Where football should import knowledge from

Stephen Smith. You don't read too well do you----- PAL??????? Stifle your angst for a moment and go back to my opening gambit to Davidde and I will use capitals to emphasis so you may get the message. quote. THE MESSAGE YOU ARE TRYING TO SELL "FROM WHERE WHERE WE SHOULD IMPORT COACHES". I then asked Davidde "WHY DO WE HAVE TO IMPORT AT ALL????" unquote. Now if I wanted to criticise my offering I could say that Davidde never used the term "coaches" in his statement or his headline he used the term 'football knowledge" and I would also note that I used the word "where" twice in what was obviously a typing error. Now it is your lack of comprehension that raised your original ire when you more or less accused me of saying you were deaf (never mentioned your hearing) then spoke about Victory and Magilton (never mentioned by me),accused me of denying you a right to an opinion(never mentioned by me). Now I did try to "soothe your savage breast" but obviously failed so let's leave it at that and don't even bother to contribute to any of my comments in the future for I'm the "pompous pal" who appears to write in a manner that you do not understand. Bye for now. ps Quite enjoyed the game last night and most of the players seem to like their new coach.jb

Dear me jbinnie. Your pomposity is incredible. Now the over-zealous punctuation has been replaced by capitals. The article is actually entitled "Where" we should be importing knowledge from. An important difference, but you ignore all you like pal. You clearly know best. Goodbye.

One benefit Australia has is a solid economy, along with a great lifestyle. Australia should be looking for players and coaches from countries like Spain and Portugal, where their economy is struggling, unemployment is high and pay rates have stagnated. Australia also has an advantageous dollar/euro exchange rate allowing them to export talent from Europe. For the first time we can afford to look at coaches (and players) from the Iberian Peninsula. These days lack of English language is not the problem it was in the past. (A bonus is the many Brazilian players we have will understand the coaches message).

Stephen S - Again you lose me. You "assumed" and then 'figured" I was referring to Victory and their new coach.Never entered my mind, so don't blame me if YOU misunderstood my question, (which was actually addressed to Davidde) asking why,after 25 years of NSL football and 7 years of A-League football we should still have to be "importing football knowledge". (I thought that was what the article was about). Now ignoring all the other stuff YOU wrote about Victory and Magilton lets get to your last sentence. Postecoglou's time in Greece was minimal so does not rate a mention it in his "learning process" but your observation of him using his "time out of the game to study Arsenal's coaching methods" is exactly what I meant when asking, why is it the 2 most successful coaches in the HAL these last 18 months are "home grown" coaches?. The FFA's role is imparting knowledge to coaches? That is a cop out. Coaches ,if they are serious, should be seeking that knowledge wherever they can,just as Ange and Graham have done,and that is my point completely. So Stephen, I don't think you are deaf,know full well you are entitled to an opinion,and I hope Magilton is a huge success for you. Victory fans deserve that. jb

jbinnie - first of all, I'm not deaf, so enough with the eight question/exclamation marks to emphasise your point. I recognise your right to an opinion, so please do me the same courtesy. True, you didn't mention Victory by name, but as you asked "why the need to import coaches at all" I figured it was a fair guess that Victory was the topic, given this article is about Jim Magilton...no? I simply stated that post-Durakovic, Victory's best option was to go overseas for the reasons outlined. Victory want success, and they need it now before their season folds. They aren't a youth development department for Australian coaches, they are a professional football club looking to win. The former is FFA's role. As to Postecoglou and Arnold, while not the sole reason for their success I'm sure, as I understand it, both benefited from exposure internationally. Arnold learnt plenty from Hiddink while with the Socceroos (though not in how to deal with the media, which, laughably, he still feels is against him), Postecoglou spent time in Greece coaching a club there, and then used his time out of the game to study Arsenal's coaching methods in particular, and other no doubt too.

Stephen Smith -Where did Victory come into my statement?????? You missed the point of my offering completely. I stated categorically that we have had 34 years to develop our game from park football to semi-pro,to fully professional ,and yet,while there is little doubt we can still produce raw talent for the field of play there is little evidence that the same can be said for the coaching fraternity with 2 outstanding exceptions. I then posed the question,what had these 2 done to acquire such knowledge ,for to the best of my knowledge neither has spent long spells overseas (in a coaching capacity) or attended any place of learning to develop the skills that have brought them to their present place in HAL football. Rather then try to answer that question, you have tried to say that as long as a club gives a "local" a go, they have done the right thing whether their chosen one fails or not !!!!!!.That is a nonsense that doesn't even scratch the surface of the real problem.How do we educate our coaches???????. AP & GA are examples of what can be achieved but not knowing them personally I cannot add anything to help others but maybe it is time some of our learned pundits sat them down and asked the question,for I'm just as sure there are other local coaches around who could be developed in a like manner. jb

jbinnie - the reason Victory have imported this time is because they gave an up and coming Australian coach (Mehmet) a chance, and it didn't work out. In fact, they should never have sacked Merrick who had a tremendous record of success. In my opinion, they were bullied into it by a culture that has developed in Australia of needing to play the right "style" whatever that means. Mehmet wasn't ready for the job. What shoudl Victory do? Go for another young Aussie coach and risk the same problem? Or go for an Aussie with experience - Culina? Farina? Too much baggage, friends on one side, enemies on the other. Going overseas was the only option availalbe to them. Whether Magilton is the right choice or not, time will tell. But to destroy him on the basis of his nationality before he's coached a game is typical of the childish level of debate so prevalent here. Judge on merit, not nationality.

All I see I read as " England is the bestest and only league in Europe ". It must be all those Word and European cups you've won.

