Football needs coaches not characters

Not one of the others JBinnie has mentioned has demanded Kosmina has the qualification - only Foster - probably why he was singled out for his hypocrisy.

jb yes, more or less, I guess you have nailed it, I don't think a central authority should be reducing the options a club has in who they employ as their manager, because crucially, if there is a competitive advantage to be had from employing managers with a pro license, then the clubs will go down that route of their own volition - there is actually no need to mandate anything from above. Now the scenario you have described is a good one, an interesting one, and the sort of thing that clubs will come across every two or three years (or shorter!). I understand what you are saying, there are many coaches out there who had a non-stellar playing career, and some good players make the transition to coach, and others fail miserably. To be honest, that situation has been recognised for a very long time, it precedes all of this licensing stuff. Going back to your scenario, if Mr No-Name is putting his hand up to coach an A-League club with nothing behind him except a pro-license - there is no way I would touch him! My advice to him would be: work as an assistant, preferably with more than one club, continue leaning and developing, soak up those experiences that you cannot learn in a course of study - like eye-balling a player and telling him he's not good enough; or telling him about the flaws in his game; or knowing how to bring him back to Earth if he's walking around with a head the size of a boarding house pudding. This is the real-world stuff that the course won't teach you.

Cattery - I have now read all your offerings and it is clear to me you are not against qualifications per.se but a simple "employment issue". So we go back to this area and let you be the "Nick Tana" in the hot seat. (I use Nick because of his experiences in football and current high profile). He owns a club and is looking for a coach. Along comes Joe Blow and Steve McMahon to apply for the job of coach. Who does Nick(you) pick ?,Joe Blow with a pro-licence certificate of the highest grade, or McMahon who has played with England and Liverpool. Nick(you) makes his choice (the popular one) and gets his fingers and his pockets very very badly burned. Joe Blow ,with his top qualification ( and no great playing career a la Wenger) ,goes on his merry way with his top degree but no job. That is the problem in football employment all over the world,it is the perception that if a player has had an exceptional playing career he has the exceptional knowledge to become an exceptional teacher of the game, a Professor of Football. Unfortunately nothing is further from the truth and I could go into the financial areas of these transactions but I won't for the figures would shock you to your back teeth. Cheers, it's still a great game is our football. jb

jb I would argue that the importance you place on the manager's ability to teach will vary with where a particular team's maturation cycle is. Younger players need that more than mature players. On top of that, different teams have different needs at different points of their history. In the case of AU at the moment, many view it as a case of getting back to basics, getting motivation back into the players, getting some discipline back into the team, instilling some confidence in being able to follow a game plan - even the most basic game plan imaginable. The experienced player doesn't need to be taught how to mark a player - he has to be motivated enough to bloody well do it when instructed to do so! (obviously I'm talking at a very basic level here, the instructions will come with various intricacies and variables to assist in correct decision making, but first thing is first, and that's getting the motivation, focus and hunger back in the players) It's quite possible that Kossie is the man for the job right now - and I would contend that whether he has done this specific training or not is not going to help him one iota with the immediate challenge he has. This is another reason why I dislike these blanket manadatory provisions that force clubs to go down a particular route, when they are more in need of someone like Kossie than another Rini - they should be free to make the choice that best suits their circumstances at a given point in time.

Thanks Cattery - I repeat,it's not about "great managers" it's about TEACHING,and as you say "undertaking additional studies" to ensure that TEACHING can be undertaken in a uniform and organised form that ensures comprehension in pupils. That's all qualifications denote, a person has undergone that training. jb

SS A good example. People can study various journalism courses to improve their skills etc, but employers are free to hire whoever they wish to hire, and more often than not they will hire people who have undertaken such studies, and other times they will not. And I view this whole coaching certificate business in the same way. Having the courses are good, people should be encouraged to improve their knowledge, but employers shouldn't be forced to hire only people who have undertaken such-and-such a course of study. It borders on being a protection racket. Furthermore, what sets the great coaches apart form the also-rans will not be learned in that course, doesn't matter how good it is, doesn't matter how many bureaucrats have sat down together to work out a curriculum, syllabus, study program, learning framework, educational outcomes, etc, etc.

Stephen - Dangerous road you go down.You single out Foster,what about Slater,Bosnich,Harper,Ruden,Zelic,Kalac,Taliadoris,Awaritife,Meredith,Lowe,et al and of course we could add Postecoglue, Blieberg,Kosmina,Van egmond etc etc. All those I mentioned are constantly on TV or are constantly being interviewed on TV and one thing I am sure of,not every one of those mentioned have a "journalism college certificate or media qualification". Before anyone jumps in I do know some of these lads do have qualifications but not the ones that S.Smith mentions..

jb But it's not just Ferguson, basically all the great managers we've ever known got there without the help of a certificate. By the way, I'm not against professionals continuing to learn, undertake additional studies, get together with their peers to share ideas,etc. What I am against, are a bunch of bureaucrats dictating to independent clubs who they can and can't hire.

jb it was a bit tongue and cheek, but you would know that for a few years there, not so much now, everyone we were hiring form outside of Australia appeared to come from one country only.

