Norway are heading into the World Cup with huge excitement around Erling Haaland, Martin Odegaard and a new generation. What is the feeling around Norwegian football now compared with your era?
"When we qualified for the World Cup in 1994, it was maybe a similar feeling, because it was the first time Norway had qualified, and people could not believe it. We could not believe it either. But since the European Championship in 2000, Norway have not been part of any tournament. We played playoffs and failed, played playoffs and failed again.
"So finally, with this group of players and some unbelievable talents, there is enormous excitement. This time, it is not just about being there, which used to be the biggest thing. People are starting to think we can actually do something big with the quality we have now."
You played at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups. What does it mean for a country to come back after such a long absence?
"It is good for the health of the country. It is patriotism. Most Norwegians follow football anyway; it is the biggest sport here as in many countries. To have players like Haaland and Odegaard, who are superstars at big clubs around the world, wearing the flag on their chest and fighting as part of a Norwegian team, everybody feels more proud and happier.
"Years ago, we had the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, and I think that was maybe the proudest moment of the general Norwegian feeling, because the Games were so nice and we were so proud. This can be similar. If we do well, everybody will be watching, and everybody will feel good."
Everyone talks about Haaland and his goals, but what else makes him so hard to defend against?
"Number one, he is an unbelievable goalscorer who can score all types of goals. He is very quick despite being so tall and strong, and to have that pace at his size is rare. Then his timing for runs, his link play and his cooperation with the others are also very good. You rarely see him just run into offside. He has the full package.
"The biggest question for him now is that he has played so many games for Manchester City, not just this year but over the last few seasons, and in Norway, we are worried he is too tired. But he did not play the last game, and he was rested over Easter for the last internationals. If he is fresh and ready, our chances increase 100%."
If Norway want to go far, do they need to build everything around Haaland, or look for alternatives?
"They have some alternatives. Haaland is the main man, of course, but this group has played together for two or three years, some of them even longer under the same coach. (Stale) Solbakken is experienced. He did really well with Copenhagen in the Champions League; he is used to big games, and he played in the 1998 World Cup himself. So they have developed a way of playing that is not only based on Haaland. With (Alexander) Sorloth, Odegaard, (Antonio) Nusa and (Sander) Berge, we are very good offensively.
"The biggest question is whether we can be good enough defensively against the best teams. We need Haaland at his very best to be successful, but the team has been together for a few years now and as a group, they are very close. That is a big advantage going into the World Cup."
You know Haaland's father well and saw Erling growing up. Did you spot from the very beginning that he would be a big footballer?
"To be fair, no, because I was not around them that much. I played with his dad, and we were good friends, we still are, but he was at Leeds, and I was somewhere else, then he moved to the other side of Norway, from where I live. So I did not see Erling much in his youth.
"I do remember being a coach in Norway, I think in 2018, when he played for Molde, and I was coaching Stabaek. He was just a young kid, 18 or so. He did not start because Molde also had European games, and he came on in the second half. Luckily for us, he did not score. That is the closest I came to seeing him up close, and you could immediately see he was a different level."
Apart from Haaland, who is the one Norway player everyone should watch at the World Cup?
"We have some match winners. Nusa, when he plays for the national team at home, can dribble past every fullback. He is at RB Leipzig, a little up and down there, but playing every game, and he dominated more for Norway. He has the speed, the dribbling and can score top goals.
"Sorloth at Atletico Madrid will head in any cross that comes into the box, he is a good finisher, underrated technically and has a strong mentality. And (Andreas) Schjelderup, who has done really well for Benfica this year, can produce the little bit extra that gets you through. So we do have match winners beyond Haaland."
As a former defender, what would worry you most about Norway at the World Cup? Defensive structure, tournament experience, something else?
"I am not too worried about tournament experience, because the group has been together a while, the coach is experienced with a good staff, and the players are at top clubs in Europe. They are a young team rather than an old established one, with a young average age compared to others. There have been question marks over the defenders for a long time, but in the last year, it has been a lot better. We now have central defenders playing at a good level, (Kristoffer) Ajer at Brentford, two at Bologna with one likely to start, and (Julian) Ryerson at Borussia Dortmund at right back.
