Edwards' sacking proves again how tough A-League coaching caper is

What has been reinforced this week is just how difficult and fickle the coaching caper is, and just how much pressure surrounds the role of a manager in the A-League.

There was always likely to be a period of adjustment after Ange Postecoglou and Graham Arnold’s graduation to higher honours, and this week, in both Adelaide and Perth, we have seen that the next crisis is invariably just around the corner.

While all the pressure in the early part of the season was on Frank Farina, Gary van Egmond and John Aloisi, more recently it has shifted to Aloisi and Josep Gombau.

The irony that all four currently remain in their positions and it’s Alistair Edwards who is on his way tells you how fickle things can be in the lead role.

The fact that Ernie Merrick is still winless but hasn’t faced anywhere near the scrutiny of the above-mentioned tells you how subjective arguments can get.

At the end of the day it’s a manager’s ability to manage their myriad of stakeholders that often decides how long they hang about.

One thing absolutely clear after the departure of Postecoglou and Arnold is that right across the league there are a bevy of managers on their L-plates.

Apart from Farina, van Egmond and Ernie Merrick, there aren’t many of years or games of experience between the likes of Tony Popovic, Phil Moss, Kevin Muscat, Mike Mulvey, Aloisi,  Gombau and Edwards.

While one many be clever tactically, another might have a philosophy,  another may be good at managing his players, the media or fans, and another might do a good job of keeping the board onside, the difficultly in the coaching caper is that you often have to be all these things to survive, and prosper.

The one thing that’s almost a given is that at some point you will get interference, and it’s your ability to manage your way through these difficulties and keep all stakeholders onside that gives you your credibility.

Very rarely is the environment that surrounds a coaching gig straightforward.

Between the demanding fans, players, owners, board and media, there is always a challenge or three around the corner, and it’s a managers ability to see and manage these challenges which often marks their success.

Whether it’s a daft question or incessant interference from the media, a player not being happy with their amount of game-time, a board asking questions about results, fans questioning performances or selections, these are just part of the everyday challenges faced by managers.

Social media now gives fans, the media and players an equal voice, so there is always public scrutiny, and managers have to get just about every move right, or be prepared to face the music.

I’ve long argued for autonomy for coaches to making footballing decisions around things like player recruitment, strategy, selection and tactics.

We’ve seen over the last few years the success that Postecoglou, Arnold and Popovic have had with autonomy to make the football decisions.

To be fair, these managers demanded and got the autonomy they were after, and rarely stuffed decisions up.

That’s the secret to success. You have to get more right than wrong, otherwise people will line up to undermine.

As for Edwards at Perth, it appears he was at least given the autonomy to bring in his sons Ryan and Cameron, but he did so despite being warned by Tony Sage about the complexity this might bring.

As Sage said on Perth radio yesterday morning, before the axe fell later in the day:

“What we have to do is find out is why Edwards has played his boys ahead of others?” the owner said.

“Why haven’t you played Zahra more, why haven’t you played Cernak all this season?

“It’s a perception problem. When he did that, I said to him your kids are going to be the ones that suffer on this. If we don’t win every game, you’re going to get criticised.”

Sage went on to say that Edwards assured him he could manage his way through the complexity of having his sons on board.

And for the most part the manager appeared to be managing things fairly well, giving time to not only his boys, but a bevy of other kids.

While playing Ryan at number 10 in the early part of the season didn’t seen an obvious decision, he at least contributed with his mobility a feature.  

It help make the Glory competitive in the early going, even if their football wasn’t of the flowing standard of the latter part of last season.

In recent weeks Edwards has introduced his other boy Cameron into the equation more regularly, using him as an anchor midfielder, or right back, or off the bench.

While his performances haven’t been exceptional, he has contributed with workrate.

This obviously wasn’t enough to placate other members or the squad, who saw the manager as playing favourites with his sons.

While the Glory had played well the week before against Wellington without the suspended Jacob Burns, there was certainly a logical tactical argument that he should come back into calculations against the Victory on Friday.

As I tweeted in the first half, there was certainly a case for bringing Burns on at half time for one of the front four, and moving Ryan Edwards to the number 10 role.

Missing so many players, fielding a team so young, playing so poorly in the first half, there was a clear case for Burns’s experience.

The fact Edwards ignored his claims was always likely to provide the trigger for what ensued in the dressing room post-game.

As the then manager pointed out later, the issue had been simmering away in the background for a couple of weeks anyway.

Whatever Burns’s role was in this fiasco, it’s clear it wasn’t a situation managed well by Edwards, and it gave Sage an excuse to intervene.

Not that the trigger-happy owner needs much of an excuse to step in.

If Edwards is to ever want another turn on the A-League merry-go-round, the hope is he will have learnt the lessons from his first crack.

While, as a father, he undoubtedly wants his kids careers to develop well, even at the expense of his own, it is probably best they develop under the tutelage of another manager.

Managing the myriad of stakeholders that surround a football club is hard enough for any rookie manager to deal with, without throwing the complexity of two sons into the mix.

As Gombau also learnt a few days earlier, when you bring family into the mix, it can make the life of a manager just that little bit tougher.