- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
“This club is not in crisis,” claimed Melbourne Victory chief executive Richard Wilson on Tuesday after the announcement that technical director Francis Awaritefe had parted ways with the club.
But here’s the thing: the football director should be the most important role at any football club. If he leaves just four months after he is appointed than your club is indeed in something of a crisis.
If that’s not enough, the continuing pressure on Mehmet Durakovic has been amplified by the latest developments out of the Harry Kewell camp.
With former Argentina international Abel Balbo set to become Kewell’s “personal mentor” and reports long time agent Bernie Mandic has split with the Socceroos superstar, a sense of uncertainty has gripped the Victory.
So what’s going on at the A-League’s self-proclaimed biggest club?
Personally, I worry a litany of errors and missteps have been made due to a lack of experience and football knowledge at management level.
Earlier this year Victory’s still relatively new board trumpeted the announcement of head coach Mehmet Durakovic plus assistants Kevin Muscat and Steve Mautone as a home-grown managerial team of the future. So far this hope has yet to materialize.
Coupled with Awaritefe finding his way in his first role as director of football, there’s just too much inexperience across the board.
Then you have the sheer weight of character and influence that came with Kewell and Mandic’s arrival. It has seemed to me for a while that the Victory hoped to treat the 33-year-old just like everyone else in the squad, while Mandic had other ideas.
Now Victory must both manage to return a sense of calmness to the club and also continue the search for Awaritefe’s replacement. Though in the long-term, the latter option is be far the most important issue.
There’s a line to be drawn between what’s happening at AAMI Park and enlightening comments this week from legendary Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi about the state of the Italian national team.
“When you build a skyscraper, you make really strong foundations – if you don’t make the foundations you will never see the skyscraper,” Sacchi told The Guardian.
“If you build a shed, you don’t need those foundations but it will never be an important building… in the end the national team is only ever the last beneficiary of whatever work has been done at the outset. If something starts badly, it will not end well.”
The new Victory board has got off to a very shaky start, but it’s not too late to rescue their blue and white revolution.
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.