- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Ange Postecoglou is not the man for the job.
That’s my opinion. That, however, is not my issue.
FFA has shown that, as an organisation, it is vulnerable to the influences of public opinion and media opinion.
I find it hard to understand why FFA have seemingly succumbed to the public clamour for an Australian coach to be appointed head of the national team, when it defies all technical and tactical basis for doing so.
There are clearly more qualified and prepared foreign coaches available to oversee the run in to the Copa do Mundo, but the weak manner in which the public and certain public figures have veraciously called for an Australian coach simply because of emotion has really saddened me.
Once again, I am left with an unfulfilled longing to see a true technician appointed to lead a team I care deeply about.
I want a coach who can pioneer and revolutionise the national team.
I want a coach who will leave a legacy for the national team. I want a coach who can teach our young players.
I want the best coach, we can possibly attain. The best coach we can possibly attain cannot be found in Australia. It is as simple as that.
We, as patrons of football in this country, have the task to pursue what is in the best interest of the game. We must ensure that we strive for the best at all times. We must ensure that we strive for the best at all times. I repeated that sentence because I believe it.
Can you say with utter conviction that FFA is striving for the best? Postecoglou – is he the best coach that we can strive for? Definitely not.
I am Australian and I have lived in Sydney my whole life.
However, in terms of feeling like an Australian, I am far from a patriot.
I cringe whenever I hear someone accuse Holger Osieck of lacking passion. I cringe even more whenever I hear someone believe that an Australian coach will “fix” the problem.
What is this problem they are referring to? Lack of passion? Lack of pride in the Aussie shirt?
These same people who accuse Holger for lacking passion and pride are the same ones who accuse Lucas Neill of, effectively, having too much pride in the shirt to not want to retire.
No matter how poor his form or your opinion of him as a player, it is his damn right to want to continue playing for Australia and lead them into the World Cup.
My gripe is not with Ange himself – I think he is a very good coach and he certainly has my respect. My issue comes with the process in which FFA has engaged in order to find a new coach. I did not hear of any reports suggesting that David Gallop had sought to contact any foreign coaches apart from Hiddink.
We must ask ourselves why had we not heard a single media report suggesting we had even attempted, let alone succeeded, in contacting any number of coaches apart from the three Australian candidates.
Is it too much to ask for to cast the net as wide as possible in the hope of snaring a massive fish?
In my mind, it is utterly incomprehensible how we have, as a “football family”, come to the conclusion that an Australian coach will restore pride in the national team and that somehow is the silver bullet to end our poor performance misery.
I had falsely believed that we had grown wiser and more thoughtful in our analysis of football in this country. Emotional outbursts by media personalities and fans alike do not concur with the maturity that is required to aid ourselves when we decide the next steps.
Sophisticated and reasoned discussion by the calmer and articulate patron has lost out to the brasher and impetuous fool. Take a lesson from this episode in Australian football – we must stop thinking with our hearts and start thinking with our heads.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.