In a recent post, I highlighted how Louis Van Gaal had been appointed as manager of Barcelona not long after he had been tactically outwitted by Mick McCarthy, a man who never was and never will be considered by the Catalan giants. Similarly, Avram Grant’s reward for Israel collecting 18 points in the qualifiers for the 2006 finals was a stint in charge of Chelsea. Brian Kerr managed 17 points - the only difference between their results was Israel drew at home to France whereas Ireland lost to Les Bleus. He got the sack by the FAI and it was only this year that he returned to a manager’s job in the bleak outpost of the Faroe Islands.
I am now quickly coming to the conclusion that managers from Ireland do not seem to have the same knack of falling on their feet as counterparts from other countries. On Sunday morning, in the absence of anything better on, I was watching the UEFA-produced Champions League programme and there was a piece on CSKA Moscow covering Juande Ramos’ sacking and his replacement by Leonid Slutsky.
Both Slutsky’s name and face rang a bell and a google search confirmed that he had been in charge of Krylya Sovetov when they were knocked out of the Europa League by St Patrick’s Athletic. Now, while that was seen- and rightly so - as an incredible achievement in this parts, you would have thought they would take a different view in Russia, especially when Slutsky had high-profile players like Jiri Jarosik and Jan Koller at his disposal.
I actually assumed Slutsky had been sacked afterwards but had never checked. It turns out he wasn’t, despite a run of just three wins in his last 16 league games before he was summoned to Moscow. Jeff Kenna’s run in his last 16 league games was better; St Pat’s won five times. I’m not defending the job Kenna did at Richmond Park. He made poor signings, a poor decision to base himself in England and at times his players did not look like they knew what they were supposed to be doing which was ultimately his responsibility.
However, it does seem a little unfair that he lost his job and has spent the last few months sending in CVs to clubs in the lower leagues in England like Rotherham United, Darlington and Aldershot while a manager he got the better of – despite the disparity in the resources available to them – has waltzed into a job in a club in the Champions League and where he has players of the quality of Igor Akinfeev, Evgeni Aldonin, Sergei Ignashevich and Mark Gonzalez with whom to work.
On Tuesday, they are in action at Old Trafford where they could do with getting a result to boost their hopes of overtaking Wolfsburg to take second spot in Group B. A little different from Richmond Park eh? But I think it will be a similar result for Slutsky. Clearly, Ladbrokes agree with Manchester United priced at 2/7. Best odds are Unirea Urziceni at 10/11 to beat Rangers. I’m going for a €20 double on them with Sevilla (4/11) and a €20 treble with those two and Salzburg (10/11). Finally, I’m putting €10 on APOEL Nicosia at 7/2.
P.S. Monaghan United have to be worth a punt to beat Wexford Youths on Tuesday night at 10/11. Wexford fielded a strong team in the friendly against Wolves on Monday and two games in 24 hours and a long journey in between for Mick Wallace’s side should mean a home win.
