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PRICHARD: There's no rule that says A-League must take Ronaldinho

4th January, 2016
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Brazilian star Ronaldinho is said to be headed to an unexpected club Down Under. (Alex Carvalho / Flickr)
Expert
4th January, 2016
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Plenty of people think it’s madness that an A-League club wouldn’t want to take a player like Ronaldinho if it could raise the necessary cash to pay for him, but I see it from the point of view of the coaches.

I say ‘coaches’ because when it comes to the clubs that could most likely raise the cash, it is the coaches who would have the biggest say in cases like this.

Graham Arnold at Sydney FC or Kevin Muscat at Melbourne Victory, for example.

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There has been a lot written recently about Ronaldinho’s availability for a spell in the A-League. It was too late for him to be considered as a full-season marquee man, but a stint as a 14-game guest player over the second half of the season is the reported alternative.

If Ronaldinho did join the A-League for a guest stint, he would obviously give the club involved and the competition as a whole a huge injection of star power, but let’s be serious about how difficult it would be for a coach to manage the situation.

Coaches work hard to achieve the right balance of players on their rosters when it comes to not only ability, but personality.

Players have to fit in with each other. You don’t have to expect every player to like every other player in the squad, but you expect them to be able to work together. And the biggest threat to players being able to work together is one player who expects to be treated differently to all of the others.

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Ronaldinho is obviously past his best in terms of the levels he has played at during his fabulous career, but would anyone seriously think he would come out here to play in the A-League and not expect preferential treatment?

Some players wouldn’t care at all about that and would love the opportunity to play alongside someone like Ronaldinho no matter what, but others would resent the situation.

It would be an impossible job for a coach to handle all of that and keep everyone happy.

Those who like the idea of Ronaldinho joining the A-League will point to Alessandro Del Piero’s spell with Sydney FC and say that was great for the game, but what was the lasting effect?

Sydney didn’t make the finals in Del Piero’s first year at the club, and only made it in fifth place out of the 10 teams in his second year. The club was eliminated in the first week of the finals series.

Del Piero received preferential treatment to a degree, but at least he was at Sydney for an extended period. There was what seemed a genuine commitment from him.

Ronaldinho coming out here for a half-season guest stint would be a hit-and-run affair that might be good while it lasted but would be over before you knew it.

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Back 10 or 20 years, when the coaching in the national competition wasn’t as good as it generally is now, it probably would have been easier for a coach of a high-profile club to embrace a superstar like Ronaldinho.

But these days, the better coaches see the concept as something that risks damage to what they are trying to build, because it is only a temporary measure. It is regarded as a distraction, an inconvenience almost.

If they didn’t change the way the team played to suit a player like Ronaldinho, then what would be the point of having him?

And if they did overhaul the approach to fit in with him, what then are they supposed to do when he leaves? Go straight back to what they were doing before he came?

Good luck to Ronaldinho if he manages to fill his pockets with a rich deal somewhere, but it’s not as if the A-League is obliged to take him.

The clubs and their coaches are entitled to make their own decisions without being made to feel guilty about saying no.

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