JOS LUHUKAY
Chris Dunlavy profiles the career of the new Sheffield Wednesday boss
IN the summer of 1989, a relegation play-off was the last place Jos Luhukay wanted to be. Little did he realise it would save his life.
Called up to represent Kleurrijk Elftal - a selection of Dutch players from the former colonies – the new Sheffield Wednesday boss was due to play a three-team tournament in Surinam.
But. with his club side VVV Venlo vying to stay in the Eredivisie, Luhukay reluctantly gave up his ticket. Other players to duck out included Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard.
Sadly, nobody would play in Paramaribo. On June 7, the plane carrying Kleurrijk Elftal crash-landed on a wooded hillside a mile from Zanderij airport. Of the 178 people on board, only 11 survived.
“It was pure luck and coincidence I was not on the plane,” Luhukay told Bild in 2010. “I lost a lot of colleagues. A terrible experience. It took me a long time to process and organize everything in my mind. It’s a stroke of fate you will not forget again.”
Years later, Luhukay would cheat death again when a truck crushed his car into a motorway barrier. It was a mangled wreck, but Luhukay and Ingrid, his wife of 35 years, were unharmed.
Yet, if these experiences might have mellowed a more sensitive character, they had no such effect on Luhukay. Though he laughs often and is renowned for his relaxed demeanour, the 54-year-old rules his training ground with an iron fist.
As a player in the lower stratas of Holland and Germany, the tiny midfielder scored 63 goals in 238 games but was valued primarily for his tenacity, discipline and work rate.
Luhukay credits these traits to the guidance of his Dutch mother and Indonesian father, a steelworker. Though both died before he turned 25, the principles they instilled did not.
Principles
In Germany, his workplace for 25 years, Luhukay has been called Napoleon, the Little General, the Mini Dictator.
“I like Jos,” said Louis van Gaal when asked about his compatriot’s unyielding emphasis on conformity, punctuality and discipline. “He is just like me”.
“Jos keeps the team on a tight rein,” adds Oliver Neuville, the former Germany international who worked under Luhukay at Borussia Monchengladbach.
“Discipline is very important to him. I remember when two of the players were out on the evening of the derby with Koln. He hit the roof. They didn’t play again for weeks.”
Spiritually, then, Luhukay is more German than Dutch. As a teenager, he would cross the border to watch the great Monchengladbach team of the 1970s. His idol was not Johan Cruyff but Gunter Netzer.
After five years playing for Straelen and Uerdingen, he knew instinctively that Germany would be more receptive to his ideas as a coach.
“In the Netherlands, players question everything,” he explained. “Here, players follow their coach more, which is in line with my work ethic.”
Accordingly, mavericks are given short shrift. At Monchengladbach, star man Wesley Sonck was jettisoned for having a “negative impact” on team harmony..
“I want the players to have fun and enjoy their work,” Luhukay says. “But it is sometimes necessary to make a mark when someone dances out of line.”
Players aren’t the only ones punished for lacking commitment. At Augsburg and VFB Stuttgart, Luhukay walked out on good contracts when his directors failed to offer support.
Yet if all this sounds a little hard-nosed and joyless, those who conform are treated to a warm character who will bend over backwards to develop and protect them.
He appreciates a practical joke and is happy to endure endless ribbing over the bizarre moustache he’s sported since the age of 15.
Listens
“He listens to the players,” said Neuville. “You can come to him at any time, even with private things. And he really lives for football. ”
“He is not a coach who plays to the gallery,” said Andreas Rettig, CEO during Luhukay’s time at Augsburg. “He cares only about doing the job.”
“That is a great strength of Jos,” said Huub Stevens, the former PSV defender and Schalke manager who has regularly worked with him.
His brand of fast, offensive football earned top-flight promotions for Augsburg, Monchengladbach and Hertha. Now, the man with the mild manner and steel core has to deliver Premier League football.