We Are The Reds

Interesting that Piet's in Adelaide. He's obviously here more than I originally thought.

Interesting that Piet's in Adelaide. He's obviously here more than I originally thought.

He's more or less based here now. I believe he lives in Semaphore. His Twitter account gives his location as Adelaide too.

I'm all for a local coach.

What we need, though, is a solid club philosophy around which criteria are developed. These should be public and understood so fans and the community can get behind them.

We then recruit coaches that best fit these criteria (be they playing style, youth development, community connections). Too often we recruit coaches on the basis "they did well elsewhere" as opposed to the playing style their teams adopt and their approach to youth development.

We seemed to start to develop this under Gumby and then Amor however for some reason junked the approach in the appointment of Kurz.

I'm all for a local coach.

What we need, though, is a solid club philosophy around which criteria are developed. These should be public and understood so fans and the community can get behind them.

We then recruit coaches that best fit these criteria (be they playing style, youth development, community connections). Too often we recruit coaches on the basis "they did well elsewhere" as opposed to the playing style their teams adopt and their approach to youth development.

We seemed to start to develop this under Gumby and then Amor however for some reason junked the approach in the appointment of Kurz.

I feel there is a fairly clear direction the club is walking in. Youth development is very clear. Bruce often discusses attacking and entertaining football. Local players are high on their agenda as well I feel.
I think the owners are very set on developing their own version of the City Group where international clubs aim to build mutually advantageous decisions together.

I'm all for a local coach.

What we need, though, is a solid club philosophy around which criteria are developed. These should be public and understood so fans and the community can get behind them.

We then recruit coaches that best fit these criteria (be they playing style, youth development, community connections). Too often we recruit coaches on the basis "they did well elsewhere" as opposed to the playing style their teams adopt and their approach to youth development.

We seemed to start to develop this under Gumby and then Amor however for some reason junked the approach in the appointment of Kurz.

I feel there is a fairly clear direction the club is walking in. Youth development is very clear. Bruce often discusses attacking and entertaining football. Local players are high on their agenda as well I feel.
I think the owners are very set on developing their own version of the City Group where international clubs aim to build mutually advantageous decisions together.

The youth development and local player usage has been fantastic, however I'd like to see more consistency in the style of football on the pitch.

I'm all for a local coach.

What we need, though, is a solid club philosophy around which criteria are developed. These should be public and understood so fans and the community can get behind them.

We then recruit coaches that best fit these criteria (be they playing style, youth development, community connections). Too often we recruit coaches on the basis "they did well elsewhere" as opposed to the playing style their teams adopt and their approach to youth development.

We seemed to start to develop this under Gumby and then Amor however for some reason junked the approach in the appointment of Kurz.

I feel there is a fairly clear direction the club is walking in. Youth development is very clear. Bruce often discusses attacking and entertaining football. Local players are high on their agenda as well I feel.
I think the owners are very set on developing their own version of the City Group where international clubs aim to build mutually advantageous decisions together.

The youth development and local player usage has been fantastic, however I'd like to see more consistency in the style of football on the pitch.

IMO there has been consistency, they didn't renew's contract Kurz because he was playing a defensive style of football and refused to promote youth and attend youth matches. They then hired Verbeek who played an open attacking style and promoted youth. IMO we are the club with the clearest club culture and philosophy in the country. I think we are one of the few clubs who doesn't feel like a 'franchise' in this league.

Since the Club’s foundation in 2003, there have been eight Head Coaches appointed across the 16 seasons. Of those, only three Australian coaches have ever guided our A-League team.

Too often, the Club’s football philosophy has been predicated on the background, character, management style and tactical preferences of each coach.

Further, an ever-changing football philosophy has been counterproductive when trying to consistently engage our members and fans, as well as creating additional challenges for our player development pathway.

