While the Melbourne City supports bade John van’t Schip a sympathetic adieu, few of them were all that upset he’d vacated the manager’s position.
The reasons for his departure – the poor health of his father – were not those you would wish on anyone, but his decision to leave has given City an enticing task.
Filling the vacancy has become, from all reports, a matter of simply picking from a teeming tree of applications. However, their choice should be more than simply hiring a new fellow to scribble the Xs and Os on the whiteboard and spout cliches to the media. At this grand chapter in City’s story, this hiring needs to be a grand statement.
The post is yearning for reputation. The current interim, Michael Valkanis, won his first game in charge, earning in the process City’s first clean sheet since Round 1. But it was not a vintage performance, as solid as the logical defensive reshuffle was. Besides, now is not the moment to be nurturing through a prospective manager from within. Now is the time source sensationally from outside.
But who to pluck?
It will be, undoubtedly, a European. The position offers considerable potential for further movement within the City Group; New York, Yokohama and Manchester the current alternative destinations, with further City Group ventures no doubt to come. The attractiveness of this is considerable, and yet the Melbourne franchise cannot expect to lure one football’s elite unemployed to their doors.
Of the available managers unlikely to be swayed by the chance to work with Manny Muscat, Roberto Mancini – an ex-employee of the City Group – Louis van Gaal, Frank de Boer and Marco Bielsa can probably be thrown into the fantasy category.
But there are still some well-known names out there.
Rumours abounded a few days ago that an ex-Premier League manager that had taken their team to an FA Cup final was imminently arriving to make a presentation. Alan Pardew fits that bill, as does Tim Sherwood, with the latter currently the Director of Football at Swindon Town. Avram Grant technically fits the bill too, though as a West Ham fan I’d advise vigorously against that particular option.
Pardew tends to do extremely well after arriving at a new club, only for his team’s form to drop off a cliff somewhere during season two – sort of the managerial equivalent of the show True Detective. He would certainly be able to get more goals from this City attack than are currently dripping out of it at the moment.
Francesco Guidolin, most recently sacked rather suddenly by Swansea City, showed – in spite of his dismissal – that he was a capable manager able to oversee a ball-playing side.
Cesare Prandelli, the most recent piece of flotsam to escape the sinking hot mess that is Valencia, might make an intriguing applicant.
As to the recent link to Adelaide United manager Gui Amor, well, sourcing from the bottom of the competition seems an unwise move, both in appearance and practice. It would be something of an unwelcome let-down, and – having lured Bruce Kamau from the Reds over the off-season – would be a further cannibalisation of the beleaguered reigning champions.
But above all else, this is a team in need of an authoritative hand, applied firmly but fairly.
City have meandered through matches this season, drawing when they should have won, and lurched diabolically through others, drawing when they could easily have lost. Their squad is one of the most handsomely assembled in A-League history, and yet has under-performed in what is undoubtedly their marquee season, led as they are by Australia’s greatest player. Their defensive record is closer to the quite often shambolic Perth’s tally than it is to league leaders Sydney. They’ve only scored three more goals than Newcastle.
An appointment, at this moment, to make the players all sit up straight and pay attention – instead of lazily coasting on cruise control – will make good the pre-season predictions for them, of grand final victories and glorious homecomings.
Who knows, the new manager may well be handed some money to splash about in January. But he will have to be appointed soon. Sydney FC are 13 full points above City, a gaping deficit to bridge if a minor premiership is still to be pursued. Meandering as they have done into the finals, hoping the higher stakes slap them awake would be reckless.
Action is the most resounding kind of statement, and City now must act with audacity.
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