Victory bungle their brand new dawn
Columnist By Davidde Corran, 24 Nov 2011 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert
Archie Thompson of Melbourne Victory FC and Seb Van Den Brink of Perth Glory FC. AAP Image/Martin Philbey
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“This club is not in crisis,” claimed Melbourne Victory chief executive Richard Wilson on Tuesday after the announcement that technical director Francis Awaritefe had parted ways with the club.
But here’s the thing: the football director should be the most important role at any football club. If he leaves just four months after he is appointed than your club is indeed in something of a crisis.
If that’s not enough, the continuing pressure on Mehmet Durakovic has been amplified by the latest developments out of the Harry Kewell camp.
With former Argentina international Abel Balbo set to become Kewell’s “personal mentor” and reports long time agent Bernie Mandic has split with the Socceroos superstar, a sense of uncertainty has gripped the Victory.
So what’s going on at the A-League’s self-proclaimed biggest club?
Personally, I worry a litany of errors and missteps have been made due to a lack of experience and football knowledge at management level.
Earlier this year Victory’s still relatively new board trumpeted the announcement of head coach Mehmet Durakovic plus assistants Kevin Muscat and Steve Mautone as a home-grown managerial team of the future. So far this hope has yet to materialize.
Coupled with Awaritefe finding his way in his first role as director of football, there’s just too much inexperience across the board.
Then you have the sheer weight of character and influence that came with Kewell and Mandic’s arrival. It has seemed to me for a while that the Victory hoped to treat the 33-year-old just like everyone else in the squad, while Mandic had other ideas.
Now Victory must both manage to return a sense of calmness to the club and also continue the search for Awaritefe’s replacement. Though in the long-term, the latter option is be far the most important issue.
There’s a line to be drawn between what’s happening at AAMI Park and enlightening comments this week from legendary Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi about the state of the Italian national team.
“When you build a skyscraper, you make really strong foundations – if you don’t make the foundations you will never see the skyscraper,” Sacchi told The Guardian.
“If you build a shed, you don’t need those foundations but it will never be an important building… in the end the national team is only ever the last beneficiary of whatever work has been done at the outset. If something starts badly, it will not end well.”
The new Victory board has got off to a very shaky start, but it’s not too late to rescue their blue and white revolution.
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- A-League, Bernie Mandic, football, Francis Awaritefe, Harry Kewell, melbouren victory
November 24th 2011 @ 7:51am
The Cattery said | November 24th 2011 @ 7:51am | Report comment
That’s a good quote from Arrigo Sacchi, can be applied to a variety of contexts. Said another way – the basics must always be right. Ange’s Roar is flying because above all, he got the basics right first and foremost.
November 24th 2011 @ 8:46am
Realfootball said | November 24th 2011 @ 8:46am | Report comment
Spot on re. the Roar. No marquees, just carefully chosen players and a vision for how the game should be played.
November 24th 2011 @ 9:01am
TomC said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:01am | Report comment
That used to be the Victory!
Melbourne’s recruiting policy in the first few seasons was to ignore the big name marquees in favour of effective players. Now everything about the club seems to have changed.
November 24th 2011 @ 8:13am
agga78 said | November 24th 2011 @ 8:13am | Report comment
Big clubs around the world in every league nearly always appoint an experience manager with a proven record, Melbourne have gone for 2 inexperienced coaches and are paying the price for giving jobs for the boys. If a proven manager had come in like Ange or jan versleijen who Melbourne did interview Muscat may well of been punted.
Muscat’s influence at my club has seen a successful club turn into a rabble in the last 2 seasons, not only did Muscat play on 2 years too long now he is basically running the football team with Memhet a puppet up the front.
The best thing Melbourne can do now is sack both Memhet and more inportantly Muscat and start fresh with a proven manager who can bring in his own team and get rid of the dead would such Pondlehack, Celeski, Allsop, Vargas, and some who are still good players like Brebner and Hernandez who’s time at the club is probably up.
November 24th 2011 @ 8:28am
The Cattery said | November 24th 2011 @ 8:28am | Report comment
agga
Interesting comments. We have to remember that in the Victory’s successful seasons, seasons 2, 4 and 5, Muscat’s shadow loomed large at all times, but it appeared to be a partnership with Ernie that worked very, very well, recalling that Muscat was an Assistant Manager during this time, as well as being the team captain – so Ernie had his right hand man out there on the field – you cannot understate the importance of that in any way.
At the time his influence was massive, but his leadership during those successful years were part and parce of the deal.
Now that he has stopped playing, he is effectively managing blokes who he played with for many years – which is always an iffy proposition, probably not the best idea.
