Asmir Begovic has found praise for both Tony Pulis and Mark Hughes as he reflects on the managers he has worked under during his career.
Begovic, now aged 37 and back-up to Jordan Pickford at Everton, emerged as one of the Premier League’s top keepers during his five years at Stoke. He replaced Thomas Sorensen as number one and would help secure the club’s status in the division then two top-half finishes before being headhunted by Jose Mourinho to join Chelsea.
He was asked to come up with one word to describe each boss he had worked under when he appeared as a guest on Sam Allardyce’s No Tippy Tappy Football podcast and spoke well of both of his bosses in the Potteries.
“Mark Hughes would be important for me,” he said. “The word would be important. He took that Stoke team and my game to another level which allowed me to go to a top club. He was really good and I still speak to him today. He was very important.”
On Pulis he said: “Hero. I absolutely love Tony. I owe him a lot. He messaged me the other day actually. He took me as a young kid and really gave me my opportunity. I was starting to play in the Premier League and he saw the potential along with a coach (Mark O’Connor) who was actually my youth coach at Portsmouth back in the day.
“He gave me the opportunity to play Premier League football and created a team and a culture where it was character first. We had a great togetherness. We overachieved for so many years really and it creates standards and he was the start of that. I owe a lot to him and I’d say hero.”
Of Begovic’s other managers, Guus Hiddink was ‘gentleman’, Jose Mourinho was just ‘top’ for his attention to detail and a shame that they couldn’t work together for longer, Antonio Conte was ‘winner’, Roy Keane, who he played for on loan at Ipswich, was ‘intense’ and Avram Grant was ‘mysterious’.
But it was Pulis who Begovic opted for when he was asked out of all those and more who he had enjoyed working with the most.
He explained: “I’m going to go with Tony Pulis. He knows how important he was. To buy a goalkeeper who was 20, 21, whatever I was, spend £3m and let me kick on in the Premier League and really make a career for myself meant a lot, We had a good relationship.”
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