Based on the above, we are developing, what we believe, is the right criteria and values to sustain the long term success of our Club.

https://www.adelaideunited.com.au/news/ ... ruce-djite

To me that reads that the club is keen on a local coach (especially one from SA). But they need to be willing to work within the vision and direction the club is heading. So I'd imagine they are keen on a manager to run the side not a coach to operate the club.

Looks like Bruce is reading your posts Blahblah!

Looks like Bruce is reading your posts Blahblah!

Hah! I am a parochial bastard so find the SA content of AUFC utterly compelling and would dearly love for that to extend to our coaching make-up.

To have a South Australian club, dominated by South Australian players, promoting South Australian youth and driven by the football culture fostered within the state via a local coach - I'd be one happy southern hairy nosed wombat

We are getting there.

I've been thinking that Verbeek is probably the worst (permanent) manager the club has had so far, even counting Kosmina's two stints separately.

Winning the FFA cup is definitely an achievement and his exit was in extremely unusual circumstances. But the only other two candidates I can think of (Coolen and Kosmina v2) did not have the FFA Cup available to them.

Looks like Bruce is reading your posts Blahblah!

Hah! I am a parochial bastard so find the SA content of AUFC utterly compelling and would dearly love for that to extend to our coaching make-up.

To have a South Australian club, dominated by South Australian players, promoting South Australian youth and driven by the football culture fostered within the state via a local coach - I'd be one happy southern hairy nosed wombat

We are getting there.

Was thinking the same when i read Bruce's article, it was almost a word for word recap of yesterdays conversation on the forum.

Hi Bruce, good to know you're watching

On Verbeek being the worst, i'm no major fan but don't think he was the worst. During his short stint we did play some very attractive football, won a Cup and he did unearth the Toure brothers who he said none of the other coaches had mentioned to him. Think he did what hes done at most clubs hes coached, pissed people off part way through his stint with his harsh nature and then completely lost the players by the end. For me Coolen has him beat. He inherited one of the best teams weve ever had (Eugene, Flores, Van Dijk, Cassio, Reid, Leckie etc) and by the time he left they we're a rabble, leaving only litigation over his contract at the end of his stint....

I agree about Coolen being the worst. Verbeek had faults for sure but he was playing attacking football and I did enjoy watching a lot of the games last season. I think he was hard done by with some recruiting as well. I enjoyed watching Verbeek AUFC over Kurz AUFC but I really miss Gombau AUFC, he brought in the style, the players and the personality. If we could find that in an Aussie coach I'd be so very happy but like unearthing a quality player, they don't stick around, off to bigger and better things.... like Melbourne city? Or WSW? Huh???

Bruce tells it like it is!

We want an " Australian coach " ...

On Verbeek being the worst, i'm no major fan but don't think he was the worst. During his short stint we did play some very attractive football, won a Cup and he did unearth the Toure brothers who he said none of the other coaches had mentioned to him. Think he did what hes done at most clubs hes coached, pissed people off part way through his stint with his harsh nature and then completely lost the players by the end. For me Coolen has him beat. He inherited one of the best teams weve ever had (Eugene, Flores, Van Dijk, Cassio, Reid, Leckie etc) and by the time he left they we're a rabble, leaving only litigation over his contract at the end of his stint....

Coolen was uniquely terrible in the end. Over time he definitely had the largest negative effect and the new owner's giving him an absurd contract gave him unique destructive license at the time.

But he did start with a then league record unbeaten streak. and if you were to retroactively terminate Coolen's contract at the same point Verbeek's has been, I'd argue that Coolen has the better record. Where Verbeek had been unsalvagable for at least a month prior.

We need to commit to a coach from Australia and actually give them time to prove themselves. Minimum 2 years, even if results are a bit below expectation....as long as they are following the culture we want.

We need to commit to a coach from Australia and actually give them time to prove themselves. Minimum 2 years, even if results are a bit below expectation....as long as they are following the culture we want.

I agree. Sadly a lot of people don't have that sort of patience.