Tempest and heartthrob from Slavia at confession! Why did he grab his friend by the throat? And when did his tears flow?

The pleasant conversation took place in the Fortuna arena, where Slavia is at home. Training was taking place behind the coach’s back, and Houštecký did not hide his satisfaction with how well the players got into their bodies. “The preparation was different compared to other years. We had thirty players available, but otherwise it was intense and tough. We liked how the players dealt with it,” the Slavia coach smiled at the beginning of the conversation.

For a long time, it was true that Houštecký was involved in the preparation with the team, he got through it all without relief. A few years ago, he was even among the better ones in some things… “Now it has caught up with me, problems with hips and knees came. Jindra and I like to play bago and that’s enough,” hinted the coach of Slavia. However, he later admitted that if someone falls out during the game, he will still jump in. “But the boys don’t like it much when I spoil it for them. I’ve already missed that train, ” he admits.

It is clear that he does not want to be an active football player. He still remembers the personalities he played with during his career. In addition to the top competition, he worked in the second league for seven years and there he had a fateful meeting with Jindřich Trpišovský in Prague’s Xaverov. Houštecký claims that even then he was pedantic regarding the preparation of players and had no problem starting against fighters who do not give 100 percent effort.

“Once, for example, I found out that teammate Pavel Putík shortened his route in the forest. So I grabbed him by the neck and told him that one more time and he would be beaten. And that was my best friend,” Houštecký confided. He said that he took everything. Putík faltered and subsequently exchanged Xaverov for the first league. Of course, he has no problem pouring out other names when players rose from the lower league to the English Premier League.

“We trained Souček and Hovorka in Žižkov, then we took them both to Liberec. And look today. “Suk is a Premier League personality,” he declared with pride and joy. “We are always in contact, we support each other. He is an example for other young guys. We have talents in the team and he sees that there is a chance to move to the football heavens,” he added.

When he has to describe what he was like as a player, the first thing that comes to mind for Houštecký is that he didn’t score many goals, but he experienced a lot of matches, after all, just like today in the role of a coach. “I was impulsive, demanding of myself and my teammates, I didn’t forgive. I was angry, hot-tempered, that stays with a person. I didn’t like a sneaky game, I rather wanted the fans to have fun,” he revealed that even now as a coach, his heart skips a beat when his team entertains the fans with a nice event. On the other hand, when a player from his team makes an ugly tackle on the sideline, he does not hesitate to load him.

“He just gets scolded. Guys should have respect, respect, they make a living out of it. For example, Hovorka’s injury took a lot out of me, he was in the best shape, clubs from Germany and Italy were interested in him, it was unfortunate,” he recalled how he took the player to the hospital and, after an examination, to Eden. When the news of a serious injury came, he was not shy for having tears rolling down his face. “That was one of the worst experiences. But he works really hard and always does his best to come back.”

When he couldn’t devote himself to football, he ran a business. His dad’s best friend helped him, he took him into the business world. With him, he got, for example, the opportunity to buy land. “I learned that there is a lot of work around it, you deal in town halls. Everything was priceless experience,” noted Houštecký. In one breath, he adds that he did not go to meetings in a shirt and tie. “There are situations when you have to have them, but when you behave naturally and people recognize that you are not playing around, then it can be done even without a jacket,” he added.

He gives feeling and intuition even in the cabin, where he and the coaching team are in charge of thirty players. He can retreat, submit. “It also helped me when I had nine stores all over the country. I also went to sell, the people at the shop explained to me that it was not possible. so I came over the weekend and showed them that it was possible,” he smiled and recalled that he met a great colleague in, for example, Pilsen football legend Zdenek Bečka. “”He wasn’t afraid of ordinary work. He worked hard and completely won me over. We still have a great relationship today. “

But now, for quite a few years, football has been in the first place again. He works fully in the coaching team of Jindřich Trpišovský. He himself has a B license as a coach, but he is not thinking about a higher one yet. “I love football, I want to be with him, but I never expected that he would train professionally,” he admitted. But that is exactly the reality. Houštecký manages it even without a license. and I don’t see that getting a license would bring me anything,” he added, adding that with the current workload it would be difficult to fit studies into the program. “I would love to work, contact with the players is the most important thing for me.”

His job is also to cement the party. That is why he must have information about all the players in his head. It is set up in Slavia in such a way that the coaching team solves the problems of the footballers even off the pitch. “All this unites us. The strength of the collective is tremendous,” he confided. Everything is more complicated because Slavia has a lot of foreigners, the players are of many nationalities. “We try to choose players we know well. Some guys have already been through Czech clubs, but we are looking for information on all of them. They have to love football, they have to be able to play it and have character. It’s not easy for someone to fit in, everything has to be set somehow.”

Houštecký is well aware that no one is infallible. He has some idea about the players, but he certainly doesn’t prejudge anyone. “We solve problems head on. When a player comes and says sorry, I messed this up, I take it. But when someone doesn’t speak straight, I’m allergic to that,” Slavia’s coach admitted. “Every mistake can be corrected. But when twenty-one people poop and eat grass and one doesn’t, it just doesn’t work and the person who doesn’t do what we want , gets the drops.”

A new player in Slavia will certainly first get to know the principles on which the club operates. Then it only depends on him. “But the boys are working hard and improving. In three years, eleven players left us for TOP teams,” he boasted. He says that it is not a problem either that players from abroad may not be attuned to traditional Czech jokes and pranks.

“I have to knock it, but there was no problem with anyone. I have the best relationship with Ibra Traore. The others are also cool, for example Sor often pokes me when he walks by, he’s always joking, the chemistry works,” Houštecký revealed, adding that if he gets involved in a game and something goes wrong, he becomes a target of ridicule. “Maybe I don’t hit something, then they let me eat it. I have to accept it, just like the guys from me,” he added.

However, he emphasizes to each of the players without distinction that the players must give their best on the pitch. For example, because of the fans who sacrifice money and free time and come to support them, or even go to the opponent’s stadium. “It is necessary when someone scores to make the players see the real world and realize how well they are doing. We will not lie to ourselves, they live on a different level, in a bit of a bubble, they are taken care of. We know the guys don’t get it for free, they put in a lot of hard work. But if someone doesn’t give one hundred percent to the match, they will definitely hear it,” Houštecky noted.

So far, he has reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup three times with Slavia. The stormy coach does not hide that he would like to conquer this target already this season. “My dream is to win the European Cup for the Czechia. The Conference League has quality, we realize that, but all fans know where the finals are. To get there, that would be amazing,” dreamed the coach of the Vršovice team. So far, Slavia has completed the opening match of the 3rd preliminary round of the Conference League, when it won at home against the Greek Panathinaikos 2:0.