Mehmet Durakovic was a worried man. The Melbourne Victory manager rose from his chair and ambled along the sideline, deep in thought. The 90th minute was approaching and the Melbourne derby could not finish soon enough.
Durakovic looked out onto the pitch. In front of him he watched the A-League’s most hyped attack producing, yet, another flaccid display, his midfield, yet again, bereft of creativity and movement and his goal keeper, yet again, saving the day.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, he thought.
It was only a month ago he would fall asleep with a smile on his face. There he was holding the golden toilet seat aloft, below him the vanquished manager, Ange Postecoglou, graciously applauding his old team mate.
He snapped out of his reverie and his mind turned to the dreaded post match press conference. He had to mentally prepare himself for the hard questions which were surely to follow.
Mehmet knew he was not a natural media performer and welcomed helpful advice on how to deal with the fourth estate. One day he thought he had found the secret when he discovered a hidden drawer in Ernie Merrick’s old desk and pulled out a dusty notebook.
“How to win friends in the media and influence people,” the cover read.
He carefully placed the notebook on his desk and started to leaf through it. It was blank, empty, not a skerrick of Merrick.
Durakovic became fidgety as Melbourne Heart pressed for a late winner. The stress was becoming unbearable. A childhood memory of the great Argentine manager, Cesar Luis Menotti, chain smoking his way to World Cup glory in 1978 flashed though his mind. Suddenly, he was craving for a cigarette.
Surely, he could sneak one on the bench. He turned around to his staff and asked if anyone had a cigarette. His old team mate and assistant Victory coach Kevin Muscat reached into his pocket.
“Hey Mem, I’ve got something to calm your nerves. Here, have a suck on this”
Muscat produced a lollipop which he lolloped through the air into Mem’s grateful hand.
“Does your job suck?” asked Adecco, Melbourne Victory’s main sponsor.
Mehmet Durakovic should ask a football manager who has won 17 major trophies.
Earlier this week Sven-Goran Eriksson was given his marching orders by the Thai owners of Leicester City.
Last season Eriksson dragged The Foxes out of the relegation mire to finish a respectable 10th in the English Championship. After the Raksriaksorns spent £10m on players in the close season, they demanded Eriksson to challenge for the Championship title and get the club promoted to the Premier League.
A shock 3-0 home loss to lowly Milwall was the final straw for the ambitious duty-free merchants. Leicester City FC, 13 matches into a very lengthy 46 match season, found themselves in mid-table, two points outside the play-off spots and 5 points from automatic promotion.
So, Sven had to go.
Yet another victim of the new football paradigm, where clubs have become playthings of the super-rich and money is supposed to buy instant success.
Melbourne Victory doesn’t have ego-centric foreign owners but their board does have, what could politely be called, short term commercial expectations.
Does your job suck?
Mehmet Durakovic will find this out soon enough.
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