Where football should import knowledge from
Columnist By Davidde Corran, 12 Jan 2012 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- A-League, football, Jim Magilton, Sassuolo Calcio
Australia's Carl Valeri tries to maintain control of the ball after stumbling as China's Zhang Yaokun and Gao Lin move in during their World Cup qualifier match at ANZ Stadium, Sydney, Sunday, June 22, 2008. AAP Image/Dean Lewins
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The announcement last Friday of former Northern Ireland international Jim Magilton as Melbourne Victory’s new coach may have the club’s board hoping for a revival of their fledgling season, but it’s also set off a discussion about the importance of importing football knowledge.
On that point, on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon at Sassuolo Calcio. A tiny little Italian club which is currently sitting two points off top spot in Italy’s Serie B and is also home to Socceroos midfielder Carl Valeri.
Hailing from a town of just 40,000 people, the club has risen up the ranks of the Italian game. Despite miniscule crowd figures, which make Gold Coast United’s look good, Sassuolo has its eyes firmly set on Serie A football in the near future.
With one of the most professional collective mindsets below Italy’s top flight, it’s entirely possible that Sassuolo will find themselves achieving this goal.
So as I sat eating lunch in the quaint local restaurant that is a favourite of the club’s players, I was thinking about the differences between life in the football environments of Australia and Italy.
Even at a club as well run as Sassuolo, the lifestyle for a player is fairly sparse and, as I finished off a stunning plate of ricotta ravioli in parmesan sauce, it occurred to me the food may be the only thing Italian football at this level has over Australia.
In other words, the biggest selling point for Australian football to foreign coaches and players is the superior lifestyle.
I’d like to see the targets of this approach hail from countries that have experience in achieving beyond their means.
One country that should be at the top of that list is Portugal – a football environment filled with coaches of an advanced technical level.
One of the great myths is that A-League clubs can’t afford this level of football expertise. Amongst the glitz and glamour of European football there does exist a bracket of coaches who are attracted to living in a sunny climate and a more welcoming professional environment.
The real challenge is finding this person and so the question then is how do we go about achieving this? For me that’s a serious discussion worth having.
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- A-League, football, Jim Magilton, Sassuolo Calcio
January 12th 2012 @ 8:05am
asanchez said | January 12th 2012 @ 8:05am | Report comment
Good article Davidde.
The top 2 paid coaches in the Chinese super league are also Portuguese. There are also many more of them in other parts of Asia right now. I’m pretty sure the coach of the Vietnam national team is also from Portugal.
For a small and economically struggling country they produce so many good players and coaches. Their youth systems are also one of the best in the world. I’m sure the A-league would be better off with some coaches from this part of the world, rather than from the Czech Republic for example.
January 12th 2012 @ 8:05am
JAJI said | January 12th 2012 @ 8:05am | Report comment
I am betting Lavicka is enjoying the summers here as opposed to the bitterly cold winters back in prague
However as we are seeing Lavicka is slowly dragging Sydney FC down with his turgid play and tactics – so choosing which knowledge to import is very important
January 12th 2012 @ 9:09am
Nephilim said | January 12th 2012 @ 9:09am | Report comment
I think the where is less important than the know how, but you do make a good point in coaches that experience achieving beyond their means, though I’m guessing a basic understanding of english is a prerequisite and could be a stalling point.
I would like a disscussion on jnr’s, when will the HAL clubs have a jnr side (say in their respective state leagues) to compliment their youth team?
January 12th 2012 @ 11:02am
Lucan said | January 12th 2012 @ 11:02am | Report comment
I’d imagine the current owners are hesistant to pump funds in the existing NYL. Juniors are a bit of a pipe dream, IMO.
The most straight-forward option would be for a HAL club to link up with an existing State League club with a proven Juniors system. Then the trick would be to agree to a philosophy and culture for the development of youth. (that, and finding a club willing to join forces)
January 12th 2012 @ 12:00pm
Nephilim said | January 12th 2012 @ 12:00pm | Report comment
My thought’s as well.
January 12th 2012 @ 9:40am
Futbanous said | January 12th 2012 @ 9:40am | Report comment
For me this is an excellent article,because of the money or to be precise lack of it in football in Australia relative to Europe generally & indeed Some of our Asian adversaries.
The need to be street wise on the world stage is therefore paramount in the way we run & operate. Think parish pump end up on the dump. It does need serious debate because like Portugal we need to compete as successfully as possible within our means.
Portugal is currently 7th on the FIFA rankings. Without much research I hazard a guess that its been up there with the big boys a fair bit in its football history.
However the nation at the moment shaping our destiny from the bottom up is the Netherlands ranked 2nd currently. Their records in European competitions look similar IMO.
So is there in these countries coaches who cut the mustard & at what level do we need them if so. Rini Coolen was Dutch & we know how that went in the A-League at AU.
Uruguay also fits the criteria mentioned by Davidde in relation to nations achieving beyond their means.
I also note another thing about these nations,they all live in the shadow of bigger neighbours Spain ,Germany & in the case of Uruguay Brazil & Argentina. Great on the doorstep incentives to keep doing well.
We have on our doorstep reasons to do well in the form of our biggest rivals in Asia Japan & Korea & if they ever get their act together China.
So do we need a sort of coaches think tank at the FFA with a scouting network that can identify suitable coaches within our budget,not just in those countries but throughout the world.
