No coach, no owners: back to square one for Adelaide

Columnist

By Adrian Musolino, 4 Jun 2010 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: A-League, ACL, Adelaide United, Asian Champions League, Aurelio Vidmar, Dave Mitchell, FFA, football, Iain Ferguson, Olyroos

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Australian soccer club team Adelaide United FC coach Aurelio Vidmar, left, and midfielder Travis Dodd.

From the heights of their impressive performance to reach the knockout stages of the Asian Champions League to the lows of having to find a new coach and their prospective owners pulling out of the club, Adelaide United is back to square one and faces another season of doom in the A-League.

It was a bitter day for the club.

First, Aurelio Vidmar announced he was off to greener pastures at the FFA in the dual-role of Olyroos coach and assistant with the Socceroos.

The news may have been met with a mixed response from Adelaide United fans, but you could sense an overwhelming feeling of relief that the split had happened and was painless.

Vidmar remains an enigma in Adelaide: a success in the Asian Champions League showing an ability to adapt his team to the higher tactical demands of playing Asia’s best, yet unable to halt United’s slide from grand finalist’s to the wooden spoon in one season at home.

His counter-attacking style may have suited Asia, but it proved debilitating on the domestic front when the club incredulously sold off key midfielders and brought in players which so clearly didn’t fit the Vidmar system (Lloyd Owusu). His inability to adapt and change this system to the changing circumstances in the A-League saw the fans turn against him and is the reason why many of them breathed a sigh of relief at yesterday’s news.

His style simply didn’t suit the A-League, particularly with the team he and the club put together for the season just past (financial restraints considered), and even when he did take them to the grand final it was with a frustrating inability to score regularly in a season with no other genuine contenders apart from Melbourne Victory (and we know the edge they have over Adelaide United).

His persona was also an enigma, and while he could be approachable and well-mannered on the one hand, his numerous public outbursts, most famously this tirade (which should have cost him his job), damaged the club.

It was time for him to move on and following his and predecessor John Kosmina’s reign, it’s time for the club to find someone who will have a positive influence on the club’s off-field demeanor, as well as its performances on-field.

While assistant Phil Stubbins is the fan-favourite for the top job, his strained relationship with key Adelaide United players is well known in the city and could stop him getting the gig.

While the club boasted of a worldwide search for a replacement (they aren’t fooling anyone), Perth Glory’s Dave Mitchell is the leading candidate, with Iain Ferguson ready to take Mitchell’s place out west.

Mitchell won’t revolutionise how Adelaide United play football and his potential success or failure may well be out of his hands.

Which brings us to the second wallop of the day, which was the news the Alan Young consortium, which was set to takeover the club, has pulled out leaving the FFA to take back control and start again in the search for new owners.

The news wasn’t a complete shock. Speculation had been growing of issues relating to the handover, and the deafening silence from Young was a major concern.

While the particulars of why the deal feel apart remain a mystery, the concern for the FFA (in addition to the fact they now have to prop up another club) and the South Australian football community is the lack of any white knight on the horizon.

The FFA’s wish for local interests to control the club is a noble one, but Adelaide is hardly flush with millionaires out to burn some cash on a football club, and a community owned club with members acting as stakeholders seems far off, with the way the club has been run so conservatively and traditionally hardly conducive to such a radical structure. And, at the end of the day, Adelaide is simply not a big enough market for such a structure.

For the loyal fans, it’s a bitter blow. The promise shown in the ACL had expectations high for the coming A-League season, with redemption very much in their mind following last season’s embarrassing wooden spoon.

Now it seems the ingredients of that success will soon evaporate with key players expected to follow Vidmar out the door with the club’s future yet again clouded and the FFA not in a position to fund big name signings (and re-signings).

It’s remarkable that a club with the most stable, healthy and loyal supporter base in the league faces such dilemmas and key questions must be asked of key personnel within the backroom.

Thankfully the club has the support of Adelaide and a committed fan base otherwise they would be in an even worse predicament.

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The Crowd Says (30) | Page 1 of Comments

rovers2011 said | June 4th 2010 @ 7:30am | Report comment

I guess if Fury can manage a ‘worldwide search’ its not beyond Adelaide, especially with their success in the ACL. There was no shortage of interest at least in the NQ job.

On the Young bid, have read some comments from AU fans that it was related to the new owner group wanting to play more at the cricket oval rather than Hindmarsh. Which wasn’t popular with the established crowd there. And something about the bid wanting a 24 month transition to full ownership.

Lets see on the players. They have a good couple of attackers now which was what they were lacking. Bring a coach in that fits that group and it may not all be doom and gloom.

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ItsCalledFootball said | June 4th 2010 @ 9:08am | Report comment

The sticking point was a 2 year transition to hold their hands.
Come on, if you’re really serious about owning a football club, roll up your sleeves and get stuck in and make it work yourself.

Despite all their problems AU have a good set up and fan base and have the potential to do much better this season.

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Phutbol said | June 4th 2010 @ 9:16am | Report comment

Back to square one, or a chance at a fresh new start? all depends on how you look at it.

with the crowd support and relatively (one would imagine??) low cost of running games at Hindmarsh, surely AU would be losing less money, or closer to profit than most A-league teams wouldnt it?