Out of those three World Cup appearances Northern Ireland made the quarter finals twice. The current Sunderland and Swansea managers are also from the same part of the world.

Davidde - While enjoying the spectacle of you enjoying your ravioli in such an idyllic situation I can't quite come to terms with the message you are trying to sell re. "from where where we should import coaches". Why do we have to import at all???? Football has been in a semi,and full time, professional status for the last 34 years and I think it would be correct to say the standard of play has improved in that time.Is it too much to ask that our standard of coaching has not improved in a like manner in that time especially when one considers that for nearly the last 2 years our premier league,the HAL, has been totally dominated by 2 teams that coincidently have been coached by 2 "home -grown" coaches?. Where did these 2 coaches acquire their knowledge for I am not aware of either having spent extended periods anywhere overseas in the last 7 or 8 years?. However it is obvious that they have extended their knowledge quite dramatically but surely in this modern age of electronic data availability, this is not as surprising as once was experienced by those wishing to acquire knowledge. So how did Graham and Ange develop their coaching skills?. Might I suggest they have looked,learned, and expanded their own talents by sheer hard work and a thirst for knowledge that demanded assuaging. Good luck to them ,for what they have accomplished does not involve the spending of huge amounts of dollars on players but more on planning,leading and controlling what is on offer.Maybe others should be looking,learning and not only asking, but listening, to advice that can be procured from worldwide sources at the touch of a button. jb

the origin of the coach is not relavent. A country such as Scotland with only a quarter of the population of Australia is often berated on these web sites based on their style of play yet they currently account for 5 or 6 managers (as a quick count) in the EPL, why is this so? Although playing talent has been scares over the last decade, they have also supplied world football with class players in years gone by at a rate far greater than Australia. So perhaps it is time to drop the warm and fuzzies when we here of coach and player coming from certain countries as being automatic revelations, Fozzie for one has, and will continue to fall into this trap. Give an individual due right and respect to represent his own abilities rather than a perceived national DNA.

PS the article talks about importing from countries that have experience of "achieving beyond their means" - in which case, I would have thought Magilton is perfect, hailing (as he does) from Northern Ireland, a country that has qualified for the World Cup three times, despite a population of less than 2 million.

And of course if we look at the most successful country on the planet for producing football managers , well the winner is undoubtedly Scotland. Refer below. The 6 English Premier League Managers: Scottish sextet on the shoulders of giants by Match of the Day on Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 6:59am You can debate whether it’s the world’s greatest top flight, but there is no questioning the English Premier League's status as the most cosmopolitan. No fewer than 22 different nationalities were recently represented in a single match, and there is not a single club at which internationalism does not reign. However, when it comes to Premier League management, one nation – one city, in fact – dominates all others. It’s not, as you might expect, Manchester, Liverpool or London; actually, just three English managers currently ply their trade in their nation’s top division. Look further north, though, and you find twice that number from within a tiny 20-mile radius. Kenny Dalglish, David Moyes, Owen Coyle, Alex McLeish, Steve Kean and Sir Alex Ferguson make for a formidable Scottish sextet, and with all six Glasgow is the common denominator. Ferguson, Dalglish, Moyes and Coyle grew up in the heart of the city, McLeish and Kean in its outlying areas, and all are continuing a long-established tradition of English football being shaped by Scottish managers. The facts leave no room for doubt. The most successful manager in the history of both the English league and the FA Cup is a Scot. Arsenal and Chelsea’s first-ever managers were Scots, while England’s two most famous clubs owe much of their lustre to three towering figures from north of the border: Liverpool to Bill Shankly; Manchester United to Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby.

+1 Too many people regurgitate the exact words of opinions such as Foster without thinking for themselves.

Good comment Stephen---I think you have written a comment here that could be an article in its self for what we once believed is no longer the case. The Australian Football Manager is not that far off the pace. We have turned it around in the last 2 years.

We've already seen some of these coaches from continental Europe who are attracted to Australia's lifestyle - Rini Coolen, Vitezslav Lavicka, Franz Straka, Pierre Littbarski. Ok, so Littbarski and Lavicka won titles, but for all the mythology surrounding these "superior football cultures" (a phrase used by a certain tv pundit to disparage any coaches of British origin in particular) they delivered little in terms of developing the game. Van't Schip may yet prove to be the exception. It's also true that Butcher, Money, McMahon did precious little either. But they weren't quite as bad as many would have you believe - Butcher and Money got clubs to the finals, while McMahon left Glory in the top four. The fact remains that Australia isn't going to be able to attract the very top coaches, and despite this lame effort to try and sell us the dream that there are coaching whizzkids just waiting to be snapped up for peanuts in Portugal and elsewhere, the truth is they are thin on the ground and A-League clubs can rarely afford the really top level coaches. Culturally, a lot of them don't fancy Australia either. Miles away from where football is king, and with a peculiar obsession for other sports. The sad thing about this article is the hidden message behind it. In plain English it reads "anything but British." A mantra a section of the football media have been promoting for years. I say give Magilton a chance. If he's crap, fair enough. But let's wait and see, forget what his passport says., its a petty and simplistic argument.

My thought's as well.

I agree although I guess the point of Davidde is are when we are looking for good coaches. How far is the net being cast, are those clubs looking for coaches in portugal as well as other places that are popular today such as the netherlands and england

Football wise administrators, at all levels is needed

The superior lifestyle is worded very cautiosly in your piece Davidde , i no your not suggesting, there not here to sit on Terrigal beach drinking pina colada's .I''ve never understood why we dont continue to try and bring Argentine and Brasilian experience to Australia unless it's just simply to expensive . Even Os Ardiles.