"Honestly, the goalkeeper situation is the biggest question mark, because our first choice has not played regularly at Sevilla, the next is at Watford in a good league for a goalkeeper, but lacks experience, and the third is a young kid who just moved to Germany from Rosenborg. The second question mark is whether our defenders are good enough against the very best, and we play France and Senegal in the group stage, so we will get some answers very quickly."
How far can Norway realistically go, and what would success look like?
"I would say success would be reaching the last eight. A quarter-final would be a very good success. We remember Sweden taking bronze in 1994, and I would not say this team is weaker than that one relative to the others. World Cups are about small margins; you need a bit of luck with the draw and things to go your way. We have great potential, but you have to get it out of yourself over that month. So a quarter-final would be very, very good. Some Norwegians dream even further, but if we make the quarter-final, it would be a great success for me."
Blackburn and the Premier League title
You were part of Blackburn's Premier League title-winning side under Kenny Dalglish. Looking back, what made that group so special?
"Many things. The team got promoted from the second tier with Dalglish; we had an owner in Jack Walker, who funded the club strongly and was local, from Blackburn himself, with real history at the club. It was run like a family club, and with Dalglish as manager, there were no big egos, nobody could be higher than him, and nobody tried to go against him. We had good signings, Alan Shearer above all, the main striker who scored 30 goals three years in a row, even with a cruciate ligament injury in that period. We signed Tim Flowers, one of the better goalkeepers at the time, and mixed in some young players and some experienced ones. I think only one player, Gordon Cowans from Aston Villa, had won anything before, and he did not play much.
"I arrived as a 23-year-old, and it was my upbringing as a player where I started to improve. The team spirit was fantastic, everybody got along, we fought and played together and enjoyed ourselves on the pitch, with a quality manager, quality staff and good players who wanted to be better. It was a surprise, but the year I arrived, the team had just been promoted, I got injured early, so did not play much. Then, the next year we finished second, and the third year we won it. So winning it was not a complete shock, because we had already finished second, even though we were competing with (Manchester) United, Liverpool, Chelsea, the big guys."
It was step by step, like a project growing. But did you feel at the time that you were making history?
"Yes, 100%. When we won it in 1995, they told us the last time Blackburn had won the league was 1912. Blackburn is a small town; they used to be more of a second-tier club, but with Jack Walker and Kenny Dalglish, they came up and competed for prizes. It was a special time and a very good piece of history."
Were Shearer and Sutton the best strike pairing you played with?
"They were a good pair, 100%. But I was lucky, because later at United we had Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke, who were not too bad either. For me, Shearer may have edged it because of the way he scored so many goals, with his head, his right foot, his left foot. He was not the quickest or the most technical, but he could shoot. I remember at home it was always the same, after 25 minutes we were 1-0 up, no matter how we had played, because he had scored. He was an unbelievable player, and not many in football's history score as easily as he did."
You later returned to Blackburn as a manager. Was it emotionally difficult to manage a club you had such strong memories of as a player?
"It felt very good, maybe too good, because of all the good feelings I remembered. But to be honest, the club was not in the same place. They had just been relegated from the Premier League and made many changes, lots of players left and came in, and the squad was not ready to win promotion. That is why they had many coaches and many problems that year. It was very difficult for me to say no when they asked me, because I had been there so many years and had so many good memories, and I still do.
"Those two months were hard because I only had the good feelings from before, and then I saw how the club was operating inside. There were still many good people there, but they were too far from what they needed to be to be successful. They are established again in the Championship now, which is okay. Whether they can get back to the Premier League, I do not know, but it was a difficult period."
Man Utd and Sir Alex Ferguson
At Manchester United, you worked under Sir Alex Ferguson during one of the club's greatest periods. What was his biggest influence on you, as a player and later as a manager?
"Ferguson was the top leader. His capacity to get the most out of every player was second to none. He could build your confidence, and he could be very strong and direct. When you played well and gave everything, he was your best friend. If you were not sharp or focused, or did not play to the level he expected, he would tell you 100% directly. He was very clear but also very honest.
"People think he was only about shouting and the 'hairdryer'. I lost some hair while I was there and had it a couple of times, but his biggest strength was giving players confidence, the winning mentality, the attitude and everything you needed to win matches. For that, he was the best."
Do you have a special behind-the-scenes story about Ferguson?
