Coach rumour - Adrian Heath?

Doesn't seem like a very good choice for the players he's going to find around here or the name of the team. Unless English 1st division football has recently developed a latin flair.

However, it does seem like the sort of coach that a Stoke City owner would hire.

 

Team From To Games Won Lost Drawn
Coventry 17-01-2007 19-02-2007 5 1 3 1
Coventry 06-01-2005 23-01-2005 3 1 2 0
Sheff Utd 15-06-1999 23-11-1999 22 7 10 5
Burnley 07-03-1996 27-06-1997 71 26 27 18

Not much of a record in management:
http://www.soccerbase.com/managers2.sd?managerid=9

 

On STXSoccer.com, posters rumor that the deal is set for Wolfgang Suhnholz to be the coach and Bobby Murphy his assistant. I hope the Heath rumor is true instead. Aztex need to be looking forward, not back - and recycling Wolfie, as much as I love him, is a bad move.

 

I agree that looking forward is a good thing... but I'm not convinced that looking at an English coach is looking forward in the right direction. Of course, I could be entirely wrong, and be looking backward myself, assuming that an English coach would rely too much on the kick and run. Which might be reasonable in the confines of House Park (San Jose employed it pretty well in their previous stadium), but I wonder how effective it'd be in July and August. I also wonder (again, assuming a style of play here) exactly how enthusiastic the local hispanics would be about the style an English coach would bring.

I know it's a delicate balance to thread. The same balance that MLS is working on, and seems to be getting closer to the mark. Not that I have an answer. But I do think we have plenty of coaches here in the US that are perfectly adequate. And probably less expensive.

 

Looked around some on that site, but haven't found the rumor. Could you post a link?

 

True.
Got this press release at 9pm tonight.

"Austin Aztex News Release
For Release on February 21 at 9.00am

Austin, TX – Austin Aztex Soccer Club today announced the appointment of Adrian Heath as Head Coach.

Heath has an outstanding track record in the game both as a player and as a Coach. He played professionally in Europe for over eighteen years, beginning his career with his hometown club Stoke City before moving onto play for Everton, Espanyol, Aston Villa & Manchester City. At Everton, Heath won two League Championships, the F.A. Cup and European Cup Winners Cup in a six year span; his performances for the club earned him a place in the Everton Hall of Fame.

Heath played for two seasons in Spain with Espanyol before returning to English soccer with Aston Villa and then Manchester City. He finished his playing career with Burnley.

After an illustrious playing career Heath turned his skills and attention to Coaching. He has Coached and been an Assistant Coach for more than twelve years, working at the likes of Sunderland AFC, Leeds United, Everton & Coventry City. He currently holds the highest available Coaching qualification, the UEFA Pro License.

Phil Rawlins, President of the Austin Aztex expressed his excitement about the appointment saying. ”I am absolutely delighted that Adrian has agreed to join the Aztex, he is an outstanding Coach and human being with an infectious enthusiasm for the game. Once he declared his interest, he was the only candidate we wanted. I have known Adrian for many years and followed his career closely; he has an eye for a good player which will be critical for us as we build our professional roster for the April 2009 kick-off. First and foremost he is a players Coach, with a great record of developing young players and producing winning teams.”

Heath said “I am overjoyed at the opportunity to Coach the Austin Aztex. I have had several offers recently to Coach in the English League but the chance to build something from scratch with Phil was just too tempting to turndown. I have followed US Soccer closely over the past few years and believe the game here is about to take-off and I want to be a part of that.”

 

Is this the man himself?

 

Doesn't seem too excitement about it.

That facial expression has Tommy Lee Jones written all over it.

 

Hello and welcome, Aztexan. If anyone is wondering, btw, BigSoccer user "Aztexan" doesn't have anything to do with my blog, "The Aztexan". I'm sure we both just thought of the same (rather obvious) name separately. ;-)

 

Welcome to the club, Inchy! (now that he's officially ours, I'll stop "whinging" and support him fully.

Looking forward to a 'meet the coach' event!

I wonder who's going to be overseeing the tryouts. I guess he can come over for a couple weekends without needing any permit.

 

A comment from the Q&A:

I think it might.

...Maybe that's that British dry wit displaying itself.

One way or the other, the choice is starting to grow on me. If he can talk to the Spanish media here in town, then between the Chronicle and that, he'll have the market covered that will have any interest in dealing with the Aztex.

 

Sounds like he has a pretty solid pedigree and background. Surely he'll hire some people with local knowledge that can also help with the Spanish. We're lucky to have someone with this kind of experience IMHO.

 

You would have to be an idiot to ignore the Hispanic market in Austin - for players or fans.

The people running this team are not idiots. Just look at the team name.

 

I'm starting to be convinced (though I find it a little odd that they had the coach announcement over in England). My reactions are knee-jerk, I know. It's just that I've followed the USL since the beginning of the Lone Stars, so I've seen far too many idiots involved with the USL.

