http://www.theworldgame.com.au/a-league/culina-takes-charge-of-jets-200251

Jets threatening to sue GVE for breach of contract.

John Neal quit Middlesbrough in 1981 after Craig Johnston, Mark Proctor and Dave Armstrong were all sold by Charlie Amer- and the club were in the Third Divison and almost dead five years later. Luckily the club was saved and reborn, and made a rapid rise back up the ranks.

Of course, Norwich’s decline from 3rd in the Premiership and a European run to relegation in less than two years was frighteningly similar. In fact, it’s even more acute now that the Canaries are in the third tier for the first time in half a century.

But Con and the NJ management team can take some of that blame.
They didn’t give GVE all the support he needed to stay competitive in the A-League and Con turning on the Jets fans when they sold their best players was totally inexcusable as well. The fans are what makes a club, as much as the players.

NJ need a change and maybe a new coach might be what they need, just like when GVE took over and turned the club around so well – not sure if Branko is the man, though.

This didn’t make him a bad manager. He won promotion with Swindon, laid the foundations for future success with Chelsea, and had some bad luck in charge of England- and was hounded out for non-football reasons.

Branko is in the job currently and probably they will see how he goes before making a decision, but not sure who the alternatives are.

And as was commented in SBS article, he never dealt with the lows in his career very well. i thought his handling of certain players was always out of line – he was never slow to blame his squad or a particular individual publicly. am thinking of patafta in particular, but others have also been deried in the press and the blame hung on them.

Then he lost Carle and Rodriguez. They went on to win the league, but it was a fortunate win in a very poor quality competition.

Last season, with further asset stripping taking place, the bottom just fell out.

How much do A-league managers get paid?

Vitezlav Lavicka was only paid $225K to leave Prague for Sydney FC, so maybe good foreign coaches are not that expensive compared to A-League coaches, especially from Eastern Europe.
Compared to Litbarski’s 800K a year, what a bargain that will turn out to be when Lavicka lifts the GTS with the SFC lads next March.

Mick,
I agree that GVE did a great job to get the Jets their first title and good luck to him whatever he chooses to do. Most coaches would have done the same thing if they were in his shoes.

Creates an interesting set of rivalries for Branko Culina if he gets the Jets managerial job. Playing against SFC his old club and playing against his son Jason, when they take on Sin City.

It is no argument that he has more job security as head coach of the AIS than a 4 year deal with Con.

I could argue it is a career step backwards. His club coaching CV is now too short to be used at some stage to advance for higher coaching honours.

Alternatively is embedding himself into the National Coaching structure a career development.

I would argue it is a step sideways, it appears he wanted to get out of the Jets and the struggles that involves and this job gave him the job security and opportunities he deserves.

As a Jets fan, I say good luck to him.

It also indicates the necessity of a coaching revolution in Australia, given the poor quality of coaching.

Here is a question for everyone.

Would a $200,000 public service job be more lucrative than being a coach of an A-League team?

It’s an important question.

If one of Australia’s brightest stars can be coaxed into joining the public service, then clearly, all this talk about attracting good foreign coaches etc is nothing but hot air.