"It is a very long time ago, and I do not think I have many that have not been told. He could be strict and expected you to be 100% every day, to train in the best way and do everything on the pitch, and to have the confidence that you were a top player, because if you were not, you would not be there. It was as simple as that.
"He did not praise players the way some managers do now. After we won, he always stood in the doorway into the dressing room and shook everybody's hand. If he was happy with you, he said, 'Well done'. If you had a super game, he might say, 'Different class'. It was only those two, and that was how you knew whether he was happy."
Michael Carrick is now leading Manchester United into a new era. Do you think it will be a success?
"I think he has done very well. He has taken a group that was heading the wrong way and not playing the football they can, and turned it around. Amorim did really well at Sporting, no doubt, but coming to England, there can be a cultural difference, a different way of training and working with players. I was not there, so I cannot say.
"What I can say is there is a big difference between how Amorim's United played and how Carrick's team play, in how they defend, how they attack, the formations and the positions. They have not dominated and won easily, but they have won most of their games and looked more like themselves. To compete with City, and maybe Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, they need to take another step in how they perform, but results-wise Carrick has had very good results."
United have tried different profiles since Ferguson. What does a United manager need that is special, the ability to handle pressure, an understanding of the history?
"The most important thing is the mentality to handle setbacks and to handle winning, because it is one of the most high-profile clubs in the world. If you cannot handle that, you cannot be there. When Sir Alex left, David Gill, the CEO, left too, and their partnership ran the club. It was difficult for the managers who came after, because they did not have Gill, and the new CEO was a top marketing man, but did not have the football competence. That is why I think United lagged behind in their football leadership for a long time.
"Only in the last couple of years have they started to invest, bringing in a sporting director and the right people above and around the manager, because a head coach cannot do everything now, there is too much. Football is teamwork on the pitch and off it. After Sir Alex and David Gill left, they did not have a good enough leadership team to make that transition, which was never going to be easy because the expectations are always there. You cannot bring the expectation down at United, so you have to move the quality of the players, staff and leadership much closer to it. Then you can start to be happy."
Cyprus and Omonia
Congratulations on the season with Omonia. You have spent much of your coaching career in Cyprus, with Omonia, Pafos and AEK. What is special about Cypriot football that people outside might not understand?
"It is a good league. It is a very small island, with only about a million people, but the league is almost international. There are 17 or 18 foreign players in each club, many foreign coaches, and the teams play in Europe. Pafos took nine points in the Champions League this year and were close to going through, AEK Larnaca lost to Crystal Palace in extra time in the Conference League knockouts, and we went through from our Conference League group.
"The level is good, much better than you would expect from a small island. And the people are football mad. There are maybe 300,000 Omonia fans on the island, and there is a huge rivalry because our longest away trip is about an hour and a half by bus, most are half an hour, so you can imagine the intensity. I was with Omonia first for close to three years, then a year in Sweden, then close to a year with Pafos, who keep getting better and won the league last year, then AEK Larnaca, where we won the cup.
"Coming back to Omonia, where I started in Cyprus, was very nice. It is a big club, and I always felt most at home there. The last time we won the league was during the pandemic, and we could not celebrate with our fans the way they wanted, even though about 20,000 came to our training centre unofficially. This time we won it a few games before the end and had the proper time to celebrate. It was a special season, in the way we won it and the goals we scored and conceded."
You play Champions League qualifiers now. Is there an expectation that you can reach the group stage and do something there?
"I do not think our fans expect us to reach the groups. They dream about it, as we do, and it is good to have dreams. We will do everything we can in our preparation and in building the squad, within our limits. Pafos made it last year, and we were better than Pafos this year, so it is possible, but we need a very good draw and some margins to go our way. Last time we beat Legia Warsaw and Red Star in qualifying but lost to Olympiacos in the playoff, so we were quite close. If we can make one more step this year, it would be fantastic."
Rangers and Scottish football
You finished your playing career at Rangers. What do you remember most, the Old Firm rivalry or something else?
"The passion for the team, how much Rangers means to people. It is a little like Omonia now. It still surprises me how much it matters; they live by the team every day, all year, and it runs in families forever. At Rangers, it was the same; they are extremely close to their team, ambitious and emotional.
