Managerial Merry-Go-Round 2020 • new coach of Canada/England & more

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Who's out?

Australia's Ante Milicic is heading to a new club in the men's A-League, a move disrupted by the rescheduling of the Olympics.

Canada: Kenneth Heiner-Møller leaves to a chorus of widespread shrugging, going to a Danish FA job afaik.

England: Phil Neville's contract won't be renewed. As a novice coach who took on a job badly tainted off-field by his predecessor, England reached the 2019 World Cup semifinal, but went off the rails in a series of 'Nonsense Games' (his least favourite kind).

Nigeria: The African champions' coach Thomas Dennerby quit in a pay dispute in October; the NFF only wants a new coach from abroad but still no word.

Who will they bring in?
Who should they bring in?

Possible replacements include Ross Aloisi for Australia, and Rhian Wilkinson for Canada.

But they'll look abroad too... England certainly are. Domestic league managers Emma Hayes and Casey Stoney have been in the running - but the English FA could appoint the team's first overseas coach, using the highly original logic, "Let's get a manager from the Women's World Cup final? Or both?"

Round and round they go. - (img: Travel dreamer, cc-by-sa)​

On The Forum:

Jill Ellis in 2015
(cc-by Anders Henrikson)​

A new report in Australia at the weekend:

The media and Twitter trollosphere have now appointed 4 different people as New Manager Of England ... maybe they could try waiting for facts.

(By the way, here's a visual depiction of Jill Ellis's Price)

(Quite reasonable, really.)​

• Other names on England's not-so-shortlist include Australian coach Joe Montemurro (Arsenal), and Nick Cushing, recently moved to New York from Man City, where Gareth Taylor replaced him. Also there were 142 applications for the job.

• Elsewhere, France's Corinne Diacre has been on the defensive after unrest in the camp and outside this year.

• Where Diacre was a trailblazer as a female coach in men's football in France, others have followed - in Norway, 26-year-old Renate Blindheim is the new manager of men's 2nd-division club Sotra.

• And in the U.S., Los Angeles is going to have a women's team coached by Serena Williams and Natalie Portman, or something.

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Would be a sideways step, at best..

The Australian FFA wants to appoint "The best in the world"... Well, don't we all.

The chief exec isn't giving any hints. Unless:

Stoney: New Australia frontrunner
(img: James Boyes, cc-by)​

Melissa Barbieri supports Joe Montemurro for Australia but says the time might not be right.

^ Joke, obv, but Montemurro himself has an interesting recommendation: base the Aus national team in London for camps and its World Cup warm-up. And who lives in North London...?
https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/make-london-matildas-home-away-from-home-says-montemurro

 

Ah. So, Anna Signeul turned them down

It's a bit sad, it feels like they'll "break up the band"...

This merry-go-round is spinning at full speed now! Linking Phil Neville with Australia sounds like 'merry-go-round' thinking (plus, Daily Mail) but you never know. Earlier he said he'd like to try club management, which would surely be a better career move, and closer to home.

Also, since he dismissed a game as 'nonsense' right after losing it, he's probably more USWNT material...

No news of Nigeria or Canada yet. (But the women's CAF/Fifa financial help this week is the big story.)

Wiegman and Groenen: stay or go?
(img: Emma Coolen, 2017)​

 

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Annoyingly I had the song, 'Cash-strapped Matildas, CASH-strapped Matildas' in my head all day

Cash strapped FFA may settle for local Matildas coach - (TheWomensGame.com)

The reason being the federation's reduction in revenue in the A-League TV deal.

Still, Australia has 4 interesting candidates.
Any names you'd prefer? I don't really know who else is on the scene over there.
If they choose right, this could be the coach who leads them as hosts in the 2023 World Cup.

If they're thinking of hiring from across the Tasman, I can moderately recommend the Western Springs coach - he shouts a lot, and they'll never be short of a good pizza

 

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And Sarina Wiegman made the well-known mistake which all England managers make:

Wiegman takes England job
www.football-oranje.com/netherlands-women-lose-wiegman-to-england

^ You mean the Dutch (excellent team in its prime), right?
From a football perspective I think it's true. But there are so many off-field factors too, nowadays. And €/£

In any case, Wiegman has one more year on her contract with Oranje and says she's committed to it:

Do you think so? They would have the assistant, Foppe van Haan as the most obvious caretaker manager, but it feels like this wasn't in their plans.
A departing Wiegman might still the best person to take them to the Olympics? (If the Olympics happen?) My, these are uncertain times.