...'Idiots' is your word. Now that I think about it, what I really mean is 'naive.' They're not idiots, they're just people that don't really realize what they're getting into.

It helps a lot that Rawlins is currently a soccer owner. So he has connections and experience in the sport. I'd like to see more people on the team with US sports experience (which is different from England sports management experience). But it's nice to read on his blog that he's talking to a lot of experienced people and adjusting his plans.

Something that is way smarter than a lot of other folks that have tried soccer in other cities.

 

That's what I was especially happy to see: the openness to learn, and the willingness to change their plans. It's easy to imagine a much less flexible attitude, an attitude more of, "we know what we're doing, let's show them how it's done".

 

Could Chapulin or some other Spanish speaker give us gringos the highlights of the Spanish version of the Aztex site Heath interview? It's clearly a little different, 'cause it ends with some question about Hugo Sanchez.

 

This is what I got, but anyone who is fluent, feel free to correct, since it's been a while since my Spanish classes and I had to use Google to verify some things:
------------
The time for waiting has ended. After carefully searching for a technical director of the appropriate level for the team, finally the Austin Aztex, directed by its owner Phil Rawlins, announced that Englishman, Adrian Heath, will be responsible for the club.

{Bio details}

With 12 years experience as a player and 14 from the bench, and licensed by UEFA to coach professionally, the Englishman is more than what Austin could ask for debut in the USL.

_________
A celebrity of English football, considered one of the 25 best players in the history of Everton, where he played over 300 matches. With more than a decade of experience in English, Spanish and Champions' League football, Adrian Heath is happy with the opportunity to lead the Aztex. The new coach, visited Austin to work out details of his contract and to learn about the city which will be his home beginning in April.

Happy for the opportunity he's received, Heath walks us through the grounds of the Capitol while he tells us his plans for the Aztex: "We want the team to succeed, we won't settle for participating because it's the first season. We have a year to play with the U23s, and will use the time to see players and form a competitive team to debut in the 1st division (USL1) in 2009," said the coach.

Q: Is it difficult to form the team?
A: Surely, if we started from scratch, but we have a year to see players, or bring them in from anywhere in the world, young or not so young, to form a good team.

Q: What will you look for in the players who come to tryouts in March?
A: Enthusiasm, determination, talent, ability, and obviously something different from everyone else. No matter the age, race, religion, or nationality, all are going to have the same opportunity, so we invite all the players of Austin to come and show us what the can do with a ball. There are no height or weight requirements, the only thing we want is people with talent who know how to play a position on the pitch.

Q: Do you already have a base of players?
A: Not a single one. My list is blank and will be composed of whoever wins a place. We will seek the 25 best performers in March and throughout the year.

Q: What is the advantage of being a subsidiary of Stoke City?
A: I was born in Stoke, it was my first professional team, also the owner of the Aztex is director of Stoke City, it's logical that we have an excellent relationship with the team in first place in the league (Championship), who may be in the Premiership next year. The benefit is that any play who has Aztex talent will be able to go to England to train and maybe play with the team.

Q: What have you been told about football in Austin?
A: I'm told that there were some attempts at professional football, but for some reason they were not successful. We want to demonstrate that Austin will support a professional team, which could become the next closest thing to an MLS team.

Q: You come from one of the best leagues in the world, what do you think of MLS?
A: With Beckham came a lot of publicity, but also with Angel and a few others. I think that soccer has improved to date. Our teams used to come for preseason and win easily, but now they have to work to get a result. Today important players arrive who are still of a good age to play, before they came to retire. You can see it in Beckham of Real Madrid who came from Spain and Angel playing at Aston Villa in the Premiership. It's improved at the national team level too, playing the US is known to be difficult.

Q: Do you have an idea of how many hispanics are in Austin?
A: Since I talked to Phil about coaching the team, I began to study the population and city. I know that there are 30% hispanics and most of them are Mexicans. And we definitely have to involve them in our team. That is the message we want to give everyone, this is your team and there is opportunity to play on a professional team, regardless of color or race.

Q: Speaking of Mexico, have you ever played against Hugo Sanchez?
A: Yes, I've played against the legend, Hugo Sanchez. I played in Espanyol (RCD Espanyol de Barcelona) and lost against Real Madrid, which also had Gordillo, Michel, Butragueno, Sanhis, Schuster, Chendo Buyo, a fantastic team. Hugo Sanchez was great, and the Mexicans are very passionate, which I learned when I went to 2 Mexico matches in the World Cup. They are fans we want to have.

 

Cool, I hadn't seen your Aztexan blog. I'll change my user name to avoid confusion, soon as I think of a better one. It was a kind of spur-of-the-moment thought; neither original nor researched, obviously. Sorry.

 

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Me either, for the record.

 

He just wants an out. He can post something controversial on his blog, then blame you.