Someone Up There Hates Me

Seriously? This guy?

Only 20 minutes before I began writing this very piece, Sydney FC confirmed the news that was being reported that Frank Farina would officially become the new coach of the club. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I wrote the following:

“Obviously several locally based managers will apply for the job. I would imagine former Socceroos coach Frank Farina will be interested but to say I would be upset if they hired him would be an understatement. After his Socceroos stint, I want nothing to do with supporting a team he coaches ever again.”

When I saw the news tick across the bottom of the screen watching Question Time on Sky News this afternoon, I instantly texted a friend telling him about it and the reply I got was “Oh f*ck” but without the *.

Whilst I didn’t agree with hiring Ian Crook in the first place as I thought the club needed someone better and could certainly get better, I didn’t for the life of me think that they would replace him with truly one of the worst football coaches I can remember. Frank Farina was truly awful as Socceroos coach and replacing him with Guus Hiddink was like upgrading from a Datsun to a Rolls Royce. I have never had a conversation about him where someone has defended him, which says a lot.

Then he coached the Queensland Roar before they changed their name to Brisbane. They weren’t terrible but certainly not very good and certainly not particularly entertaining. Once again as soon as he was sacked, he was replaced by someone competent and the team turned into the juggernaut that went on to win back to back titles. Not to mention he was fired for getting done for drink driving ON THE WAY TO TRAINING.

I don’t know Frank Farina as a person and he might be a terrific bloke, but to be honest I really don’t care about that. What I care about is that Sydney FC are in a situation where they need to capitalise on the godsend they received by having Alessandro Del Piero agree to play for them and when Ian Crook resigned they had the opportunity to take a step in the right direction. Del Piero is no spring chicken and as I wrote about previously, this is a win now situation.

Then again maybe Sydney FC are geniuses. Whoever replaces Farina seems to have great success, so if he coaches for simply one game and then is sacked, perhaps the next coach will turn the club around. Or you know, perhaps this will be a wasted season where the A-League took steps forward and Sydney FC, despite having the best player in the league, took major steps backwards.

I can’t imagine Del Piero staying on past his two year contract, so if this season is a bust – and right now all my money is on it staying that way – I hope they find a suitable coach and recruit players to make the club successful in 2013/14.

I might be proven wrong and Sydney FC might turn it around under Farina and yet I will still disagree with hiring him in the first place. All you can go on is history and there is nothing suggesting this is a good decision.

It’s hard being a fan sometimes.

Sky Blues feeling Crook

Ian Crook on a bad day

So a day after friends and I were discussing how we think it’s time to fire Ian Crook, Crooky took it upon himself and quit his job as manager for Sydney FC. By all accounts Ian is a great guy and good with youth footballers, but the job of manager of an A-League team always seemed to be out of his comfort zone. I personally wasn’t high on hiring him in that role in the first place and I think now even he agrees. It felt like Sydney didn’t like or get the candidates the wanted and just took the cheap option and promoted internally when they should have hired Tony Popovic before West Sydney Wanderers got him.

Crook will go back to coaching the youth team and will do well at that. But now it’s time for Sydney FC to find a manager that can capitalise on the opportunity they have to succeed with Del Piero in the side. This is not a situation where a guy can come in and take time to build his own team and not have expectations of winning instantly. The man who takes the job has the expectation that the team will turn it around and succeed immediately as having Del Piero only works if the team actually wins games, otherwise the novelty will wear off and the crowds will fall away again.

So who is out there for Sydney FC to hire in what is a very high pressure job?

Locals

Obviously several locally based managers will apply for the job. I would imagine former Socceroos coach Frank Farina will be interested but to say I would be upset if they hired him would be an understatement. After his Socceroos stint, I want nothing to do with supporting a team he coaches ever again. Former Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick might be interested as well and if they can’t find someone high profile from overseas he is a solid option who has done well in the A-League already.

Sydney have already signed Jason Culina so his father Branko might throw his name in the ring, but after Branko was fired in Newcastle for knowing about Jason’s injury before signing him, I can’t imagine Sydney wanting to go down that path.

