Socceroo_06
August 6th, 2006, 01:35 PM
IT'S not quite international espionage, but there is a fair degree of subterfuge in selecting a national team coach — as Australian soccer's troika Frank Lowy, John O'Neill and John Boultbee are learning.
If the appointment of Guus Hiddink on a short-term deal was tortuous enough — it was a courtship that involved O'Neill and Lowy making several trips to Europe — at least that was conducted in relative secrecy.
Even that owed a lot to fortune. Lowy had met Hiddink some time before, knew he was a top coach and had considered him a good candidate to become Australia's technical director.
Hiddink took the job very much on his own terms, working part-time and leaving much of the day-to-day work to his locally based assistant Graham Arnold, and came to Australia only a handful of times.
This time things are different, and it will be easier to convince well-credentialled coaches that the Socceroos are a team with a future. Reaching the last 16 at the World Cup will see to that.
But for all that, the tyranny of distance still limits the attraction of Australia and the fact that it is still not in soccer's European mainstream.
The biggest name coaches — such as Hiddink and 2002 World Cup winner Luis Felipe Scolari — want to be in soccer's big league. They also like serious challenges that can be tackled in two-year assignments.
Hence Hiddink's preference to coach Russia up to the 2008 European championships, and Scolari's decision to knock back England in favour of another European championship tilt with Portugal.
The Asian Cup, while a step up on Oceania, Australia's previous zone, is not the equal of the European championship. Which is why the chances of snaring a really big name might be better in 2008-09, when the bulk of the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup will be played, rather than in the lead up to the 2007 Asia Cup.
While it has more money than in the old days, the FFA is not likely to offer the megabucks required to attract an A-list coach. Gerard Houllier's multimillion-dollar salary demands, among other things, priced him out of the market.
At the World Cup, O'Neill conceded that the top men cost anything between €2 million and €4 million a year. That is out of the FFA's league, but, O'Neill added "there are some very good tier-two coaches at about €1 million or less. We want someone who wants to do the job at a price that's affordable. Like with Guus we will make it very incentive based."
Argentinian Jose Pekerman, Dutchmen Danny Blind and Gerard Lem, and Alan Curbishley, the former Charlton boss, are among names to have cropped up. There is no shortage of candidates, or people promoting individuals they think should be candidates.
"You don't have to advertise the job, that's certain. There are agents, friends of coaches, coaches themselves who contact the FFA. And everyone seems to have an opinion on who should get the job," one insider said last week.
There was a feeling of urgency about the need for an appointment during the World Cup as top coaches were being snapped up. But that seems to have faded somewhat, although Arnold has been appointed only for the match against Kuwait in Australia, not yet for the return match in Kuwait City. Whether that implies that an appointment is imminent, no one is saying.
Whoever gets the nod will not need to become Australia's technical director. That appointment will be made later, after a review of the country's junior development and coaching ranks. Nor will he be required to spend all — or even most — of the year in Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/soccer/slow-and-steady-hunt-for-next-socceroos-coach/2006/08/05/1154198378458.html
I must say that i agree with the fact that europe is obviousely a more attractive place to be coaching than Australia, and that Euro 2008 is a greater competition than the Asia Cup 2007.
However having said that i think the strategy the FFA is taking in terms of getting a coach first and then a Technical director seems to be a bit backward to me.
If i were the FFA i would spend the money on a top-class technical director, who would then review the junior development system and coaching ranks, and select the right coach for the socceroos to take them through Asia Cup 2007, and the 2008/09 qualifiers for the 2010 WC.
It's really important that the NT coach spends alot of time with the squad in order to get to know his players before playing in big competitions like the WC or Asia Cup.
what are your thoughts?
If the appointment of Guus Hiddink on a short-term deal was tortuous enough — it was a courtship that involved O'Neill and Lowy making several trips to Europe — at least that was conducted in relative secrecy.
Even that owed a lot to fortune. Lowy had met Hiddink some time before, knew he was a top coach and had considered him a good candidate to become Australia's technical director.
Hiddink took the job very much on his own terms, working part-time and leaving much of the day-to-day work to his locally based assistant Graham Arnold, and came to Australia only a handful of times.
This time things are different, and it will be easier to convince well-credentialled coaches that the Socceroos are a team with a future. Reaching the last 16 at the World Cup will see to that.
But for all that, the tyranny of distance still limits the attraction of Australia and the fact that it is still not in soccer's European mainstream.
The biggest name coaches — such as Hiddink and 2002 World Cup winner Luis Felipe Scolari — want to be in soccer's big league. They also like serious challenges that can be tackled in two-year assignments.
Hence Hiddink's preference to coach Russia up to the 2008 European championships, and Scolari's decision to knock back England in favour of another European championship tilt with Portugal.
The Asian Cup, while a step up on Oceania, Australia's previous zone, is not the equal of the European championship. Which is why the chances of snaring a really big name might be better in 2008-09, when the bulk of the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup will be played, rather than in the lead up to the 2007 Asia Cup.
While it has more money than in the old days, the FFA is not likely to offer the megabucks required to attract an A-list coach. Gerard Houllier's multimillion-dollar salary demands, among other things, priced him out of the market.
At the World Cup, O'Neill conceded that the top men cost anything between €2 million and €4 million a year. That is out of the FFA's league, but, O'Neill added "there are some very good tier-two coaches at about €1 million or less. We want someone who wants to do the job at a price that's affordable. Like with Guus we will make it very incentive based."
Argentinian Jose Pekerman, Dutchmen Danny Blind and Gerard Lem, and Alan Curbishley, the former Charlton boss, are among names to have cropped up. There is no shortage of candidates, or people promoting individuals they think should be candidates.
"You don't have to advertise the job, that's certain. There are agents, friends of coaches, coaches themselves who contact the FFA. And everyone seems to have an opinion on who should get the job," one insider said last week.
There was a feeling of urgency about the need for an appointment during the World Cup as top coaches were being snapped up. But that seems to have faded somewhat, although Arnold has been appointed only for the match against Kuwait in Australia, not yet for the return match in Kuwait City. Whether that implies that an appointment is imminent, no one is saying.
Whoever gets the nod will not need to become Australia's technical director. That appointment will be made later, after a review of the country's junior development and coaching ranks. Nor will he be required to spend all — or even most — of the year in Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/soccer/slow-and-steady-hunt-for-next-socceroos-coach/2006/08/05/1154198378458.html
I must say that i agree with the fact that europe is obviousely a more attractive place to be coaching than Australia, and that Euro 2008 is a greater competition than the Asia Cup 2007.
However having said that i think the strategy the FFA is taking in terms of getting a coach first and then a Technical director seems to be a bit backward to me.
If i were the FFA i would spend the money on a top-class technical director, who would then review the junior development system and coaching ranks, and select the right coach for the socceroos to take them through Asia Cup 2007, and the 2008/09 qualifiers for the 2010 WC.
It's really important that the NT coach spends alot of time with the squad in order to get to know his players before playing in big competitions like the WC or Asia Cup.
what are your thoughts?