The Ogre pricks the Verbeek balloon

 
Jesse Fink Roar Pro

By , 6 Mar 2009 Jesse Fink is a Roar Pro

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Socceroo's coach Pim Verbeek chats with Harry Kewell during a training session at ANZ Stadium, Sydney, Thursday, June 19, 2008. The Socceroo's take on China in a World Cup qualifying match this Sunday, June 22. AAP Image/Dean Lewins

It’s been a dramatic sort of week for national men’s coach Pim Verbeek, first with Sasa Ognenovski coming out in the press and bucketing the Dutchman for destroying his dream of representing the Socceroos.

Then Verbeek himself going on the backfoot and publicly apologising for calling Socceroos striker Archie Thompson “absolutely hopeless” in Jakarta last month.

Verbeek has been weathering all sorts of direct and veiled criticism for his no-frills football and no-frills talking for a year now, but the level of antipathy towards him has probably never been so high.

And it comes at a strange time, with Australia virtually one game away from securing automatic qualification for South Africa 2010.

I will declare that I have had a coffee or two with Verbeek over the time he’s been in the country and I enjoy a good personal relationship with him. But I’ve never been afraid to tell him what I think he might be doing wrong or could be doing better (inasmuch as my opinion counts for anything) and to his credit he always listens. He might not agree but he listens – and that is the mark of a gentleman.

Verbeek, however, has strong opinions of his own and he isn’t normally one to resile from them, so it is notable that he has toned down his act. But he would have sensed that perhaps he had stepped over the line with his recent brutal assessments of the A-League and the ructions they caused in the press and among A-League coaches and chief executives who have been working overtime to lure representative players home.

By far the most damaging salvo fired at Verbeek, though, was Ognenovski’s, who has now left the country for Korean club football and Macedonian national-team honours.

“If [Verbeek] doesn’t respect the league, he should keep his thoughts to himself,” he railed this week. “He’s way too harsh. I mean some of the games I’ve seen from the Dutch league are horrible. You get good and bad games anywhere. Basically, he’s bagging the players that he wants to go out there and do a job against teams like Kuwait. That’s not going to motivate them, it’s going to destroy their confidence. I’ve spoken to a few of them and they just shake their heads every time he says something about the A-League.”

This is a revealing quote, because any player on the fringe of national-team selection is loath to reveal any reservations he might have about the manager or his methods for fear of jeopardising his career.

But Ognenovski had nothing to lose and, fresh from the grand final and with six Adelaide team-mates in the squad for the Socceroos’ 5 March match against Kuwait in Canberra, he would have known what is going on inside the camp – and inside the minds of the players.

Whether or not Verbeek or Ognenovski is right on this issue is really beside the point.

It is imperative that the perception of division between team and manager be addressed and nipped in the bud immediately. And that requires compromise from both camps – Verbeek perhaps holding his fire more than usual and the “Socceroos Lite” players (our A-League Socceroos) learning to accept his methods and some of his “madness”.

Verbeek is an excellent manager who has an international track record that is second to none in this country. He deserves respect.

I’m sure he’s enough of a man, though, to also admit he could start reciprocating a little as well.

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