We see in the AFL that newly retired players with coaching aspirations are often encouraged ot work as assistants at other clubs, this has two benefits:
1. they are starting their coaching careers dealing with players they have not played with as team mates; and more importantly
2. they are picking up tips and pointers from a club that does things differently to what they are used to, adding to their store of knowledge and challenging pre-held ideas they may have had.
November 24th 2011 @ 8:39am
Rellum said | November 24th 2011 @ 8:39am | Report comment
Football people should keep an eye on how Mark Neeld goes at the Demons this year. He has done the sort of apprenticeship that I think all A-League managers should do. If Muscat wants to be a successful manager of the Victory in the future then he should have gone off and done his badges away from the club. Then got a gig in the VPL and learn his trade there. Only if he is successful at that level playing a certain style should he then be considered for an role with an A-League club.
Trying to manage players he played with is a recipe for disaster.
November 24th 2011 @ 9:10am
Delije Sever said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:10am | Report comment
It’s about money. He won’t go to another A-League club or VPL team as he gets a nice package at Melbourne. He knows he won’t ever make it as a senior manager and so stays on the gravy train until someone pushes him out.
November 24th 2011 @ 9:38am
The Cattery said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:38am | Report comment
I don’t think you can say unequivocally that Muskie “won’t ever make it as a senior manager”, especially if we’re only talking A-League level, that’s far too early to call.
But I agree with you that it’s that little bit harder to get that broader experience in the A-League, Muskie would have to cop a massive drop in revenue to peddle his wares around the VPL, although I wonder whether the door would ever be open for an assistant’s role at another club?
November 24th 2011 @ 9:38am
Lucan said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:38am | Report comment
Muscat craves the bright lights and exposure of the HAL. He’s too proud and stubborn to do a stint in the state leagues.
Sucks for him. He’d be a better coach if he did the hard yards, like he had to as a player.
November 24th 2011 @ 9:51am
TomC said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:51am | Report comment
I’m so sick of posts like this. People who confidently proclaim that Muscat is too arrogant, stubborn, violent, etc…
Have you met the guy, Lucan? Do you have any first hand experience of his personal qualities? No? Then stop commenting on them.
He wasn’t too ‘proud’ to come back to the A-league after all. Hardly ‘bright lights and exposure’ in 05/06.
November 24th 2011 @ 10:20am
Lucan said | November 24th 2011 @ 10:20am | Report comment
I have met the guy. And in recent years I’ve seen him acting “big man on campus” at many a VPL game.
Thanks for playing, TomC.
November 24th 2011 @ 10:57am
Realfootball said | November 24th 2011 @ 10:57am | Report comment
He came back to the A-League at 32, when he was washed up at second tier level in the UK. He hardly came back nobly, at the top of his game, for the sake of Australian football.
He was only ever a second tier journeyman player at best. At worst (Dugarry, Zahra) he was a butcher of the worst kind.
The A-League was well rid of him by the end.
November 24th 2011 @ 12:33pm
TomC said | November 24th 2011 @ 12:33pm | Report comment
What, you met him for five minutes and watched him from afar at a VPL game? Oh yeah, sounds like you’re totally in a position to psychoanalyse the bloke.
He captained Millwall in the FA Cup final months before he signed with the Victory. He was comfortably the Victory’s best player in season 1, in the top handful for the next four seasons (including two doubles).
He certainly played at least one season too long, but there’s no doubt he was a very talented footballer. And as the long-term captain of the A-league’s most successful club, with 51 national team caps there’s no doubt he has contributed a lot to the sport in this country.
Personally, I don’t like his public persona. I don’t like the way he goes about things. I doubt he’s having a positive influence on the club at the moment. But the way people just make these sweeping assumptions about him, or revise his history to make it seem like he was a talentless hack, is just ridiculous.
November 24th 2011 @ 12:45pm
The Cattery said | November 24th 2011 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
I’m backing up TomC here. In those championship winning teams, Muscat was a colussus for the club on and off the field. The Ernie/Muskie partnership was critical to their success – anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Sure, Muskie occasionally rubbed people up the wrong way, even weeded some out of the club (like Ljubo), some might say his influence was too great, maybe, but it’s precisely that influence and leadership that delivered two doubles to Melbourne, and nearly a third championship.
November 24th 2011 @ 3:17pm
Realfootball said | November 24th 2011 @ 3:17pm | Report comment
Sorry Tom, he didn’t captain Millwall in that cup final. He was injured, sadly for him.
November 25th 2011 @ 7:44am
Lucan said | November 25th 2011 @ 7:44am | Report comment
TomC, you asked me a question and I gave you an answer.