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Canada are still quiet on their next national coach - Rhian Wilkinson is a candidate - or possibly Bev Priestman could return to the team from England:
https://canpl.ca/article/laura-armstrong-on-onesoccer-hangout-who-should-canwnt-hire-as-new-coach (Archive)


The former Canada manager Carolina Morace, who briefly worked as a club director in Australia, is one of three names shortlisted for the AUS national team, according to reports:

Italian legend in mix to coach Australia's 'platinum generation'
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer...ia-s-platinum-generation-20200921-p55xpb.html (Archive)

Morace: In the running for the Matildas
(Footballfanfootballfan, cc-by-sa)​

'Platinum generation'? Spare me...

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In Nigeria, the managerial announcement was meant to happen this month - but it's being delayed by "paperwork".

[DRAMATIZATION]​

The Swedish coach Dennerby was lobbying to return! And so soon after he quit. The Nigerian Football Federation has also looked to the Netherlands and U.S., with some home candidates too, as detailed below. I just wish the Premium Times had gone further with the nautical metaphors...

ANALYSIS: Top managers that may take over Nigeria Women’s National Team

"Indeed, no ship can survive the storm or get to its destination without the help of an experienced and well-skilled captain on board to steady it through. It is a given that every national team needs top-class managers with technical savvy to climb the ladder of success."
- (PremiumTimesNG.com / Archive)

The ex-Nigeria interim coach Florence Omagbemi was offered an assistant's job at the most, despite her winning record with the team - and, as the last line mentions about her citizenship, she somewhat undermines the NFF's position on 'foreign' managers.
https://booday10.com/2020/09/17/super-falcons-job-omagbemi-deserves-better/

Omagbemi in 2016 - (Guardian.ng)​

 

That's really interesting!
It would fit with what Montemurro suggested earlier, about where the Australia team's main base should be. He said they should move the team to Albuquerque, er, to London.

^ Australia. (in Asia)
(Ilya Grigorik, cc-by-sa)​

Which is very unusual, but it would make some sense for the team on a practical level, and it would allow me to make fun of them for several years. So, I'm all for it!
("Australia: They're playing an away game, in Sydney", etc)

 

They're moving the team to Australia?!

So, the "late twist" Emma Hayes rumour was untrue, my goodness.

Reaction from former Australia national player Joanne Peters
https://thewomensgame.com/news/who-would-say-no-peters-backs-gustavsson-for-matildas-coach-553935

Gustavsson: Wearing a headset
(img Anders Henrikson, cc-by)​

 

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Canada's leading candidates were profiled in the CBC's report, earlier in October:

Medal hopefuls again, Canada's women's soccer team still needs a head coach
www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/canada-women-soccer-coach-search-signa-butler-1.5746078

On 13 Oct, Canada Soccer said a decision was close - the squad has also had to cancel its training camp in England because of the pandemic.
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/canada-soccer-national-women-team-camp-covid-19-1.5761123

Canada's team in 2015 - (IQRemix, cc-by-sa)​

 

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As published a few weeks ago, Nigeria's new choice for manager, after 12 lost months for the team, is Randy Waldrum. Slightly leftfield appointment, but it'll be fascinating to see how he adapts to the African game and indeed intercontinental football. Twice coach of the U.S. national college champions with Notre Dame, Waldrum took Trinidad & Tobago almost to the Canada 2015 World Cup, and he coached Super Falcon Osinachi Ohale in her time at the Houston Dash. He'll be assisted by ex-GK Ann Chiejine and Sunshine Queens boss Wemimo Olanrewaju.

Like with the last coach Dennerby, the devil might be in the detail. It's still unclear whether Waldrum will combine the Lagos job with his current position at Pittsburgh. He was "appointed" to the Nigeria job before, in 2017, but it fell through. In any case, he'll hope to avoid a repeat of the end of his T&T tenure, where the official reason he was ousted was "slow paperwork".

NFF bigwigs meet over new Super Falcons coach’s terms of contract (8 Oct 2020) - www.guardian.ng/sport/nff-bigwigs-meet-over-new-super-falcons-coachs-terms-of-contract

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[DRAMATIZATION]​