A football coach with the name of Ferguson benches a player because he has decided to play a different system, and feels said player is jaded. The player refuses to sit on the bench.
I can’t help thinking that if the coach’s name was ALEX Ferguson there would only be one outcome – the player would be shown the door, perhaps with a hair dryer sticking out of their ear.
No player is as big as the team, even when that team is Manchester United. (See Beckham, Van Nistlerooy, Staam)
But in this case, the coach’s name is Iain Ferguson, the team is North Queensland Fury and because the player he is dealing with is known in some circles as God, but is announced as Robbie Fowler, somehow, it’s the coach who’s wrong?
What’s happening here?
Fox Sports pundits Mark Bosnich and Robbie Slater denigrated Ferguson and thought Fowler was right to refuse to take his place in the Fury squad for their match last weekend against the Brisbane Roar.
Bosnich has played under that other Ferguson so maybe that experience has soured him. How on earth can Robbie Fowler’s actions have been judged to be right?
Wasn’t Iain Ferguson doing what most coaches/managers throughout the world do and rotating his squad to suit the circumstances as he saw them?
Perhaps we should give more credit to a player like John Aloisi, who to the best of my knowledge has never refused to sit on the bench, regardless of his so-called “marquee” status.
Bosnich suggested that a player of Fowler’s status should never be asked to sit on the bench. Do I need to even bother listing the names of players who have done this in European leagues in the last month alone?
It was evident from Ferguson’s post-match comments that it was his intention to start the game against Brisbane with a lone srtiker. Evidently, he didn’t think the role suited Fowler.
Whether he was right or wrong on that point is conjecture.
What we will never know was whether the plan he had in mind could have worked, and because of that he simply cannot be judged on it. The only person who can be judged is Robbie Fowler, who decided last weekend that he was bigger than the game.
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