Often in sport success can hide the fact that things are not going quite as well as the results would have you believe.
There are many that believe England winning the world cup in 1966 held back the advancement of the game in that country by close to twenty years. The argument carried weight when England failed to qualify for the ’74 and 78 World cups despite a wealth of talent.
It would appear that the same may be the case in Adelaide, with Adelaide United. Club captain Travis Dodd is believed to be very close to signing for Perth Glory and Ian Fyffe has already left for Korea, others are expected to follow.
Despite their 8-1 mauling of North Queensland Fury who are surely on the verge of the last rites, Hindmarsh stadium is not a happy camp, and the clubs new owners face a massive decision as the team prepares for the 2010/11 finals series. Do they listen to the players or do they back the coach?
The team currently sits third one point behind the Central Coast Mariners but it is believed that the players will be making a stance this week against the coach, Rini Coolen, and the club’s owners are going to have to handle the situation very carefully if they are not to derail their season at the time when results matter most.
Nevyn, I think it is a slightly different scenario to Brisbane, and so a similar approach is probably not going to work.
Word is that it is not just the players who feel this way. A case of watch this space…
Adelaide currently sit 3rd, one point off second and despite ownership issues at the start of the season, they’ve managed to build themselves into an entertaining and successful team.
If I were the owners, I’d tell them to look at the example of Ange at Brisbane, he kicked out all the older players that didn’t want to do what was required of them. He brought in young players who wanted to work and improve under his coaching and they’ve thrived and are considered to have played the best football in the A-Leagues short history.
If Adelaide players want to leave, let them, there are plenty of youngsters out there who would want a crack at playing at the top level who will gladly go along with Coolen’s coaching.