Ex-Swansea boss Carlos Carvalhal on the rise of his protege Bruno Lage as he leads Wolves towards Europe
WHILE manager of Portuguese side Vitoria Setubal, Carlos Carvalhal would often see two young boys attend his training sessions.
They would be taking notes and watching on before waiting until the end to ask questions.
One of them, was Bruno Lage.
Carvalhal recalled: “When I moved to Belenenses the next season, it is around 35 miles from Setubal, and yet again he was there at every training session taking notes, talking with me.
“He was thinking about doing this for a long, long time. Since a very young age, he started to be prepared to be a manager.”
Fast forward to the present day, and Lage, 45, is now the one being watched and analysed having taken the Premier League by storm at Wolves.
Yet it is his journey alongside Carvalhal that made him the coach he is today – one which sees Wolves challenging for a top four spot when they take on Arsenal.
Carvalhal, 56 – currently in charge of Braga – watched Lage’s development closely, especially during his time as a Benfica youth team coach.
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Lage’s progress convinced Carvalhal to bring him to England in 2015 as an assistant, first at Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship and then on to Swansea in the Prem.
Carvalhal continued: “When I spoke with him for the first time about working with me, I told him you will be with me for two or three seasons.
“After, you will be ready to be a manager and if you choose to work alone you can do that no problem. It was two and a half seasons with Sheffield Wednesday and one with Swansea.
“His son was born at that moment and he wanted to go back home. He spoke with me about going to the Benfica B team. He was ready, he had a bright future for sure.
“I always gave him autonomy. As a manager I was the supervisor and he made the training exercises and the dynamics.
“It was important for him to deal with players directly and correct things himself. Experience is living, you deal with things for the first time and you can make mistakes.
“He won a lot of experience with us. The way we did press conferences, the way he paid attention to everything. He studied so much to learn as much as he could.
“He comes from youth teams, it is good, but this was another level. Professional football is completely different. It was crucial to grow like a player, a man and a manager.”
Shortly after his return to Portugal, Lage took charge of Benfica, winning the league title in his first season before resigning after a record-breaking winless run in his second.
Carvalhal added: “That definitely hurt him a lot. He loves Benfica. He deserved more credit in that second year. These things hurt but now he is a better coach in a better place.”
That place is Wolves. Having lost his opening three games, Lage has led the midlands club to seventh with the second-best defence in the league – conceding 18 goals in 24 games.
Three points at the Emirates would see them jump into fifth, one win away from fourth.
Lage has taken what Nuno Espirito Santo built to another level, doing so alongside his own brother Luis Nascimento, a senior professional development coach at the club.
Carvalhal said: “Both Bruno and his brother are reflections of their parents, who I know very well still. Humble and proud people.”
Lage has even been described as the best coach to come from the Portuguese city of Setubal since Jose Mourinho.
But Carvalhal disagrees: “No one can compare with Mourinho. Bruno is Bruno, he is doing very, very well, but he is completely different, he has his own personality, he has a different philosophy of life and work.
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“He is very diplomatic. He knows about football. Very good at creating ideas. He knows how to make an impact. The players like him because he is someone who is very positive.
“When he signed with Wolves I thought to myself that was perfect for him, but we must go slowly. He can go far, but he deserves to be living in the moment. This moment.”
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