Pim cautious about Culina’s homecoming
Roar Guru By dasilva, 21 Jan 2009 dasilva is a Roar Guru
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- football, Gold Coast United, Guus Hiddink, Jason Culina, Nick Carle, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos
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Jason Culina has now signed up to Gold Coast United. This has been reported as great news for Australian Football, as we have a regular Socceroo at his peak returning home to the A-League.
This will raise the profile of the league, improve the standards, and we may even see the attacking side of his game that was coached away by Guus Hiddink.
However, what’s great for the A-league may not be great for the Socceroos.
Jason Culina plays regularly for PSV Eindhoven, one of the top clubs in the world and in an excellent league. Playing in pressure situations in Europe has ensured that whenever he plays for the Socceroos, he retains his match sharpness.
As a result, Pim Verbeek’s response to Jason Culina’s homecoming has been cautious, at best.
He said that if returning home makes Jason happy, and that happiness makes him play well, then he can accept the move. However, Pim did say that he preferred to have Jason moving back a year later, when the World Cup is finished and jokingly said, “I should have preferred him to go to Chelsea and play every game. That’s not possible.”
By returning to the A-league, he will play at lower standards. The training sessions will be less intense. It’s well documented that when Pim implemented European style training sessions to the A-league boys, they ended up tiring themselves out.
Also, there’s a situation where when the A-league finishes, there is a three month break before the World Cup starts. This is one of many reasons why A-league player aren’t selected, as they will be out of season when important matches come up.
Having a key Socceroos with zero competitive matches for three matches is an unacceptable situation for Pim Verbeek.
This can partly be solved through a loan deal. However, this loan deal can’t be to a European club as that could only happen in the January transfer window, which would mean him missing out the last few matches of the season and a potential final series, which would be unacceptable to Gold Coast United.
So the only option is to loan him out to an Asian club, preferably the J-league or the K-league when the A-league is finished.
There’s been talk that this is the first of many moves of returning Socceroos and that it will give a message that playing in the A-league is not a bad career move for Socceroos.
But that really depends on how successful Culina is next year.
This move can only really be considered a success if he stars in the A-league, has a very good World Cup and then keeps his place for a lengthy period afterwards, showing that returning to the A-league is not going to affect your international selection.
If Pim decides that Culina has lost his match fitness or sharpness due to playing in the A-league, and then loses his place in the team to someone playing regularly in Europe, like a Nick Carle, then I believe his move will be a disaster and have the opposite effect.
It will act as a deterrent for future returning Socceroos and send a message to A-league players to move out of A-league as soon as possible if you want to play for Socceroos.
Recommend this story.
- Explore:
- football, Gold Coast United, Guus Hiddink, Jason Culina, Nick Carle, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos
January 22nd 2009 @ 1:04am
dasilva said | January 22nd 2009 @ 1:04am | Report comment
James
Thanks for pointing that out. That’s one less concern from me.
January 22nd 2009 @ 8:43am
Koala Bear said | January 22nd 2009 @ 8:43am | Report comment
Pim was just joking that he preferred Culina to be playing regular football for Chelsea
Das,
Beauchamp played for the CCM stared as a Roo in a qualifier .. I think it was away to Bahrain (ACNC) .?. soon after that went to play in Germany and his Roo career has stunk ever since… Always another side to the coin..
you don’t say…
Pimbo’s suspension for the Indonesian fixture; given that the FFA new of it ..? Then he should donate his match fee to the Johnny Warren’s Cancer Foundation as a good will gesture.. as he does not deserve to be paid for it…
~~~~~~~~~
KB
January 22nd 2009 @ 8:49am
dasilva said | January 22nd 2009 @ 8:49am | Report comment
He’s not getting match fees for it (I assume so. Players don’t get match fees for not playing so coaches shouldn’t either). He’s just getting his regular salary for that week. The same salary that he get’s paid when there are no matches at all.
January 22nd 2009 @ 8:53am
dasilva said | January 22nd 2009 @ 8:53am | Report comment
funny enough Beauchamp performance for the socceroos became quite poor ever since he moved to europe.
