FFA must be aggressive in finding a replacement for Pim
Columnist By Adrian Musolino, 23 Mar 2010 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- 2010 World Cup, 2011 Asian Cup, FFA, football, Guus Hiddink, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos
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Australia's coach Pim Verbeek reacts from the sideline during the friendly match between The Netherlands and Australia at the Philips stadium in Eindhoven, southern Netherlands, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008. AP Photo/Ermindo Armino
It’s official. The worst kept secret in Australian football was finally revealed yesterday when the FFA confirmed that Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek will stand down after this year’s World Cup.
“It has been a very difficult decision for me after more than two years but it is time for me to look for a new challenge,” Verbeek said.
It had long been speculated that the Dutchman wanted to return to Europe with his family following his stint in South Korea then Australia, possibly with an eye on coaching at club level.
Now, as he and the Socceroos focus entirely on South Africa, the FFA must begin the challenging task of replacing Verbeek, especially if they aren’t in the advance stages of finding someone already.
The task that awaits the new Socceroos coach is immense.
While Verbeek inherited a team that retained the core group of Australia’s golden generation, disciplined under Guus Hiddink, his successor won’t have that luxury.
South Africa is likely to be the World Cup swansong for many of the golden generation, namely Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill, Harry Kewell and more.
Verbeek’s replacement will have to rebuild from what many consider to be a diminishing stock of talent.
Assuming the FFA will have the replacement ready to go for the Asian Cup next January, as opposed to resorting to a caretaker (with Graham Arnold Central Coast bound, who the caretaker would be is an interesting question in itself) the new coach will have little time from the end of the World Cup to form the nucleus of a squad to take to Qatar, and then preparing for the qualifiers for Brazil 2014.
It is a mighty task, greater than what Verbeek has ever faced.
The FFA needs to be looking to a manager with immense experience at the international level. One who, preferably, has experience in developing football nations who will be sympathetic to Australia’s domestic situation, as they will be relying more on talent emerging from the domestic scene, such as National Youth League and the A-League, than Verbeek ever had to.
Who that will be remains to be seen.
It’s great for pundits to speculate, but the reality is there will enormous movement following the World Cup, and the FFA may wait and see who turns up on the market come July.
We can only hope they are aggressive in the marketplace and don’t compromise. If they can be aggressive is another question entirely, however.
With the World Cup bid burning a hole in the FFA’s pockets, not forgetting their need to prop up the A-League and assist struggling clubs such as the Brisbane Roar, North Queensland Fury and Adelaide United, whether they have the financial pull to attract one of football’s coaching heavyweights remains to be seen.
We’ll watch this space intently, with fingers crossed. They need to get it right.
As for Verbeek, his legacy as coach of the Socceroos will be determined solely on what happens in South Africa.
His style hasn’t won over many fans, with his end justifies the means mentality to World and Asian Cup qualification doing the job on the both fronts, albeit mundanely, for some.
He’ll be keen to put himself in the shop window for European clubs in South Africa as well as leaving his legacy on the Socceroos.
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- Explore:
- 2010 World Cup, 2011 Asian Cup, FFA, football, Guus Hiddink, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos
March 23rd 2010 @ 11:04am
Moonface said | March 23rd 2010 @ 11:04am | Report comment
What about Vitaslav Lavicka?
March 23rd 2010 @ 3:07pm
AA said | March 23rd 2010 @ 3:07pm | Report comment
The Sydney fans were calling for Pierre L a few years ago to take over the Socceroos. History repeats itself I guess.
March 23rd 2010 @ 11:15am
Roger Rational said | March 23rd 2010 @ 11:15am | Report comment
Steve McClaren ticks all the boxes. His FC Twente team are currently dominating Ajax and Feyenoord – unbelieveable for such a small club. He has experience of international football. He’s fluent in English obviously. He now has experience of Dutch methods. He’s widely admired for being a superb tracksuit coach – no less than Alex Ferguson hired him at United.
He’d definitely be a smart choice.
March 23rd 2010 @ 11:24am
Dogz R Barkn said | March 23rd 2010 @ 11:24am | Report comment
Fos would fall of his chair at the mere mention of a British name.
