Brian Clough once said, “If a chairman sacks the manager he initially appointed, he should go as well.” Old Big Mouth knew a bit about football.
Last week Melbourne Victory sacked Mehmet Durakovic, at the weekend Kevin Muscat guided them to a win over the Jets, and this week they appointed Jim Magilton as coach to the end of the season. What’s going on at Victory and is there any kind of forward planning involved?
The A-League is all about forward planning. A limited selection of players, with a fixed squad and a salary cap, requires that talent be signed to fit a system and that this system be followed effectively. Ange Postecoglou showed how to do this at Brisbane Roar, Graham Arnold is doing it at the Central Coast Mariners – and given time Gary von Egmond will do it at the Jets.
Time is the essential factor. At the end of last season Victory sacked Ernie Merrick – the most successful coach in the A-League – his assistant Aaron Healey, and football operations manager Gary Cole. They didn’t touch Kevin Muscat. They did this after allowing the trio to re-sign existing squad players, and sign new talent for the coming season. Unable to sell players, and with no ability to release talent without impacting upon the salary cap, this effectively hamstrung the next coach – forcing him to play with a someone else’s squad.
The board then fielded applications from around the world as they searched for the man to take the biggest club in the country to the next level . During this search they interviewed former Ipswich and QPR boss Jim Magilton and decided he wasn’t the man for the job – then returned to Melbourne and hired Mehmet Durakovic on the back of a couple of half-decent games in the Asian Champions League.
It didn’t work out for Mehm and a change was required, so the board got rid of him and decided that Magilton was the right man after all: Magilton who’s been unemployed since the last time they spoke to him. In other words, they made a mistake.
Magilton has been brought in on a short-term contract, to the end of the season, in order to prove himself on the pitch. He’s not assured of being here next season, so he can’t plan for next season. So once again, player retention and signings will be handled in the absence of next year’s coach – no forward planning. In other words, they’ve got it wrong again. Already.
If Magilton – a likeable and well qualified coach, with a good level of experience for our league – succeeds, it will be despite, rather than because of decisions being made by the board. I have no problem with his appointment, only the nature of it. If he’s good enough to coach the club, then give him the time to do the job properly – don’t mess him, and Melbourne, about.