Brebner relieved of his duties after derby mauling

JB, Go back to school. They are in different paragraphs. Before that I talked about John Aloisi as well. Is JA Italian? He is Spanish by heritage. As for Popovic, it is in the last paragraph. Did I promote Popovic? No! That was in response to some calling below about hiring him. As well, I said: “Popovic is excellent if no sons attached.” That means I did not think he should be hired unless his sons are off the negotiation. Do you need to go back to school? Can I talk about a number of things/persons in one blog? I talked about building up the defense first. That “Italian” is in support of the idea as the Italian coaches are good in coaching defense. Do you need to go back to school? Don’t garble please!

I’m a 14 year Victory member. I’ve seen the great and the bad. Last night I just stared and went numb, like many supporters watching from home. No, I and my friends didn’t go to the game because we knew what the result would be. We at Victory have known for years that the development of our youth was poor. I don’t know why, but we just couldn’t get our youth to step up. That was evident during Kevin’s reign. Now we see players like Pain, Galloway and Nigro starting in leading teams in defence. I don’t know why. Recruitment used to be an exciting positive for us. Fred, Berisha, Hernandez, Toivenan, Finkler, Del Pierre, added huge benefit to our core of Aussies like Milligan, Archie, Muscat, Valerie, Alsop and Antonis etc. Somehow that went pear shaped as well two years ago. Injuries and poor skills abound now in nearly every overseas recruit. Finally, as has been mentioned, no transition has been planned. This was because, Whoever has run the clubs administration, recruiting, development and coaching just expected 20,000 plus of us to keep forking out the money and we’d cop whatever went on the park, so finances were always guaranteed. The effort of the early years to get the best possible on the field just withered away. I don’t have any short term solution. Leigh Broxham, who I love, was supposed to retire two years ago. After a review, The deal was he would fill in any gaps and come on later in games. He is still a first eleven player!! Crocombe, our goalie for the future was dumped after the city 6-0 loss. Why? Acton is not as good and now do we dump him because we lost 7-0? This is a two year rebuilding program. It needs a big injection of money at a time that finances have dwindled. Heaven help us, but I think Victory is going to wither further unless we see some huge turnaround by the start of next season. New experienced coach, fantastic recruitment and better coaching and mentoring of the good young players will be needed by then.

Brisbane roar need to follow suit, 80s British coaching/players/tactics are not needed within the a league

“ A radical rebuild is planned, with Victory’s four highly-touted off-season imports - Ryan Shotton, Callum McManaman, Rudy Gestede and Jacob Butterfield - also in the firing line. All four have two-year contracts, which the club is likely to pay out to clear the decks” (Reported today on SBS)

It takes something to ignite a genuine rivalry and it always felt the Melbourne Derby lacked what the Sydney derby had, and even fell behind compared to the Big Blue and the Original Rivalry with Adelaide. But if 6-0, 7-0 and the sacking of a coach doesn’t add the zest this fixture needs then nothing will. I’m not for crying crocodile tears over Victory’s fall from grace, yes it hurts “metrics” but when a club is so badly run it should fail badly on the pitch. And Victory has been badly run - the worst thing to happen to the club was winning the GF with a VARfail goal ... the rot had set in that season but they ignored it and looked the other way. Victory will bounce back - but they need something fresh: recycling former players/coaches is not what’s needed now.

coolncol - No you simply said and i quote "hire an Italian coach" unquote. while in the same article you promoted Popovic, no?. Cheers jb.

If winning is addictive, then conversely, losing must be like bad OCD. How does a former championship team like Victory break the “habit”? I then think about all the quality players at Victory who have gone backwards this year. Such a bad season would limit your chances to play Internationally, especially to represent your country. Melbourne need to look to the Mariners & recruit a coach similar to Staj. He can bring out the best in people. There is hope for Victory.

How many though, 6?

