I knew before Euro 2008 had started that I had been given the chance to succeed Luis Aragones.

I followed the whole tournament alone at home, watching the games in a quiet place. But I had always had my own vision of Spanish football, and it was inevitable that I started to draw in my head the picture of what I wanted.

I still remember the noise when Fernando Torres scored the winning goal against Germany, and the people’s celebrations after the game.

There seemed no better place to be carrying out my ideas than with this squad, and no better time than now.

“We weren’t going to ignore the job Luis Aragones did. We were simply going to add new things”

Luis was a bit older than me, but we always respected each other. And I knew I could earn the players’ respect by showing my appreciation of the former coach. That way, they sensed we weren’t going to ignore the job he did. We were simply going to add new things.

The team we inherited had good habits, and we had no intention of vanishing the hallmarks that made them champions. Our idea was to strengthen those aspects that had worked in the past, but try to progress with caution and build another group.

Some players blossomed, and we brought new blood into the team. Changes were necessary to avoid stagnation, but players like Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Juan Mata also improved the squad’s quality.

The most difficult part was casting away players who had been pivotal to Spain’s success at Euro 2008.

The prime example was Marcos Senna.

Senna (below) had probably been Spain’s best player at the Euros. We had always rated him highly and he had enormous talent, but he was excluded from the World Cup squad despite having been part of the team in 2009. Busquets was the new big thing, and we thought he was even better.