It meant so much that it came from such a big coach as Van Gaal. He has done so much throughout his career and for him to ask me to join him was really a very great honour.”
Arveladze has been a rare constant in a year of change at AZ. Van Gaal was followed into the manager’s office by Ronald Koeman but, working with a squad lacking motivation after winning their first Dutch title in almost 30 years, the former Barcelona player lasted just a matter of months before being sacked.
Dick Advocaat took up the reins, ensuring AZ qualified for the Europa League, before announcing he would be leaving to take over the Russian national team. Should he decide to remain in Holland, Arveladze will find himself working under a fourth manager in two years.
“I must be smart to have survived all the changes,” he said. “I have had some good teachers and it’s all useful experience as you learn all how they do things and see different styles.
“In the last few years of my playing career I started to think about coaching and thought I should at least try to see how it would go, and it has gone well for me. The first year was amazing. In my first season as a coach I was a champion. That was a wonderful feeling.
Arveladze’s recipe for successful management is simple. “It’s about trying to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time,” he said. “I speak five or six languages and have experienced different cultures in Turkey, the Soviet Union, Spain, Holland and Scotland. If you can deal with all this and manage people who are on your own side then I think you have a good chance to do the job well.”
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