Miron Bleiberg would be a fascinating option. He is great for a quote and in the media and has coached in the A-League. Whether the board would be willing to deal with him, that’s another story, but it sure would be a fun ride and he might be able to get the best out of the underperforming squad.

Of course Steve Corica is the caretaker manager and if the board aren’t impressed with other applicants and if Corica does well as a caretaker, they might just hand the Sydney FC legend the keys and give him a shot.

After that the local contenders seem to fall off a cliff. Perhaps there are a few other options that might do well in interviews, but given the stakes in this job I would be disappointed if they went to someone else locally who was unproven.

Overseas

Figuring out who is available and might be interested from overseas is a much trickier prospect. A friend of mine who supports Tottenham wants Sydney to sounds out Harry Redknapp but also knows how unrealistic it is that he would want to do it. Fox Sports threw out the name of Gianluca Vialli who is not only a proven manager but also a very close friend of Del Piero. If Alessandro pushed hard for Vialli, I would be totally on board with that. If anything, it would even further strengthen the support of the local Italian community for the club and keep the crowd numbers up.

In terms of the guys coming over from England there are a few available guys such as former Bolton manager Owen Coyle or Manchester United legend Roy Keane, who supposedly was close to coming to coach in the A-League not that long ago. Keane would certainly be a big name, whether he would actually be good at the job is another question.

Ruud Gullit is another big name whose managing career hasn’t lived up to his playing career. Gérard Houllier would be a good choice but given his heart issues might not be interested in managing again. Gordon Strachan is available and would be worth consideration as would Kevin Keegan.

At the end of the day these international options come down to who is even interested in moving out to Australia, but I do hope the club try their best to go for a proven manager from overseas before settling for one of the lesser local options. The club needs to be in ‘win now mode’ and if you are spending big money on a marquee player, it makes no sense to try and save money on the manager.

There would be a plethora of other possibilities on top of those I mentioned and if Sydney FC are serious about making a splash both on and off the field, they must learn from their previous mistake of hiring a cheap, local option who couldn’t handle the magnitude of the job.

Or I could just show them my record on Football Manager and do the job myself.

As Advertised

Del Piero vs Heskey

On Saturday I attended Sydney FC’s opening home game of the season against Newcastle. Whilst that’s what the tickets said on them, I think it’s fair to say most of the 35,000 people in attendance were thinking more specifically about seeing Alessandro Del Piero vs. Emile Heskey.

This is a make or break season for the A-League and this game had the potential to heavily influence how successful this season could be. Were the game itself and the marquee players to not live up to the hype, then many casual fans who came to the game or watched it on TV would either lose interest or at least take a step in the wrong direction. However if the game and players did live up to the hype, then it could help the interest of these fans snowball and bring them back for more.

Whilst the result of the match didn’t go the way the majority of the crowd wanted, with Newcastle triumphant 3-2, I don’t think anyone could have asked for a better spectacle. If you asked the A-League to write a list of things they wanted that game to include they would have included:

• Lots of goals and action
• Del Piero scoring (preferably from a free kick or long range shot)
• Heskey scoring
• Overall entertaining game

All four items on the above list happened and the approx $25 I paid for a ticket almost felt like it wasn’t enough. Even as a Sydney FC fan, I didn’t walk away from the game in the mood I usually have when I see the team I support lose, because what I witnessed was bigger than the 3 points on offer.

Having to wait in a queue to enter and exit Allianz Stadium is something I haven’t experienced in years for any sport and the atmosphere was amazing. The Cove was rocking and the Newcastle fans made more noise than you’d think possible from the travelling fans and it’s a credit to both fan clubs.

I went to the game hopeful we were going to get to witness a good spectacle, but having spent the morning watching Argentina put on a show against Uruguay, I worried that I’d walk out remembering that the A-League simply can’t compete for entertainment value against the better quality leagues. Fortunately those worries were put to bed.

Despite the quality of the match and how great it was to see Del Piero and Heskey score high quality goals, it is certainly important that Sydney FC right the ship and start getting some results soon. Sydney is a town that struggles to follow a losing team and if they continue to lose, many fans will eventually drop off no matter how well Del Piero plays.

Ian Crook doesn’t have the luxury of time to build to something. Sydney FC needs to be a contender this season and capitalise on the opportunity they have. I don’t think his job is at risk just yet, but in a couple more weeks that might change if the results don’t.

On the other hand, Newcastle’s attack looked great. Not only Heskey, but his attacking partners in Ryan Griffiths and Craig Goodwin were fantastic. Goodwin is only 20 and the Melbourne Heart will be left kicking themselves for letting him go. It’s a name I think football fans should keep an eye on. Meanwhile to suggest Ryan Griffiths won the battle against brother Adam would be an understatement. Adam was awful in defence for Sydney and once Crook took Adam Griffiths and Terry McFlynn off they looked far better and I hope he has the courage to drop two of his veterans if they are better without them.

Overall I went into this season excited about the prospects of the A-League and I walked away last night even more excited than before. Time will tell whether it was a one-off that I’ll reminisce about one day or whether it really was the start of something.

Carpe Diem A-League

Del Piero introduced to the media

So now that it is the Friday after the Grand Finals it is finally sinking in that footy season, at least AFL and NRL season really is over. Sure it leaves a hole in my heart but the sun is shining and more important I’m genuinely excited for the start of the A-League season.

I, like many people I know, do like the A-League, want it to thrive and desperately want Australia to be a real power in the biggest sport in the world. However, unlike most of my other teams, I can’t claim to go to many games, buy merchandise or buy a membership. I’m a casual fan and I must admit that despite the fact that I want Sydney FC and the A-League to succeed, I don’t do all that much to support it. I’ve been to a couple of games and watch them on TV, but that’s not going to help pay the bills.

This season however really could be the making of the A-League. See whilst the A-League has had marquee signings before that have worked out, such as Dwight Yorke and even Robbie Fowler, what I think was missing from making it really help the league was having multiple star players across the league. The signing of Alessandro Del Piero for Sydney FC is obviously massive in-and-of-itself, but I think the reason this time it might lead to real success for the league is because other teams are also making waves. Newcastle has signed Emile Heskey, the new Western Sydney Wanderers looked close to signing Michael Ballack but have at least ended up with Japanese star Shinji Ono and the pressure is going to be on other teams to start looking for their own big money man.

The MLS in the States has finally caught on and has a loyal fan base and even gets decent coverage on ESPN. They pulled this off both by targeting cities starved for a team to support, but also by bringing in not just David Beckham, but plenty of other big names on the backend of their European career like Thierry Henry and now our own Tim Cahill. Now any game you go to has not only some good local talent, but likely also some guys you used to have to watch on TV as they played in the best leagues in the World.

I already have my tickets to the Sydney FC home opener to see Del Piero vs. Heskey and I’m going in a group with friends who are all equally excited not just for the game, but the season as a whole. The A-League might finally convert us casual fans into fans that actually make a dent in the revenue column.

Of course all this couldn’t come at a more important time for the FFA and the A-League. The existing TV deal is expiring and the league needs serious numbers to justify being paid the serious money it requires to cement itself as one of the premier sports in the country on a professional level.

Were this season to have similar crowd and TV ratings as they have had in recent seasons, I highly doubt the TV contract the sign will meet expectations. I also hope the A-League gets to move on to free-to-air TV as unfortunately not enough people in Australia have Foxtel and to get the mainstream publicity on a regular basis, not just for news stories and player signings, but for the matches themselves, the league needs to get onto FTA TV.

But for the first time, I am confident the A-League can pull it off. After years of teams struggling to pay their bills, changing owners or going under, the 2012-13 season is make or break and I’m actually putting my money on ‘make’.

Hopefully new CEO David Gallop gets to walk into a league with increasing revenue, ratings and crowd numbers as a shiny new TV contract (which he interestingly has been actively left out of, but that’s another story).

The season kicks off tonight with the Melbourne Derby and I hope it’s the start of something big.