Spain's meticulous preparation

Graham Hunter was fortunate to pick the brains of one of the holders' chief scouts about the lengths he and his staff go to to ensure no opposition stone is left unturned.

Supposedly it was basketball player John Wooden who made Benjamin Franklin's original thought that "failing to prepare is preparing to fail" world famous.

At any rate, it's a notion which is prevalent at the top end of Spanish football. Spain's leading two clubs over the last two seasons have been headed by men obsessed with detail, José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, each of whom has a knack of being able to process a great deal of football information and condense it into inspirational, informative bursts of instructions.

Which means that their players, and others who arrive from top teams like Valencia CF, Athletic Club, Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC, are fortunate to have the kind of set-up favoured by Vicente del Bosque. They experience the same attention to detail.

Yesterday, a handful of us were fortunate to be admitted into the room where Paco Jiménez, one of La Roja's principal scouts, explained to us the essence of his work. He has seen Croatia's last ten games – qualifiers, friendlies and, of course, their previous two Group C matches – and has diluted his findings into a presentation for Del Bosque and his assistant, Toni Grande.

Nothing is left to chance. Strengths, weaknesses and opportunities are obviously considered, as are how they warm up, what changes they are most likely to make at half-time, which kind of free-kicks they favour and so on.

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Vicente del Bosque and his players have been comprehensively briefed about Croatia

Jiménez also told us that he'll watch between eight and ten games per weekend with the specific brief of looking for clever set plays and presenting them to Spain's technical staff for adaptation and use. In a 38-match season, plus cup, international and UEFA club fixtures, we are talking upwards of 500 matches combed through, assimilated and recycled.

Spain play a style of football which is based on the philosophy that 'it's about what we do to you, more than worrying about what you can do to us', but the emphasis on preparation remains high. Del Bosque constantly seeks to eliminate boredom during a tournament and told me that "the best way to do that is to keep the training stimulating".

However, the evidence of a Scalextric track, darts, table tennis (at which Gerard Piqué seems never to be beaten) Parchís (a board game which Xavi Hernández says Iker Casillas always wins), card tables (avoid Javi Martínez), pool and so on tells a story of some basic off-the-training-ground needs.

Not too high-tech, not too modern. Just 23 guys who can't leave their competitive instinct in the dressing room and stave off homesickness or boredom in the process.