Friday, March 09, 2007
True Local
Suddenly, the media has gone all glowingly positive on Sydney FC, and on their new manager in particular. Thankfully, Branko Culina is experienced enough not to get carried away with things (he has managed Sydney Olympic in the past, after all, and is therefore used to wild mood swings), but the usual fourth estate suspects are lapping up the recent air of optimism.
Michael Cockerill's piece in this morning's SMH was so fluffy it almost belonged in a patisserie:
The banter is back. The smiles are back. Good luck, and good fun. It's a winning combination...
In the course of Cockerill's exuberant tribute to the new order, however, there was a revealing comment from Peter Turnbull, Sydney FC's gregarious part-owner:
Peter Turnbull, proudly wearing his Sydney FC scarf as he clutched a celebratory beer, offered a simple message: "We don't ever need to go overseas for a coach again."
After a wild ride with Pierre Littbarski and then Butcher, Culina's familiarity with his players and his understanding of their needs and their beliefs has made a telling difference. "The foreign coaches need too long to get up to speed," Turnbull says.
Indeed. I could not agree more.
It should be mentioned, however, that Turnbull was well known as Terry Butcher's knight in shining armour on the Sydney FC board during the season just gone, something of which Cockerill should perhaps have made his readers aware.
You would have thought that at the end of the 2005/06 season, Sydney FC's stewards had learned their lesson. It is easy to romanticise the Littbarski era (and many have done so), given the eventual grand final success; the plain truth is that Littbarski took a long, long time to adapt to the players and the culture, that the dressing-room was divided during much of his reign, and that Sydney played much dire football in the A-League's first season.
Yet the board didn't learn their lesson. With Terry Butcher, it was largely a case of same old, same old, with a few extra injuries and unnecessary suspensions thrown in for good measure.
Even now, names such as Arie Haan and Steve Bruce have cropped up with regard to the Sydney coaching position. Characters with no experience in the Australian game, no familiarity with the culture or the players. One hopes that these were simply frivolous rumours.
So far, the Sydney board has been careful not to commit themselves publicly to the retention of Culina after the ACL.
They would be fools not to retain him, success in the ACL or not.
Michael Cockerill's piece in this morning's SMH was so fluffy it almost belonged in a patisserie:
The banter is back. The smiles are back. Good luck, and good fun. It's a winning combination...
In the course of Cockerill's exuberant tribute to the new order, however, there was a revealing comment from Peter Turnbull, Sydney FC's gregarious part-owner:
Peter Turnbull, proudly wearing his Sydney FC scarf as he clutched a celebratory beer, offered a simple message: "We don't ever need to go overseas for a coach again."
After a wild ride with Pierre Littbarski and then Butcher, Culina's familiarity with his players and his understanding of their needs and their beliefs has made a telling difference. "The foreign coaches need too long to get up to speed," Turnbull says.
Indeed. I could not agree more.
It should be mentioned, however, that Turnbull was well known as Terry Butcher's knight in shining armour on the Sydney FC board during the season just gone, something of which Cockerill should perhaps have made his readers aware.
You would have thought that at the end of the 2005/06 season, Sydney FC's stewards had learned their lesson. It is easy to romanticise the Littbarski era (and many have done so), given the eventual grand final success; the plain truth is that Littbarski took a long, long time to adapt to the players and the culture, that the dressing-room was divided during much of his reign, and that Sydney played much dire football in the A-League's first season.
Yet the board didn't learn their lesson. With Terry Butcher, it was largely a case of same old, same old, with a few extra injuries and unnecessary suspensions thrown in for good measure.
Even now, names such as Arie Haan and Steve Bruce have cropped up with regard to the Sydney coaching position. Characters with no experience in the Australian game, no familiarity with the culture or the players. One hopes that these were simply frivolous rumours.
So far, the Sydney board has been careful not to commit themselves publicly to the retention of Culina after the ACL.
They would be fools not to retain him, success in the ACL or not.
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Plenty of SFC fans who'd followed the NSL - including Well-Informed Covite, Giallo and myself - wanted Culina from day one, so I'm delighted that he's there now. If they are stupid enough to get rid of him before the 2007/08 season, then they (the board) deserve all the off-field dramas and dressing-room turmoil they will inevitably get.
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