{"id":297341,"date":"2023-10-28T04:12:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T04:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=297341"},"modified":"2023-10-28T04:12:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T04:12:13","slug":"karanka-on-the-pressures-of-el-classico-and-missing-out-on-bellingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/karanka-on-the-pressures-of-el-classico-and-missing-out-on-bellingham\/","title":{"rendered":"Karanka on the pressures of El Classico and missing out on Bellingham"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Former Real Madrid star and coach Aitor Karanka on the pressures of El Clasico, missing out on &#8216;real quality&#8217; Jude Bellingham, working as Jose Mourinho&#8217;s No 2 and his love affair with Middlesbrough<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Real Madrid take on Barcelona tomorrow in the first El Clasico of the season<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Aitor Karanka spent time as both a player and assistant coach with Los Blancos<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Follow Mail Sport&#8217;s new Champions League WhatsApp channel for all the breaking news\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u2018Nothing creates more pressure than a quiet Bernabeu,\u2019 says Aitor Karanka when asked about the psychological demands of playing for Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not something Jude Bellingham has faced yet; he has had them in raptures, singing \u2018Hey Jude\u2019 and mimicking his arms spread wide goal celebration.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow is the England midfielder\u2019s first Clasico, away at Barcelona\u2019s temporary \u2018Olympic Stadium\u2019 home; It\u2019s something else Karanka knows plenty about.<\/p>\n<p>He spent five years playing for Real Madrid \u2013 winning three Champions Leagues \u2013 and it all began with a debut against Barcelona. There were also plenty more Clasicos when he became Jose Mourinho\u2019s assistant at the club in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>He knows the fixture, and he knows Bellingham too: \u2018Unfortunately I missed out on coaching him by a matter of two weeks,\u2019 he says of his arrival at Birmingham City in July 2020.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/17\/77088659-0-image-a-1_1698423201094.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Real Madrid are taking on Barcelona in LaLiga on Saturday in the first El Clasico of the season<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/17\/77088677-0-image-a-4_1698423366914.jpg\" height=\"431\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ex-Real Madrid star and coach Aitor Karanka knows what it takes to win the crunch clash<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I spoke to the director general Xuandong Ren and I had watched the games from the previous season seeing Jude for the first time. I said: is this player with us next season? And he told me: no, he\u2019s already sold. I said: you can\u2019t do that to me!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Despite the 17-year-old Bellingham\u2019s departure for Borussia Dortmund. Karanka got to know him and his family, and so very little of what has happened since surprises him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This is a kid who gets sold, and it was all agreed, but Birmingham still needed three points to secure safety and he says that until the club is safe he was going to keep playing.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He was 17-years-old at that point! Any other player if Borussia Dortmund have come and put down the money for you, you say: \u2018thanks guys I\u2019m off\u2019. But not Jude. He thinks: this is my team, my city.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018When you see a young man think like that you can only imagine what can happen to him when he also has everything as a footballer.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish word \u2018entorno\u2019 comes up a lot in Karanka\u2019s analysis. It\u2019s used to describe those closest to a player and often has negative connotations \u2013 interfering parents, even the well-intentioned ones blighting many a career.<\/p>\n<p>Jude\u2019s father Mark appears to be hands-on and yet the antithesis of that negative influence. \u2018And it\u2019s not just the father. It\u2019s the father, the mother, the brother and him,\u2019 says Karanka underlining the importance of team Bellingham.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Both Jude and Jobe show on the pitch that they are well-balanced individuals. It\u2019s no coincidence what is happening around them right now. It\u2019s because there are people like that behind them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Karanka laughs at the recollection of his first meeting with Jobe: \u2018He was 14-years-old at the time. I said to him: you must be Jude\u2019s brother. They tell me you\u2019re even better than him. He said: not better, much better!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Can Jobe really end up superior to Jude? \u2018Well every day that gets a little bit more difficult,\u2019 Karanka smiles. \u2018And not because Jobe is not going to be very good but Jude is so good and he just keeps getting better and better.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday Bellingham scored his 11th goal for Real Madrid in 12 games. He has managed to score in each of his first three European Cup games for the club. No one has done that since one of Karanka\u2019s team-mates from the 1998 side, Christian Karembeu.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s his personality,\u2019 Karanka says. \u2018He\u2019s come in with the attitude that it\u2019s all the same if I am 19, 20 years-old, I\u2019m me and I\u2019m not going to stop winning the ball back, I\u2019m not going to stop scoring.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The mental strength will also serve him well if and when the euphoria dips. Karanka started brilliantly winning that first Clasico to win the Spanish Super Cup in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I had only signed a couple of days before,\u2019 he says. \u2018And Madrid versus Barcelona is not just physically draining, you have to deal with it emotionally as well. But we won the game in the Bernabeu and I participated in the first goal with the pass for Raul.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s underplaying it because the pass over the top for the captain was majestic. \u2018It\u2019s all about who\u2019s on the end of it,\u2019 he says modestly. He says he was \u2018bounding up the steps of the Bernabeu four at a time\u2019 on a high from picking up a trophy so soon.<\/p>\n<p>But when he got to the dressing room and saw the trophy just left on the floor as the players showered it gave him a taste of how demanding the club is &#8211; it was silverware, but not one defines a season.