Seem that isn’t good enough for you, so cards on the table, I was school friends with some of his family and have met him numerous times. I’ve seen him play football at Bergers, at South, MV, and numerous times for the ‘Roos and the national youth sides. I was a foundation member at MV, and even saw Muscat in social settings outside of football.
November 26th 2011 @ 10:28am
TomC said | November 26th 2011 @ 10:28am | Report comment
Well then it seems I’m the one who shouldn’t be making assumptions about people I don’t know! Still, it was a pretty nasty post, Lucan.
And yes, RF, my memory was playing tricks on me. Nonetheless, it’s completely untrue to say he was a second tier journeyman at best. He certainly had other options available to him.
Muscat has become the whipping boy for football fans in this country who get a visceral thrill from anonymously picking on football players on internet forums. I am genuinely worried that his achievements, and by extension the MV’s achievements, will be played down in years to come because of this constant criticism. I think the VIctory and Muscat have set a legacy worth defending.
November 24th 2011 @ 9:03am
Delije Sever said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:03am | Report comment
“So what’s going on at the A-League’s self-proclaimed biggest club?” It’s not self proclaimed, it’s fact!
November 24th 2011 @ 12:35pm
Axelv said | November 24th 2011 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
Victory might be the biggest club, but self proclaiming it is arrogance, everyone knows Barcelona is the best team in the world but I don’t recall them telling everyone about it.
November 24th 2011 @ 9:06am
Midfielder said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:06am | Report comment
Classic case, new and unproven board… appoints new and unproven coaches …
Total clean out ….
November 24th 2011 @ 9:12am
TomC said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:12am | Report comment
Excellent article Davidde.
As someone who has been a member of the Victory since its inception, I have to see the club is unrecognisable this season.
November 24th 2011 @ 9:49am
CrossIT said | November 24th 2011 @ 9:49am | Report comment
From what I hear Mandic was trying to force Balbo down Victory’s throat, and after the Perth game, Mandic went in for the kill to get him the gig as Head Coach or football director, and after both were turned down he went to the media claiming he was now Kewells “personal coach” as if to undermine the Victory’s position and hopefully manipulate the situtation so Balbo would be demanded by the fans, which would essentially hold MV to ransom. Kewell saw this as him being used, and jeopardized Harry’s place in the Victory set up, and was the final straw in what had become a strained relationship between the two.
Kewell has done the right thing in this situation and should be commended (although he won’t) about putting the Victory before his relationship with Bernie, it was quite a bitter break up from all reports. So lets see some football now H aye?
November 24th 2011 @ 10:11am
The Cattery said | November 24th 2011 @ 10:11am | Report comment
That’s looking like what happened.
People have to remember that Harry has good links with the key figures in the Victory: he’s known Arch since his junior days and they are socceroo team mates, he and Muskie played in two failed Socceroo WC qualifying series, and when Harry debuted as a Socceroo, Mehm was either in the team, or at the very least, in the same squad.
So I’d have no doubt that Harry would want it to work, for a host of reasons, least of which his genuine personal relationships with these key figures, and he himself has started well enough, without setting the world on fire.
But things haven’t gone well, and from the outside looking in, MV at the moment does have the appearance of being in meltdown. As others have stated, and it’s hard to argue against, a combo of inexperienced board and inexperienced coaching team does not augur well.
November 24th 2011 @ 10:58am
Delije Sever said | November 24th 2011 @ 10:58am | Report comment
Sorry but the business acumen of the people on the board is very high. Some of them have been at the club for some years so to say they are inexperinced is a cop out. Ian McCleod has just earnt $15m turning Coles around, I’m sure he has transferrable skills that can be applied to a football club. Even more so since he was CEO of Celtic!
November 24th 2011 @ 11:43am
The Cattery said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:43am | Report comment
Yeh, and yet Di Pietro looks so young and eager, full of optimism, big promises, big noise, and selects a pretty mediocre coaching group.
November 24th 2011 @ 11:52am
CrossIT said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:52am | Report comment
Well to be honest Di Pietro isn’t really the problem, yes the buck stops at him, but he’s done very well securing huge sponsorship dollars, securing the funds to sign Kewell, and put on some great events like the Kewell shirt preso and from all reports he’s a driving force behind the new TV rights deal. Its the Chief Executives job to hire/interview/research the staff, and frankly, Richard Wilson should be looked at very closely.
November 24th 2011 @ 12:50pm
The Cattery said | November 24th 2011 @ 12:50pm | Report comment
Fair enough – but with the Board setting out a plan to make the Victory even bigger and more successful than it has already been (which is quite ambitious I might add), I find it hard to believe that the board would have left the most critical of all appointments entirely to the CEO.