Last point, if Fury can run a community based structure with its population base, why cant Adelaide?

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Kazama said | June 4th 2010 @ 9:20am | Report comment

We are in big trouble.

We are a reasonably successful team who have had more exposure in Asia than any other A-League side. We have a stable supporter base, which says something in a city where the fans are known for being extremely fickle. Yet, no one wants to own us. The best we can manage for a major sponsor is Jim’s Plumbing.

We have only the limited resources of the cash-strapped FFA to spend on finding a new coach. Ultimately, the world-wide search will find us not a Lavicka or a van’t Schip, but instead a Stubbins, a Mitchell, or worse, a state league coach.

Also with little money we will not be able to replace Jamieson or Marrone, the latter being one of the few bright spots of last season. Griffiths allegedly wants to stay, but if we can’t offer him a worthwhile contract, he will go too. While the squad has been improved by the additions of van Dijk and Flores, it is worth keeping in mind we were dead last in the previous season. With all of the other clubs (save for the Fury) improving their squads, and the addition of a strong team from Melbourne, I’m afraid unless we can find some money to spend on a couple of key signings we will be heading for the spoon again. Yes, we have a good supporter base, but I don’t think even they will tolerate back to back falied campaigns, and that is exactly the path we are headed down unless a new owner suddenly emerges in the next couple of weeks to save us.

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Realfootball said | June 4th 2010 @ 9:36am | Report comment

I don’t understand how Vidmar gets the Olyroos job on his record. A deeply, deeply flawed coach.

Mitchell would be a disastrous appointment – he has done nothing with one of the best squads in the comp. How he kept his job at Perth is a mystery. Farina would be a far better appointment – he’s a tough, experienced coach who can get the best out of his players. He proved that at the Roar. As for Ferguson taking over from Mitchell at Perth, surely you must be joking. After all he has spent on his players, Sage will want a much more highly credentialed coach than a career assistant.

Perhaps Paul Okon would fit the frame at Adelaide? A Socceroos legend, and he survived Train Wreck Bleiberg. Anyone sacked by Miron must have ability.

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- Smokygrayson said | June 4th 2010 @ 10:00am | Report comment
  
  Okon or Farina would be fine for the reds. Either one might bring a breath of fresh air to the usually stifling tactics.The real problem is finding owners.
  
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mahony said | June 4th 2010 @ 9:39am | Report comment

Football in Adelaide will be fine. It is too strong on a whole lot of community levels and while it might take a while to sort out the ownership – the FFA have got few of these restructures wrong. Perth = tick. NQF = tick. Wellington/Knights = tick. My hat goes off to the people of Adelaide for their continuing commitment to the club.

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apaway said | June 4th 2010 @ 9:51am | Report comment

So Vidmar is leaving the “piss-ant” town? I don’t think he’s a bad choice for the Olyroos. As for a replacement, what about Alex Tobin?

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Ben of Phnom Penh said | June 4th 2010 @ 10:02am | Report comment

The club has ambitions for Asia so the coach will need to be someone who reflects that.

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AndrewM said | June 4th 2010 @ 10:04am | Report comment

Adrian you paint such a depressing picture but i don’t agree with you at all. Adelaide have good players, great support and whilst they have lost what I believe to be a good coach, they will find a replacement and move on.

I also believe that adelaide with 1 million people is more than big enough to support a community backed model.. This is how it works in the bundesliga AND Bayern Munich, is a city of 1.3 million. Quite similiar to adeliade.

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- Realfootball said | June 4th 2010 @ 10:35am | Report comment
  
  Munich has a population of 5.2 million, actually.
  
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AndyRoo said | June 4th 2010 @ 11:02am | Report comment

I would just give the job too Tony Vidmar.

Couldn’t be worse than Mitchell and would be cheaper.

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- Kazama said | June 4th 2010 @ 11:27am | Report comment
  
  As much as I admire and respect Tony Vidmar, I think we really want a coach like Lavicka or van’t Schip. Our fans have become accustomed to playing in Asia, and as Ben notes above, our coaching appointment really needs to follow that. The worry I have is that with no owners we won’t be able to attract or afford a coach of that calibre on the limited, FFA-provided resources we have at our disposal.
  
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  - AndyRoo said | June 4th 2010 @ 11:34am | Report comment
    
    I only nominated Tony Vidmar because of the possible financial constraits. If they have 3 or 4 hundred thousand for a coach they could get some one from Europe (Sydney’s old coach is in the frame). But if they don’t have any money and their talking about David Mitchell….. Tony Vidmar seems pretty good
    
    Edit: Really hope Adelaide pull themselves together or the Friday night TV schedule is looking pretty depressing for us neutrals.
    
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    - Kazama said | June 4th 2010 @ 11:47am | Report comment
      
      Yeah, I understand that. For sure, I would take Tony Vidmar over Mitchell. Fortunately Mitchell was only mentioned in The Agonizer (the local rag), so hopefully they are way off the mark as usual. But, with no owners I don’t see how we can cough up the money for a coach to match our ambitions. If we sign someone like Vidmar T then clearly our aims have dropped from being a title contender to being a team hoping to scrape into the finals… that’s not what the people of Adelaide expect from this club.
      
      Reply