<\/p>\n<p>And deeper into that first year he experienced the demands that come from the public too. \u2018I remember in Valencia we lost 6-2 and the next day I was with my mother and two people crossed my path and they said: \u2018Que malo eres\u2019.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He said his mother reacted to the \u2018you\u2019re terrible\u2019 slur, by asking Aitor why he hadn\u2019t responded. \u2018I said: what am I going to say we let in six!<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You have to know how to handle the fact that one day you are the best and the next day, less and less thank god, they can insult you.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You have to be prepared for all that. The mental side of it is important. It\u2019s like when there\u2019s a Champions League game. When everyone is getting behind the team it\u2019s fantastic, but when there is silence at the Bernabeu nothing puts as much pressure on a player as that.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/17\/77088661-0-image-a-3_1698423231572.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Karanka heaped praise on Jude Bellingham, who has scored 11 goals in 12 games since joining<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/17\/77088671-0-image-a-5_1698423403118.jpg\" height=\"429\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Karanka (second right) spent three years as Mourinho&#8217;s assistant coach at the Bernabeu<\/p>\n<p>Karanka was at the Bernabeu to see Bellingham score a 94th minute winner on his home debut. He knew better than to leave early.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018My daughter was filming various chances and I said to her: \u2018don\u2019t you worry, I\u2019ll get the goal.\u2019 Sure enough he captured the moment when Bellingham scored and told his daughter: I\u2019ll send it to you.<\/p>\n<p>Bellingham goes into today\u2019s Clasico amid a sense that the fixture has tamed considerably since the days when Karanka was Mourinho\u2019s number two.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It was intense,\u2019 he says. \u2018There was a period when there were three or four Clasicos in about two or three weeks. The Spain team was world Champion, there was Cristiano and Messi, and the best Spanish players on both sides.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018And when Jose arrived Madrid had gone many years without getting to the quarter-finals of the Champions League and Bar\u00e7a had practically an entire team from the youth system.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He says the enormity of their job became apparent after the first Clasico of the Mourinho era ended 5-0 to Barcelona in the Bernabeu.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if, perversely, that served them well, he smiles: \u2018I don\u2019t think a 5-0 ever serves you well, three would have been enough!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Madrid were never as open again and they won the Cup at the end of the season against Barcelona, and La Liga the following year.<\/p>\n<p>When Mourinho left Madrid in 2013 Karanka moved to Middlesbrough where all that he had learned in and around the biggest rivalry in European football was put to good use.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I had offers including one from the Premier League but one of the best things that happened to me in football was that Steve Gibson appeared and wanted me to go to Middlesbrough,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n<p>Karanka, who says he still hears cries of \u2018up the Boro\u2019 when he\u2019s back in England, talks about losing heavily to Brighton five games in and being called into Gibson\u2019s office fearing the sack.<\/p>\n<p>Instead he says the Chairman put his hand on his shoulder, told him that, with him as coach, Middlesbrough were going to the Premier League, and then took him out to dinner.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He is, as you English say: A gentleman\u2019, says Karanka. The following season Middlesborough made the play-offs and the season after that went up automatically.<\/p>\n<p>A decade on from his first management job the passion is not dulled. We\u2019ve talked for 90 minutes, \u2018I could go for extra-time and penalties,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/17\/77088811-0-image-a-6_1698423505052.jpg\" height=\"514\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Karanka knows all about the pressures and strains of playing in El Clasico for Real Madrid<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/27\/17\/77088785-0-image-m-8_1698423564623.jpg\" height=\"466\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>He also reflected on memories of Middlesbrough, who he got promoted to the Premier League<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s clear he wants to get back doing what, playing aside, there is no substitute for. He wants to coach again.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It was a shame at Birmingham because it was during the pandemic with the stadium empty I couldn\u2019t enjoy the Birmingham fans. As a player I arrived at Real Madrid at just the right time and at Birmingham it was the opposite.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>It might have all been so different if Boy Wonder had not been taken from him before he could pick his first team. How would he handle him were he coaching him now?<\/p>\n<p>\u2018With top players you tell them how the team plays, how the rival will play and then you want them to be themselves because if Kroos is Kroos and Modric is Modric and all the good players are just being themselves [it works].<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Unexpected things happen on a pitch and with great players it\u2019s not just that they can play, it\u2019s that they are very intelligent. And if you have intelligence, personality and real quality then that&#8217;s Jude Bellingham.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12680879\/Real-Madrid-Aitor-Karanka-Jude-Bellingham-Jose-Mourinho-Middlesbrough.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Real Madrid star and coach Aitor Karanka on the pressures of El Clasico, missing out on &#8216;real quality&#8217; Jude <span class=\"more-text\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Karanka on the pressures of El Classico and missing out on Bellingham - Sportstons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/karanka-on-the-pressures-of-el-classico-and-missing-out-on-bellingham\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Karanka on the pressures of El Classico and missing out on Bellingham - Sportstons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Real Madrid star and coach Aitor Karanka on the pressures of El Clasico, missing out on &#8216;real quality&#8217; 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