JB, Did I say only Italian?

collncold - just a thought. Has Popovic changed his nationality to Italian??????? PS. If you think 20.000 Victory fans want a few seasons of defensive football then I think your suggestion has been made in jest . No? Cheers jb.

coolncold - I did not say Delpierre was the reason for Victory's high winning streak, I said he was a good centre-back and a natural leader, a must in any team. My point was he was never replaced despite his retirement warning to the board. You have heard me talking about "team spine", some of the players who played at the same time ,or after Del Pierre were "stars "in their own right, players like Coe, Leijer, Bozanic, Finkler, Berisha and Barbaroussas and of course the workhorse every team needs, Broxham. Most of those named were at least "international class" (and some are still with us playing for different clubs). So you see I don't think the international Delpierre was superman, he was just a very experienced, very talented centre -back who helped set a standard. My point? ,he was never replaced with a "like" player. Cheers jb

French centre back? Matthieu Delpierre? Matthieu Delpierre finished in 2016. But MV got championship in 2018 again. In 2016/17 season, MV got 2nd in premiership and runner-up in championship. Then, why the retirement of Matthieu Delpierre is related? Still, agreed that the defense of MV is a problem in the recent 2 seasons. Hi Fi

Target: 5 clean sheets for the remaining 10 matches of 2020 21 season. For the 2021 to 2022 season, hire an Italian coach to target top 6. That means all contract-expired players and trainers are replaced. Build on a very strong defense before evolving to an attack-and-defense balanced system. With the above, Aloisi is not qualified as he is well known for deficiency of coaching defense. Popovic is excellent if no sons attached.

Without knowing the terms of contracts it is very difficult to analyse what has gone wrong at this club ,in itself almost an institution over the last 15 years. So much has happened in front of their huge support group, and I suspect much more has occurred behind the scenes in the decision making departments. What those decisions have been we will never know but it is almost impossible to place the blame solely at the feet of one man, who, only a few short months ago ,was given the almost impossible task of turning what has turned out to be a mediocre squad of players into something of a team to regain former glories. Can the wrongs be righted? Not quickly for this squad needs to be examined closely assessed and a decision made as to whether they are actually Victory "material". With the tightening of purse strings all across the A-League we have witnessed a levelling off of the football standard within the competition and many youngsters being tried and tested but this is not the path for a trendsetting club, the A-League has long been a testing house for overseas players who added their skills to the existing squads but this too has gone with the pandemic, not to mention the higher wages in India and Asia. So where do Victory go in their search for a "spine" on which to rebuild a team that will bring back former glories? Most pundits know that a top keeper, 2 centre backs, a DM and at least one AM, and ,most importantly, a recognised goal scorer are all pre requisites if success is to be guaranteed. Unfortunately Victory are sadly lacking in all of those positions and the signing of some "super" coach is not going to change that fact in the immediate future. That brings us to the decision making department which in football usually hides behind the hiring and firing of coaches as a cure and fix-it-all for every problem that can occur. Some years ago Victory was blessed with a natural leader, a French centre back who by his very presence exuded confidence to all around him. That player indicated he wanted to finish but the board convinced him to stay for another season which he did and the board sat back, satisfied no doubt, but a year later when he did leave, no one was around to fill his place neither as a player or a leader. In my mind that's when the rot set in. Players came and went all struggling to try and lift their standard to "Victory level" but unable to do so due to a pure lack of talent. Some people regard that as a fault of the club for not making these lads better players but that is hogwash, top teams need top players if they are to maintain their status in the overall competition and a long hard analysis of the playing staff at Victory tells a tale all of it's own . I don't think there is a football pundit in Australia welcomes the sight of a former powerhouse sink to the levels of yesterday but to imagine the signing of "another" super coach is going to cure all the ills is in fact "imagination run riot". jb.

I've also heard only Rojas and McM on 2 year deals, the others on one. That would be more logical.

Very similar situation when Ange P came to Brisbane. The season was well done and a write off. He had a look at the players, decided who he wanted to keep and began recruiting for the following season - and we all know how well that worked out. Perfect time to bring Popovic or any other coach. No pressure and get ready for next season.

The statement "crash and burn" has fallen on Victory and this is the first set in getting things back on track.

Popovic would certainly bring some steel into the Victory unsure if he can tempted to come now or will he wait until seasons end to take the job

The whole affair is bizzare, has anyone seen the coach get sacked and then they have a press conference together with the chairman to announce it at the end of the match.

The line has been crossed :silly: Butterfield, Gestede, McManaman all on 2 year deals apparently. Folami on loan from Ipswich hasn't worked out either going to be difficult to turnaround quickly