http://www.dhnet.be/dhsports/article.phtml?id=155135 An interview with the sackee has the heading "Onyewu, it's me or him". Ex-coach Boskamp speaks of a half time incident in Bucarest with a player that he at first won't name but a sentence later it is clear that it is Gooch. If I remember correctly Gooch didn't play in that game supposedly because of injury but it was widely speculated on the Standard boards that it was so he would not be cup tied in case of a transfer. Boskamp says of the "incident": That isn't as important as it seems. That's in the past. Everyone can way what they think in the locker room but you must respect the coach. If we accept one thing from one player and something different from another it becomes a (mess). I am not changing my ways. So I said to Preud'homme (who is I assume the technical director) : it's him or me. Apparently he chose him (laughs). Was it a discussion about the player? Yes. But life goes on. For Gooch and for me. In other Gooch news, the claim by the management that Real Madrid put in a offer for Gooch is widely disbelieved on the Standard message board. A poster who claims to follow the Real Madrid boards says he saw nothing about this and this claim is not reported anywhere else beside the Standard official web site. Also, during a friendly over the weekend with a B side from the French squad Valenciennes that Standard lost 3 - 0, Gooch played 67 minutes with 20 minutes of that apparently at forward. This is presumably to offer back up at a position they are thin at (shades of Troy Brown of the NE Patriots). He also wore the captain's armband when he was in the game.
so is it fair to now say that gooch got the coach sacked? that could be a bad rep to carry around. did gooch do or say something that the coach wanted to discipline but the management did not? did the management want gooch held out of that game but the coach wanted to play him? sleuthing required.
Actually no .... you it's not fair to say that Gooch got the coach fired. That's taking the events and twisting them in a way that a spindoctor would be proud of. The COACH got the coach fired. The coach was the one that said.... me or him... and lost. If Gooch had told management "Hey it's me or the coach" and the coach got fired, then we could say Gooch got the coach fired, but that's not the story I see here.
i did not mean directly, just indirectly. maybe the coach didn't have a choice if he didn't want to look toothless. that's why i want to know what led to the "him or me" ultimatum from the coach.
so from this we see that the manager believes Gooch said something inappropriate at halftime of a game he wasn't playing, but in which the manager thought Gooch should be playing? Wow, heated words in the locker room, that's never happened before, has it? if this is an accurate portrayal, i can imagine the conversation being along the lines of Gooch responding ( maybe in naughty words) to a pointless provocation from the (losing and angry) manager... I think wer've seen this one before. Surpised he didn't throw a boot at Gooch. OTOH, by crashing out of the CL, the club lost out on a good chunk of change, to play in the cup, which is little better than a break-even for a lot of clubs. I can imagine he wasn't in position to make any demands at the time.
Was Gooch on the matchday roster? Perhaps the coach told him to come in for the 2nd half, and he refused. Or perhaps Gooch said in the locker room that he could have played but didn't want to risk the chance of getting transferred to Real Madrid. I doubt it, but in either case, Gooch did something really f'ed up.
from reading the above, how do you know Gooch did something really f'ed up? i'm not saying he didn't, but how do you know he did? i'm just wondering if i missed something in reading all that stuff.
At the very least, it sure looks like he really ticked off his manager. May not have been a huge mistake on his part, we simply don't know. Just looks really odd.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/match?id=204816&cc=5901 Umm, my memory that Gooch didn't play was incorrect. The game in Bucarest was the second leg that he did play in. He was substituted for in the 64' by Coelho who is apparently another defender. At the time Gooch hadn't played much so it could have been a fitness issue. Or not.
Sorry, bad writing on my part. I imagined two possible scenarios, and opined that both would be f'ed up. Whether either scenario is true, I don't know any more than you do. I was just opening people up to the possibility that Gooch did something wrong.