March 23rd 2010 @ 12:07pm
Joe FC said | March 23rd 2010 @ 12:07pm | Report comment
Maybe we should give it to Fos, at least there’d be fewer complaints concerning the national coach’s tactics.
March 23rd 2010 @ 4:30pm
Jeb said | March 23rd 2010 @ 4:30pm | Report comment
It would be priceless to see fos and les spitting chips if an anglo was even considered for the job. It’d make things interesting that’s for sure.
March 23rd 2010 @ 4:33pm
AndyRoo said | March 23rd 2010 @ 4:33pm | Report comment
Hunts down an FFA letterhead…. off to do some photshop work
“FFA announce Butchers return to Australia as the new Socceroos coach and technical director”
March 23rd 2010 @ 4:40pm
Jeb said | March 23rd 2010 @ 4:40pm | Report comment
ha, ha
March 23rd 2010 @ 11:33am
AndyRoo said | March 23rd 2010 @ 11:33am | Report comment
Interesting one Roger and some good points.
March 23rd 2010 @ 11:50am
Art Sapphire said | March 23rd 2010 @ 11:50am | Report comment
Being a good club manager does automatically make you a good national manager.
Steve McClaren failed dismally as England national manager.
March 23rd 2010 @ 1:28pm
Realfootball said | March 23rd 2010 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
He was a mediocre club manager in the Premier League, but agree. National team coaching is a different ballgame.
March 23rd 2010 @ 1:30pm
James said | March 23rd 2010 @ 1:30pm | Report comment
Really? Thought he did ok with Boro and poor with England. Didn’t he get Boro to a UEFA Cup final?
March 23rd 2010 @ 1:50pm
Realfootball said | March 23rd 2010 @ 1:50pm | Report comment
You could argue that he did well with limited resources – hey, he’s sounding more and more like the man for our NT.
March 23rd 2010 @ 12:19pm
James said | March 23rd 2010 @ 12:19pm | Report comment
Who would be the leading Aussie candidates? Not many is there. Real shame but it says a lot about the standard of coaching in Oz.
March 23rd 2010 @ 12:33pm
Towser said | March 23rd 2010 @ 12:33pm | Report comment
Thats why we have the National curriculum. Bit from it about coaches:-
Gap F: Ability of Elite Coaches
On average, Australian coaches available for elite youth development and
for State and national competition teams have less relevant experience and
consequently less expertise than their counterparts in top football countries.
Australia has some good coaches but it can boast few world-class coaches
comparable to those commonly found in the best football nations.
There is a ‘chicken and egg’ dynamic at work:
➢ top players and top teams need top coaches
➢ but top coaches emerge over time from extensive experience with top
players, top teams and top competitions
➢ since Australia has lacked top competitions, there has been limited
development of its coaches, despite their potential.
This constraint has been partially offset by the very high standards of
coaching generally at the AIS combined with the infusion of some high
quality coaches from overseas either as migrants or short-term appointments.
Nonetheless, Australia’s capacity to be an internationally competitive football
nation will continue to be severely constrained until it can self-generate a
substantial body of world-class development and competition coaches.
FFA National Curriculum
March 23rd 2010 @ 1:48pm
Ben of Phnom Penh said | March 23rd 2010 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
Scott O’Donnel is coaching Cambodia, he may be worth having along as an assistant
March 23rd 2010 @ 12:35pm
whiskeymac said | March 23rd 2010 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
roy hodgson? very impressive international and national resume….
March 23rd 2010 @ 1:14pm
James said | March 23rd 2010 @ 1:14pm | Report comment
Martin O’Neill? He’s performed wonders at Villa and did the job at Celtic.
March 23rd 2010 @ 12:56pm
Marshall said | March 23rd 2010 @ 12:56pm | Report comment
As someone mentioned before the bigger question that the coach is about who the next generation of Socceroos will be and whether they can keep the momentum going.