In fact, after all the bluster we heard during the off-season, how did the Board react when the decision came through that they were giving the most important job in the club to their youth coach?
Yeh, fine, no worries, good choice….
November 24th 2011 @ 11:59am
trent said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:59am | Report comment
Not sure how Kewell can be blamed for Victory’s woes. I blame the blundering manager and the board that installed him. We’ve all seen his interviews and press conferences – can you imagine Mehmet fronting the board and convincing them he’s the best man for the job? Did alarm bells not ring at the time? I cringe for my club every time that man’s on camera.
The other issue is an ageing list with a number of players not up to scratch. Pondeljak was finished years ago and is simply not good enough, so why pick him? Celeski seems to have lost his mojo and Kemp also hasn’t been the same since his knee injury. All three should go and free up some cash and squad positions.
Broxham and Brebner can stay but are not good enough as midfield lynchpins in a title chasing team, they’re merely squad members or back ups. We need at least one quality midfielder to link the defence and attack.
Rojas’ form on Sunday was worrying as he seems to be affected by the goings-on at the club. Instead of leaving him on the bench, start him, along with Solorzano and a few youngsters such as Jeggo, Diogo, Franjic and Foschini. These young blokes will be hungry and keen to perform, unlike the team that started last Sunday.
November 24th 2011 @ 11:01am
Delije Sever said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:01am | Report comment
So Mandic has lost his Golden Goose.
November 24th 2011 @ 10:21am
Sky Blue said | November 24th 2011 @ 10:21am | Report comment
We chose……. wisely. (For once).
November 24th 2011 @ 10:40am
Roarchild said | November 24th 2011 @ 10:40am | Report comment
It’s just weird to be so adamant about moving on from two times champion Merrick, but then replacing him with his juniors.
If they didn’t like Merricks style then the appointments of Musky and Mehm don’t make sense …. I guess it’s possible they have a strong preference for a different style that isn’t apparent to fans but I’m not seing anything out on the field.
And if they didn’t have a problem with merricks style why sack him?
Last year the team had quite a few injuries and they stillmade the finals and produced a new Soccero in Kruise (who may have been capped before but not for the full team).
November 24th 2011 @ 11:05am
Delije Sever said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:05am | Report comment
Ernie and Cole were sacked because they recruited Ricardhinio as a Marquee.
November 24th 2011 @ 10:48am
CrossIT said | November 24th 2011 @ 10:48am | Report comment
It’s difficult to put a finger exactly on what’s going on. It’s easy to say inexperience looking at the Management team in there, but I believe it’s more the consequence of several poor/ill-advised decisions made over the last 12 months at the club.
It all started with Victory’s insane decision to resign the oldest/most out of form midfield combo in the competition, Pondles, Brebner, Celski, throw in there the questionable resigning of Alsopp, the brain explosions of Vargas, and the injury plague Kemp, and you have yourself an team, while mammoth in season 2 & 4, are out of date. I can’t remember what game it was, I think it was the Mariners game, but someone made the point that bar Thomas, the team was the exact same lineup that played the Mariners 3 years before, and if that is the case then it screams a team who have become, stale, slow and lacking creativity, which funnily enought is the exact criticism of how they have been playing.
Couple this with the woeful performances of the Youth Side and the letting go of prodigy’s such as Dugandzic and you have an side with no prospect of upcoming talent, no vigour, and no hope. Compound the fact with a coach who has quite clearly no idea of how to best use his stars, (Harry at the point, and Archie on the wing, are you kidding!!) and the problem only gets worse.
I could go on all day haha
November 24th 2011 @ 11:15am
jmac said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:15am | Report comment
I wouldn’t know for sure, but I’ve always felt it likely Dugandzic is a smart kid who saw the writing on the wall and got out when he had the chance, rather than MV not wanting to re-sign him.
November 24th 2011 @ 11:18am
CrossIT said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:18am | Report comment
Smartest move he ever could of made in my opinion!
November 24th 2011 @ 11:34am
jmac said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:34am | Report comment
I agree. great player working now under a coach who appears a good fit for him. hope he finds the net on sunday v uzbeks too!
November 24th 2011 @ 11:45am
Luke said | November 24th 2011 @ 11:45am | Report comment
From the outside, things look pretty bad at the club. Given the events of the past day, the Victory board should make all the changes they feel necessary now, rather than dragging on this perception of crisis.
Can’t wait to see MV v GCU on the weekend. Despite their poor performance, their is always a sense of drama whenever they play – whether it be due to on-field or off-field issues. Ratings should be interesting.