Cattery - Just noticed your "corrective" statement to Mike. Would you care to enlighten me as to what you mean when you say "including the right nationality,as it had been decreed a few years back". Were you having a dig at FFA policy making? The reason I ask is that in my studies of the game over the last 50 years I can only think of one really outstanding coach of that nationality and that was the oft cited "father of total football" (a title he often denied) Rinus Michels. Now if you want to get into the true innovators of the game you would have to leave that small country, in which the professional game is only 55 years old, and set your sights elsewhere.Almost every country in the world has presented outstanding individuals over the recognised 90 years of football tactical development and they are far too numerous to include in this offering. I await your reply with interest jb

Cattery- I do wish you would think on what has been presented before you go to the trouble of singling out an individual and holding him up as an example to this site. In this case you have probably singled out the most outstanding manager of the last 30 years.Would you care to describe what makes him "special" before enumerating the hundreds of apparently successful players (Alex wasn't too hot in that department) who have been tried, and found wanting, in the same environment as AF over those same last 30 years.????? Back to my attempt at explaining what coaching is at ALL levels of the game, or for that matter ALL sports. It is the ability to absorb knowledge and then present it in such a way that is comprehensible to the pupils.That's where the qualification comes in. In an attempt to "fast track" this teaching ability, courses have been created that allows the game to be broken into sections - skills,tactics movement,fitness, & man -management etc, and in turn breaking down these functions into a method that, when presented as an exercise, the pupils will enjoy and voluntarily take part. Could AF do this? I don't doubt it, but maybe it is the lack of this "teaching" knowledge that has caused so many others to fail. So. a piece of paper may not be of such importance as long as the potential coach has recognised the "teaching" side of the task and has gone to the trouble of gaining that knowledge that allows him to coach/teach in the proper manner. Forget AF, it is at the grass roots of the game that these qualification become necessary,not so much to prove you have done a course, but more importantly, have gone to the trouble of gaining a skill that may help in doing the job at hand.jb

Yeh, I guess that ain't too flash. The point still remains that he had coached at Eredivisie level for two seasons (with a good club), itwouldn't be that easy for AU to grab soemone with a better background than that, especially after the big pay out they'll need to make for Rini.

Where did he coached Rosendaal to 3rd spot? AGOVV Apeldoorn, 20th Roosendaal - 16th than 11 th I don't see any 3rd spot. They were 3rd spot the year before Coolen took the job

I do have to smile at Foster's tub-thumping regarding the correct qualifications for coaching. Following his logic, if people should only be appointed to posts based upon their qualifications, then why on earth is he reading the sports news on television? Did he go to journalism college or hold a media qualification?

jb Alex Ferguson would have had a room full of trophies before UEFA started mandating the need for all managers at club level to have a formal qualification. The rationale to mandate it just isn't there. If coaches who have done their qualification have a huge advantage in knowledge, clubs will naturally gravitate towards them, that being the case, why oblige clubs to only employ managers with a qualification? It almost sounds like a protection racket.

Bayman - A well written and laid out article that has caused a multitude of replies,some for,some against,but very few,if any, have got to the root of why a coach needs qualification.The answer is very simple and can be discussed thus------ A coach in any sport is a TEACHER. He is employed to teach the game to a group of players be they 8 year-old kids or full time professionals. That is where qualification enters the argument. Under our present general educational system we have a minimum of 3 years of education to enable the teaching of young primary school children. This usually advances to 5 years to enable the teaching of senior pupils and, if we want to take it to the most common peak, a 7 year education followed by an internship to become a teacher of doctors.Think about this for a moment and you will see where I am heading. No matter what experience & knowledge is gained in a playing career, that alone does not mean that person will automatically have the talent on how to put their messages across, in other words TEACH. Hence qualifications. Getting back to Kossie, it surprises me that for one so long involved in the game at playing and coaching level he has never gone to the trouble of gaining these qualifications,after all organised coaching certificate courses started in Australia back in 1974,when he was still playing and one would assume if he has the talents that many here are claiming he would have walked through the exams and today would be a fully qualified ------FOOTBALL TEACHER . jb

Here's a good article in The Guardian about the worth of the UEFA Pro quals: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/dec/14/sport.comment It raises an interesting point: no one has ever failed the course, which makes you sort of wonder about how stringent it is. By the way, UEFA had also given dispensation to managers who are yet to complete the course - so it really isn't as big a deal as people are making out.

dasilva Yeh, but he coached Twente for two seasons in the Eredivisie. He coached Rosendaal to 3rd spot in the Eerstedivisie just before coming across. Good, bad, indifferent, you ain't going to get Eredivisie coaches lining up to come to the A-League, with or without papers. AU has to pay out Rini for a 4 year contract, and that has just complicated things even further. so for people to say that AU need to look for someone better than Kossie is plain unrealistic - that's my main point - and the qualifications issue is a red herring, it's neither here or there, you'd take Kossie over some Muppet coaching amateurs any day of the week.

Yeh, Europe is the home of the EC, where you can only grow apples of a certain dimension.