January 22nd 2009 @ 8:59am
dasilva said | January 22nd 2009 @ 8:59am | Report comment
If I’m honest with myself after few reflections. THis article shouldn’t have seen the light of day.
I was trying to write a more cautious view of him returning and present the worst case scenario but I think it just looks like I’m being unrealistically pesimistic and a bit of A-league bashing. As James pointed out the GOld Coast are already looking for a loan deal for Culina which kinds of undermine a lot of this article.
January 22nd 2009 @ 9:08am
Koala Bear said | January 22nd 2009 @ 9:08am | Report comment
Das,
well than let’s have the FFA accounts work out a deduction of portion of his salary, then inform Pimbo (of course with his consent) to donate that money portion to the Johnny Warren’s Cancer Foundation .. I’m sue he will agree as he doesn’t deserve it, attending the fixture sitting in the stand… Yes it will be his final decision .. In fact that is a good idea for all managers who are sent off the field to be fined and the money to go towards the Johnny Warren’s Cancer Foundation..
~~~~~~~~
KB
January 22nd 2009 @ 10:32am
james said | January 22nd 2009 @ 10:32am | Report comment
i didnt mean to undermine the article Das, i actually thought it was quite interesting.
January 22nd 2009 @ 6:05pm
dasilva said | January 22nd 2009 @ 6:05pm | Report comment
Don’t worry James
Undermine is probably the wrong word. I just think that a lot of concerns in my article are not that big of a problem after thinking about it and reading feedback from the likes of Towser and KB and co.
February 18th 2009 @ 7:36am
dasilva said | February 18th 2009 @ 7:36am | Report comment
More news on Culina
From SBS
I bet KB won’t like to hear this.
Culina’s Socceroos spot at risk
Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek believes Jason Culina has put his Australian shirt in jeopardy by agreeing to join A-League newcomers Gold Coast next season.
The PSV Eindhoven midfielder has been a regular feature in Verbeek’s squads for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers but the Dutchman was blunt when asked on Tuesday whether he felt leaving Europe would jeopardise Culina’s Socceroos spot.
“Yes, I’ve never made a secret about that and Jason knows it also,” Verbeek said.
“It’s up to him to try to keep the level he has at the moment. He’s a great player, a fantastic player and, like I always said, if I’m honest he’s coming a year too early if you’re in my seat with my responsibility.
“On the other hand for the A-League it’s a great player to have.
“What Jason promised me and told me was `you’ll be surprised; I will be ready’ so I keep him to his word.”
Verbeek’s comments came after he delivered a talk on the differences between Australian and European football at the Football Federation Australia Coaching Conference in Sydney.
During his talk, Verbeek said he enjoyed the open and attacking nature of football played in the A-League but it wasn’t a style of football which matched the results-first needs of international competition.
Verbeek had a full compliment of available European-based stars for last week’s 0-0 World Cup qualifier in Japan.
But the Socceroos will again turn to an all A-League squad for the upcoming Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait in Canberra, similar to the one selected recently against Indonesia.
And Verbeek said the difference in tactical organisation between domestically-based players and those from Europe was noticeable.
“If you play as open as some games I’ve seen here, you do it against a European or South American team, you would get slaughtered,” he said.
“If you see the game we played against Indonesia, it was also a 0-0 game, but if you see the game you can easily see that the players are used to playing more open.
“They try to be more defensively-organised than they normally do, so they tried that and they did well but still if you compare it’s not good enough.”
Long a critic of the standard of the A-League, Verbeek said the level of competition won’t be the only consideration for Culina.
The man Verbeek describes as one of the fittest players he’s ever coached will also face a battle to train at the level he is now experiencing in the Netherlands.
“If you see training sessions in Europe for teams like that (PSV), they are like games, they’re fighting and the tempo, the intensity, of the training session is so high,” he said.
“You play 45-50 games a season there and here he will probably play about 21, so in the end you will lose.
“Even if like Jason – he will train two times a day probably – but in the end he will lose, hopefully I’m totally wrong.”
One option available to Culina to maintain his fitness levels approaching the World Cup in South Africa could be to move on loan to a Japanese or Chinese club in the A-League off-season.
Culina himself admitted such a move might be needed.