England football hero Chris Waddle believes Jose Mourinho is the perfect man to sort out the chaos at Real Madrid , and thinks Hearts can mount another serious title challenge in the Scottish Premiership next season.
Speaking exclusively to BOYLE Sports , the former Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur star also gave his verdict on whether Pep Guardiola should take on the Marseille job, and who Celtic should turn to as their next manager.
Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola's Next Job?
Pep Guardiola to Marseille ? That would be an unbelievable story. I can't see Marseille toppling Paris Saint-Germain at the moment without him, because of their financial situation. Marseille have got some players, but they're not like PSG , where they can sign top stars and keep hold of them, and Guardiola is not used to that. We know Pep Guardiola 's career. Barcelona are a big club, a massive club. Bayern Munich are the biggest club in Germany. Manchester City , during his time, have never been short of money, and whoever he wanted them to buy, they signed them.
To go to Marseille , Guardiola wouldn't get the option of buying the players he probably wants, because other teams like PSG , Barcelona , Real Madrid , Liverpool , Manchester United , Arsenal , and Manchester City themselves all go for these big players. He would be way down on the pecking order, but if he were to turn Marseille into Ligue 1 champions, that would be his greatest-ever achievement in my eyes. It would be like when Diego Maradona went to Napoli .
I just can't see it happening because he'll get a lot of offers, including from places like the Saudi Pro League and wherever else. But he's earned that right because of what he's done in the game. He's never managed a club where the expectation was that you couldn't win the league every year. I think that is the difference, and he's probably thinking, " Why would I want to go to a club where it's going to be really difficult, near impossible, when everywhere I've been, I've won the league? He'll have many other better offers than Marseille .
Jose Mourinho
Is Mourinho The Right Man For Real Madrid?
Jose Mourinho will take no nonsense. He's been a manager all these years and is known for his discipline. I think he's quite direct, and that could be exactly what this Real Madrid squad needs. He'll sit them down and say to them, do you not like him, and does he not like you? If it can't be worked out, he'll sell player A or sell player B. He'll keep whoever is the best player and move the other one on. Is it Vinicius Jnr or Kylian Mbappe ? Make the decision. Aurélien Tchouaméni or Federico Valverde ? One of them has to go. That's the way it's going to go.
The modern dressing room drama is incredible. I never saw anything like it when I was a player. The manager would come in and say, " This is how we are going to play. If you don't fit in, then you're not playing. Now it's so easy for these guys to spit their dummies out and cause a problem if they aren't playing or the team is playing in a way they don't want it to.
Listen, if you sign a contract to play for a football club, especially one with such a massive fan base like Real Madrid , you should view it as a privilege to even be in the building. If you can't sort out your differences — and what are the differences anyway? He doesn't like him because he scores more goals, or he gets more passes than me, or he doesn't pass to me enough? It's so childish that it's embarrassing for a club, any club, but especially Real Madrid .
You look at Barcelona , and for all their problems of late, they have just got on with it this season, and they've got big fish in their pond too, like Lamine Yamal , and Marcus Rashford 's gone there. You don't hear about Barcelona players falling out like they do at Real Madrid , though. Robert Lewandowski isn't telling the coach he's not playing because someone else has been picked to start a game.
All you read about at the moment is that Vinicius Jnr doesn't like Kylian Mbappe , and Kylian Mbappe doesn't like Vinicius Jnr , and the right-backs don't like each other — Dani Carvajal and Trent Alexander-Arnold . If you don't like the situation, or how you play, or the position you've been asked to play, go and talk to the manager, and if he tells you how it is and you don't like it, tell him you want to leave. Otherwise, you've got a contract. They pay your wages. Go and give 110%.
Scottish Football
Would Hearts Win Been Better For Scottish Football?
Hearts have had a fantastic season, and I think everyone was surprised when they started the season so well and hung in there. Everybody thought they'd fall away, Celtic would kick on, and Rangers would find a way. To keep it going until the last day of the season is an amazing story in and of itself, but I think it would have been great for Scottish football had they won it.
We've got to ask ourselves, why did Hearts come so close? Celtic didn't bring in a lot of players last year, and at the minute it doesn't look like they are going to sign a lot of players this summer either. Players might have to leave before they're allowed to bring other players in. Hearts can keep this group together and add two or three players, so there's no reason why they can't go again next season and give it another run. It's added a bit more freshness to the Scottish Premiership , with the title race being about more than just Celtic or Rangers , so I hope Hearts can build on this season and have another go next year.
The Next Celtic Manager
Celtic may struggle to attract a top manager this summer, because they don't want to spend money on the team. Brendan Rodgers went back to Celtic after leaving Leicester City and thought, if they're not going to buy players, I'm off. Martin O'Neill came in to hold the fort. They tried Wilfried Nancy , and that didn't work. Now, by the looks of it, they don't seem to want to spend more money, and that's why they had such a funny season.
Will it change again this year? We don't know, so managers who may look at that job might think twice if they won't be given any money to spend, and the players they do have at Celtic are only getting older. They might need to sell a couple to raise money, so it's no longer an easy job managing Celtic . Over the years, we saw managers go into Celtic and Rangers , spend a bit of money — more than the rest of the league — and one of them would win the league. That was basically the story of the Scottish Premiership . But Celtic aren't spending money anymore. Neither are Rangers . Hearts can spend what they have to spend and close the gap.
I'm sure there are managers thinking they can take the Celtic job, win the league, win a few cups, but if you haven't got the money to strengthen your squad — and it does need strengthening — you can see why a lot of names will decide it's not for them. That's why I'm surprised they aren't talking to people like Roy Keane to come in after Martin O'Neill , or go back to Neil Lennon , who has had a great year with Dunfermline . He got them firing, and I know he lost in the play-offs to Partick Thistle , but he has been getting the best out of the players he's got, which is an amazing achievement given the budget he's working with there.
He did a good job last time he was Celtic manager. He's more experienced this time. Whether he wants to go back in at Celtic is another matter. Maybe he hopes to get a Premier League or Championship job in England. But I think there are a lot of options for Celtic if they wanted to go down the road of a former player.
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