Seems to me coaches from the various parts of the old Yugoslavia do well also, many places to look,but it strikes me that an organised well researched approach is far superior to one on an ad hoc basis.
January 12th 2012 @ 11:06am
Roarchild said | January 12th 2012 @ 11:06am | Report comment
Aren’t we a bit beyond just looking at a passport?
Value for money can emerge anywhere. There are good Portugese managers and there are bad ones.
January 12th 2012 @ 11:44am
dasilva said | January 12th 2012 @ 11:44am | Report comment
I agree although I guess the point of Davidde is are when we are looking for good coaches. How far is the net being cast, are those clubs looking for coaches in portugal as well as other places that are popular today such as the netherlands and england
January 12th 2012 @ 11:34am
Bondy said | January 12th 2012 @ 11:34am | Report comment
The superior lifestyle is worded very cautiosly in your piece Davidde , i no your not suggesting, there not here to sit on Terrigal beach drinking pina colada’s .I”ve never understood why we dont continue to try and bring Argentine and Brasilian experience to Australia unless it’s just simply to expensive .
Even Os Ardiles.
January 12th 2012 @ 11:35am
George Goodison said | January 12th 2012 @ 11:35am | Report comment
Football wise administrators, at all levels is needed
January 12th 2012 @ 12:20pm
Stephen Smith said | January 12th 2012 @ 12:20pm | Report comment
We’ve already seen some of these coaches from continental Europe who are attracted to Australia’s lifestyle – Rini Coolen, Vitezslav Lavicka, Franz Straka, Pierre Littbarski. Ok, so Littbarski and Lavicka won titles, but for all the mythology surrounding these “superior football cultures” (a phrase used by a certain tv pundit to disparage any coaches of British origin in particular) they delivered little in terms of developing the game. Van’t Schip may yet prove to be the exception.
It’s also true that Butcher, Money, McMahon did precious little either. But they weren’t quite as bad as many would have you believe – Butcher and Money got clubs to the finals, while McMahon left Glory in the top four. The fact remains that Australia isn’t going to be able to attract the very top coaches, and despite this lame effort to try and sell us the dream that there are coaching whizzkids just waiting to be snapped up for peanuts in Portugal and elsewhere, the truth is they are thin on the ground and A-League clubs can rarely afford the really top level coaches. Culturally, a lot of them don’t fancy Australia either. Miles away from where football is king, and with a peculiar obsession for other sports.
The sad thing about this article is the hidden message behind it. In plain English it reads “anything but British.” A mantra a section of the football media have been promoting for years.
I say give Magilton a chance. If he’s crap, fair enough. But let’s wait and see, forget what his passport says., its a petty and simplistic argument.
January 12th 2012 @ 12:31pm
Qantas supports Australian Football said | January 12th 2012 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
Good comment Stephen—I think you have written a comment here that could be an article in its self for what we once believed is no longer the case. The Australian Football Manager is not that far off the pace. We have turned it around in the last 2 years.
January 12th 2012 @ 1:34pm
Axelv said | January 12th 2012 @ 1:34pm | Report comment
+1
Too many people regurgitate the exact words of opinions such as Foster without thinking for themselves.
January 12th 2012 @ 1:53pm
Futbanous said | January 12th 2012 @ 1:53pm | Report comment
And of course if we look at the most successful country on the planet for producing football managers , well the winner is undoubtedly Scotland. Refer below.
The 6 English Premier League Managers: Scottish sextet on the shoulders of giants
by Match of the Day on Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 6:59am
You can debate whether it’s the world’s greatest top flight, but there is no questioning the English Premier League’s status as the most cosmopolitan. No fewer than 22 different nationalities were recently represented in a single match, and there is not a single club at which internationalism does not reign.
However, when it comes to Premier League management, one nation – one city, in fact – dominates all others. It’s not, as you might expect, Manchester, Liverpool or London; actually, just three English managers currently ply their trade in their nation’s top division. Look further north, though, and you find twice that number from within a tiny 20-mile radius.
Kenny Dalglish, David Moyes, Owen Coyle, Alex McLeish, Steve Kean and Sir Alex Ferguson make for a formidable Scottish sextet, and with all six Glasgow is the common denominator. Ferguson, Dalglish, Moyes and Coyle grew up in the heart of the city, McLeish and Kean in its outlying areas, and all are continuing a long-established tradition of English football being shaped by Scottish managers.
The facts leave no room for doubt. The most successful manager in the history of both the English league and the FA Cup is a Scot. Arsenal and Chelsea’s first-ever managers were Scots, while England’s two most famous clubs owe much of their lustre to three towering figures from north of the border: Liverpool to Bill Shankly; Manchester United to Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby.
January 12th 2012 @ 9:16pm
scoutsliveintents said | January 12th 2012 @ 9:16pm | Report comment
All I see I read as ” England is the bestest and only league in Europe “. It must be all those Word and European cups you’ve won.
January 12th 2012 @ 2:22pm
Stephen Smith said | January 12th 2012 @ 2:22pm | Report comment
PS the article talks about importing from countries that have experience of “achieving beyond their means” – in which case, I would have thought Magilton is perfect, hailing (as he does) from Northern Ireland, a country that has qualified for the World Cup three times, despite a population of less than 2 million.
January 12th 2012 @ 7:40pm
gawa said | January 12th 2012 @ 7:40pm | Report comment
Out of those three World Cup appearances Northern Ireland made the quarter finals twice.
The current Sunderland and Swansea managers are also from the same part of the world.