"We did not have a good season; Celtic won the league, and we finished well behind, although we qualified for the Champions League and played Manchester United, which was special. I was injured for the last league game and sat in the stands. It was a smaller team we played, I do not remember which, and because it was the final game, the fans were not paying much attention to the pitch. About half an hour before the end, they started singing all their songs for next season, and everybody in a full stadium, maybe 50,000 people, stood up and sang and created this unbelievable atmosphere. The game was not good, so it was not for that match; it was for the club, the players and next year. It was something very special."
Can you compare Scottish football to the Premier League, in intensity or atmosphere?
"In atmosphere, with the big stadiums in Glasgow, Rangers and Celtic can be similar. In quality, there is a big difference now; the Premier League is two or three steps above. If you put Celtic and Rangers into the English system, they would struggle in the Premier League; the Championship would be more their level. It is a smaller league without the same finances, but the clubs are hugely popular, ambitious and emotional, and they play in Europe every year, which is good.
"Scottish football is still alive, and you saw how close it was this year with Hearts. It felt really unjust, a VAR-cancelled goal in the second-last game and then Celtic won it in the end. It cannot be easy to be a Hearts fan or player this summer; they have to lift themselves again after going so close, the first time in maybe 40 or 50 years that a team outside the top two challenged. To end it that way in the last week was cruel."
Legia Warsaw
You spent almost two years at Legia Warsaw, winning the Polish league and cup. What do you remember most?
"The first year was fantastic. We came in mid-season to a team that was already good but had not done well in Europe, which is why they wanted a change. We won the league by about 10 points and should have qualified for the Champions League, but we had a player who apparently was not registered and who played seven or eight minutes in the final game when we were 6-1 up on aggregate, and we got thrown out. That was one of the biggest disappointments of my career. We did really well in the Europa League, though.
"I remember the atmosphere and the fans again, who could be a bit more aggressive than in other countries, with maybe a bit more power. Polish people love their football; it is a big country of 40 million, and more and more clubs are well supported and getting better. I have only fond memories of Legia. It was the first time I had a club with the potential to compete at the top and fight for titles. As a player at United and Blackburn, we did that, but as a coach, this was the first time, and winning the league and cup was special. We beat Lech Poznan in the cup final after going 0-1 down, turning it around to win 2-1, and the atmosphere that day was unbelievable."
Who was the best Polish player you had at that time?
"We had some young talents coming through and some strong foreign players. Gira was talented and good, though he had injuries afterwards. Radovic is not Polish, but he was our main player and captain, the top scorer. Before I came, he played more as a winger or number 10 but did not score enough, so we put him at number nine, and he became top scorer. We brought Ondrej Duda from Slovakia as an 18-year-old, and he was top. Kucharczyk on the left wing was the quickest in the league and scored many goals. It was a nice team."
Looking at Legia today, do you think the club can get back on the right track? Last season was not good; they spent many weeks in the relegation zone before finishing just below the Conference League places...
"Yes. They are one of the biggest clubs, one of the biggest financially. I do not know the exact situation, but the support and history are massive. They have top training facilities now, a nice stadium and fans behind the team, so they should be fighting to win the league every year. That is the expectation, so when they are not there is a lot of pressure. They changed the coach just before Christmas, bringing in the manager from Rakow, and it took him a little time to get results, but they stepped it up in the last part of the season. With the Polish league being so tight from top to bottom, they had a good finish.
"Next year, the big pressure returns; they are expected to win the league or at least qualify for Europe, and they will compete with Lech Poznan and Jagiellonia. It is an interesting league because there is not a big gap between the best and the weakest teams, although that also says the top teams are not doing as well as they should, because they should be further ahead."
I know you are happy in Cyprus, but do you think about going back to Poland one day, not necessarily Legia, maybe another club?
"I have been a coach for about 20 years now, so I am not a young kid anymore. The most important thing for me is to work with people on the same wavelength, thinking in a similar way, with an ambitious team that can win something. Football is teamwork, so the people you work with matter, that you share the same direction and that I can coach the way I think is best to improve players and teams.
"I can do that at Omonia, where I have a very good relationship with everybody, from my staff to the president and the administration. So I am very happy and not looking anywhere else. I do not know what will happen in five or 10 years, nobody does, and I still feel I can be a coach for many more years. I was very happy at Legia, but I am super happy now at Omonia with the people I work with."