March 23rd 2010 @ 1:36pm
Realfootball said | March 23rd 2010 @ 1:36pm | Report comment
I for one am vastly relieved to hear that Verbeek isn’t running for a second term. Those who fall back on the old “he got us to the World Cup” mantra ignore the fact that so would have a lot of other coaches, and with a team that played football that was watchable instead of the football under Verbeek, which was like watching the suds cycle through the glass of a front loading washing machine, only not as quick.
And as for his attitude to the A-League, it was one of unbounded and unjustified arrogance that damaged our domestic game – and this from a man who has only coached clubs in Japan – and he didn’t even do well in those jobs. God help the supporters of his next club gig. Stand by to be bored insensible.
If he can coach us out of the first round in South Africa, however, I will forgive him all his sins.
March 23rd 2010 @ 1:54pm
Hammer said | March 23rd 2010 @ 1:54pm | Report comment
Rikki Herbert ?
March 23rd 2010 @ 2:01pm
Davstar said | March 23rd 2010 @ 2:01pm | Report comment
what ever you’re smoking i want some
March 23rd 2010 @ 2:04pm
James said | March 23rd 2010 @ 2:04pm | Report comment
Doesn’t a Kiwi coach the Wallabies?
March 23rd 2010 @ 2:12pm
Hammer said | March 23rd 2010 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
it was a joke lads
March 23rd 2010 @ 2:19pm
Joe FC said | March 23rd 2010 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
It was a good one.
March 23rd 2010 @ 2:20pm
Davstar said | March 23rd 2010 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
1st off no one who is coaching in a top league and is semi-sucessful will quite a club job to coach Australian. So Maritne O’Neill etc are all out. Frank Rijkaard is out of contract this season with Gala. That being said they will probably be re-signing him since they have more money in club the our Whole FFA and A-league combined.
Neverless he has coached Barcelona, Holland and Gala which are all massive teams with fairly notatable levels of success. He is dutch which fits in well to our dutch copy cat system and his worked with bot Kewell and Neill so his got an idea of how it’s to work with Australian’s.
Also we would have contacts in high places such Barcelona or other club in spain and holland to send some of our young promising players to those clubs.
That ‘s the coach we should get imo or something very similar no matter the cost
March 23rd 2010 @ 4:45pm
Jeb said | March 23rd 2010 @ 4:45pm | Report comment
in addition Davstar, isn’t Johan Neeskens his assistant at Gala? I’m sure they were together at Barca. So that’s potentially another link to australia when you think of neeskens time here with guus.
March 23rd 2010 @ 2:59pm
Realfootball said | March 23rd 2010 @ 2:59pm | Report comment
I think we have to be resigned to a second or third tier coach – or someone with a track record old enough to be in it for the challenge. Most likely we will get a relative unknown. The problem is that Australia is a football backwater and our code is well down the pecking order. Would anyone leave an elite European or Sth American comp for that? Not likely.
Sadly, barring a not so minor miracle, Verbeek is about the level of track record (ie, limited at best) that our status, resources and tyranny of distance will attract.
March 23rd 2010 @ 4:23pm
David V. said | March 23rd 2010 @ 4:23pm | Report comment
And what of Asian and African countries who attract a better calibre of coach? Many of them don’t have the resources either!
March 24th 2010 @ 10:52am
Realfootball said | March 24th 2010 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Well, for a start they are football cultures, not a culture where football has to bow down to 3 other football codes. Secondly, they are close to Europe in terms of both time zones and distance compared to Australia. Thirdly, Africa produces some of the most potent footballers in the world game -wonderful natural talents. We don’t that either. Fourthly, the African nations cup is a genuinely inspiring comp, worlds ahead of the Asian Cup. Fifthly, countries like Nigeria in fact have huge natural resources wealth that stays coralled by the rich few but which can be used for foreign football coaches. Africa is not uniformly poor – it is more a question of who has the wealth.
Enough?
March 25th 2010 @ 1:32pm
David V. said | March 25th 2010 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
Those things yes, but I once heard a Malian talk of how miraculous it was to produce so much talent given the squandering of resources by the state, or that the meagre resources were consumed by those in charge. There are countries in Asia and Africa (and Europe mind you) where football is chronically mismanaged or chronically underfunded, but they don’t reflect on everything.