Owatalk

• Home
• Contact
• About

World Cup coaches continue to tumble

It's now nearly two weeks after the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany ended but the coaches continue to tumble as a result of what happened there and Brazil's Carlos Alberto Parreira is the latest to go. It seems like a long time ago now when Jose Pekerman, the Argentina coach offered to resign after the quarter final loss to Germany but since then a lot more coaches have left their posts. Of the 32 coaches that went to the World Cup, at least fifteen of them are no longer in their positions if my counting is right.

Some coaches decided to leave 'on a high' like Germany's Jurgen Klinsmann and Italy's Marcello Lippi while others whose World Cup was a nightmare like Croatia's Zlatko Kranjcar and Poland's Pawel Janas maybe had to go because of results. I should mention that other coaches had already decided they were leaving their posts before the tournament started like England's Sven Goran Eriksson and Japan's Zico and our own Guus Hiddink.

What I have found particularly interesting is the variation in the speed with which replacement coaches are appointed. For European teams this has to be done quickly especially with qualification for Euro 2008 starting in September and some friendlies lined up before that. Take for example Italy's appointment of their new coach Roberto Donadoni. The previous coach Marcelo Lippi stepped down on a Wednesday and Donadoni was appointed on Thursday. That was a one day turnaround. The other appointments have been quick like Wim Rijsbergen for Trinidad and Tobago and Joachim Loew for Germany because these two were previously assistants to Leo Beenhakker and Klinsmann respectively.

Compare this to the time it took England, for example, to appoint Steve McLaren. Looking at it now this should have taken the shortest time since McLaren was already working under Sven.

Which begs the question as to why it takes so long for some football associations and yet its so quick for others. I think there are a number of factors including whether the replacement is already employed somewhere or not. Australia is also looking at appointing a coach to take the Socceroos forward after their exploits in Germany. I would expect this to take some time because Australia's situation is a bit unique with most players based overseas but also a good number in the local A-League. The coach could be based in Europe like Hiddink was or could be based here in Australia. The US have to replace Bruce Arena as well and they also face the same situation with a number of players in the domestic MLS and others based abroad mostly in Europe.

Talking about the new England coaching setup, this rumour of Terry Venables assisting Steve McLaren, shouldn't this be the other way round?

Post a comment:

Name

(required)

E-Mail

(required, but not published)

Website

(optional)

Comment
Enter Code


Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail