Nice analysis above. I think the comparisons to previous two season periods is fair.
Is he on the first year of a two year deal at the moment? I think if the league remains as close as it is at the moment (3 wins separating 2nd and 12th), then making finals could be enough to not fire him mid-deal. Depends a lot on our performances relative to the rest of the league. Do I have it right that none of the other regimes that you included were fired mid-season but just had contracts run out and we didn’t renew?
I think if we were sitting 7th or 8th but were still playing well in a tight league it would be viewed differently to the present situation where we are obviously playing like garbage and deserve to be down the bottom.
If we’re using the ordinariness of other teams as our gauge of success, then we are definitely regressing as a club. How would we ever be able to take the next step in Asia for example if our worth is defined by finding 6-7 worse sides in this comp which is full of broke clubs?
Having said that, if the club do resist the urge to part ways and we see a 2nd half of the season where progress is clearly being made, maybe he could hang on. 4th of 5th with momentum is a different matter to the current floundering nature of our performances.
Also home form has to be a huge concern. Fun fact, we are 11th in the league on home form, with one fantastic win and one jammy undeserved draw vs 10 men the only refuge in our sea of defeats. Hilariously, the only team below us are Australia’s Shame but with 2 fewer home games. Similarly we are 11th in the current form table (again above only AS).
Amor won both the Prem and Champ and Coach of the Year
Mombaerts had a good record at City and left on his own accord (57% win rate) losing GF to us.
And of course Dwight won the FA Cup at first try
Litti won the first season with us also.
But I do agree with your general point, and it is happening now - all current coaches excluding Pappas (and lets include Paddy K) have played in the A-League and I think the generally benefits the league.
In saying that, I think SFC should look abroad if Corica goes.
Interesting subject of foreign coaches needing to adjust to the constraints of the A-League but I’m not so sure it should be such a hurdle.
Other than perhaps in England most countries/clubs don’t hand their squad management over to a coach/manager right? It should be the same here. A football department handles the squad planning in close consultation with the manager. I would also think that any manager coming from a culture that is used to having a football department performing that function shouldn’t find it so problematic here. Plus every league in the world bar a couple has financial constraints and pecking orders. Managers that don’t have those constraints would never be a part of our consideration in any case.
Typically I think they have a different reporting line up to CEO/MD/Chairman or whoever is top dog.
Obviously you would want the relationship with a manager to be harmonious but that separation is supposed to provide a bit of a protection against being overly committed to a single person in the manager. The football department provides long term continuity and planning.
Not many leagues that we would be sourcing a manager from would encounter the constraints around visa players that we have here.
If you’re the manager of a club in the EU and you want to bring someone in you have a pool of 27 countries from which to find a player.
If the new manager here wants to bring in a new player they have to be Australian unless we move a visa player on. The pool from which they have to select players is a lot smaller than what they would be used to.
Imagine the new manager going to the football department and asking them to find a new CB to replace Donachie and when they get back to him his choices are Luke De Vere & Patrick Flottman.
Except that Corica was obviously banking on both Rodwell and Wilkinson being fit for most/all of the season. If they were, Donachie would’ve been on the bench most/all of the time.
if Corica was banking on Rodwell being fit for most of the season he definitely deserves the arse. Dumbest decision ever. Any fool could tell Rowell had a decent chance of being injured a fair bit of the season…and I am 1 of those fools
