Markus Babbel Sacked

The ability to see issues/problems, and the ability to resolve them are not entirely the same thing, especially when many of those issues are league wide problems and not necessarily specific to WSW or where the situation is not good to resolve our local issues.

How many people to have been involved with the A-League have played in a Champions League final? Gui Amor, Kewell, Babbel, Luis Garcia, David Villa, Dwight Yorke and Del Piero. Funnily enough I think Babbel is the only player to have lost?

Tim Cahill never got to that level, and the only thing Cahill has ever done is 1) **** talk the A-League and 2) Take the FFA's money to play in it before abandoning it. How often has the media criticised him? Arnold got the full support of the media when he said the A-League isn't meant to develop youth players, and then the exact same support when he turned around as the National team head coach to say the A-League needed to develop more youth players.

As for the various media outlets suddenly being less doom & gloom now that JP is over, that's to be expected. People who get paid to be involved with football in Australia always stick together against outsiders. Foreign managers get the whisper campaigns, hell, even Australian managers like Ange got them, simply because the media wanted their mate Arnold back in charge of the country despite his multiple failures. It's a dichotomy, there is a fierce level of infighting & politics at every single level of football here, but come as an outsider and they will turn on you in a heartbeat. 

I have no idea what 'plan' Rugari saw last night that he didn't see before this season. We played the same formation that we've used multiple times under Babbel this season (especially when we still had Majewski), we used roughly the same lineup as we have in many games, and like it has before it looked okay for a patch. And then we fell off the cliff, just like we always do. I struggle to see how ~20 minutes of dominance against one of the fellow worst teams in the league before an hour of being far worse is a new "plan".

The football media in Australia love to complain about how no-one at the clubs or FFA wants to talk to them (and how the FFA apparently doesn't have a media communications manager at the moment?), but when you say something they don't like they turn on you.

On 14/02/2020 at 10:31 PM, mack said:

Old mate has chipped in with a few thoughts.

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/babbel-warns-valverde-of-a-league-perils-in-stinging-critique

 

Well he's not wrong at all is he?

Amazing to think we had better football journalists when the sport was more marginal. Now you mostly get know-nothing flogs like Bossi or knuckle-headed formers like Slater.

12 hours ago, hughsey said:

Everything Babel said there is 100% spot on and it makes people in Australian football very uncomfortable hearing the brutal truth...

When he left the club, I expected him to unleash & say what he couldn’t say in Australia. He had 2 or 3 interviews & he had some hard home truths but to be honest I thought he’d move on, as in be an ambassador & advocate for the league. I’m not saying he should sugarcoat things, he is blunt & says what’s on his mind, it’s not his way.

In saying that, it seems like he has gone the other way however & It seems like he got another opportunity to let out his frustrations. I fear now that anytime Australia should come up in Europe, Babbel will be there to give his 2c about the **** quality, **** youths etc.

A currently unemployed coach with a media profile, and someone known for being a pretty straight shooter, speaks his mind when asked for an opinion by a journalist. Shocking, isn’t it.

There’s no doubt an element of “it’s not my fault” to Babbel’s comments (the more he blames the league, the better he looks to future employers) and I don’t think the league is that bad (the Wanderers, in the other hand...), but at the same time what Babbel says does ring true to a certain extent. Maybe he’ll stop once he’s fully employed again, but until then he’s a lazy option for any journo wanting an easy quote on the league.

The above is all based on the fact he’s either still travelling around Australia or is back in Germany but not yet employed in a football capacity.

15 hours ago, hughsey said:

Everything Babel said there is 100% spot on and it makes people in Australian football very uncomfortable hearing the brutal truth...

Rubbish.

He’s totally sprouting off because he was garbage and while some things he said are true most of it is just random stuff that pops into his head, which is to be expected because that looks like the way he coached.

He first said there was a lack of quality. Well one of the easiest things in football is stopping teams with no quality from scoring, something he couldn’t do.

Then he came out and said Aussie players are ok technically and tactically but not physically. Lol if anything it’s the opposite.

I’m not saying we should shoot the messenger but in this case we should definitely shoot the messenger because he’s talking out his arse. Yeah there’s issues with Australian football but he’s hardly the best man to diagnose them. Take everything he says with a grain of salt because his ability to understand and explain things is terrible. Maybe that’s why the teacher amongst us spotted his shortcoming very early.

Tony Popovic won the ******* Champions League with Haliti, Golec etc. Didn’t hear him whingeing about the state of Australian football.

Outside all of that, there’s the very big difference between his PR video and what he actually thinks. For someone who “tells it like it is” his video, in hindsight, was a stinking pile of PR tripe.

Finally, mate you just got the boot because you couldn’t win a game. Have some respect for yourself and the league and shut the **** up.

10 hours ago, mack said:

The ability to see issues/problems, and the ability to resolve them are not entirely the same thing, especially when many of those issues are league wide problems and not necessarily specific to WSW or where the situation is not good to resolve our local issues.

How many people to have been involved with the A-League have played in a Champions League final? Gui Amor, Kewell, Babbel, Luis Garcia, David Villa, Dwight Yorke and Del Piero. Funnily enough I think Babbel is the only player to have lost?

Tim Cahill never got to that level, and the only thing Cahill has ever done is 1) **** talk the A-League and 2) Take the FFA's money to play in it before abandoning it. How often has the media criticised him? Arnold got the full support of the media when he said the A-League isn't meant to develop youth players, and then the exact same support when he turned around as the National team head coach to say the A-League needed to develop more youth players.

As for the various media outlets suddenly being less doom & gloom now that JP is over, that's to be expected. People who get paid to be involved with football in Australia always stick together against outsiders. Foreign managers get the whisper campaigns, hell, even Australian managers like Ange got them, simply because the media wanted their mate Arnold back in charge of the country despite his multiple failures. It's a dichotomy, there is a fierce level of infighting & politics at every single level of football here, but come as an outsider and they will turn on you in a heartbeat. 

I have no idea what 'plan' Rugari saw last night that he didn't see before this season. We played the same formation that we've used multiple times under Babbel this season (especially when we still had Majewski), we used roughly the same lineup as we have in many games, and like it has before it looked okay for a patch. And then we fell off the cliff, just like we always do. I struggle to see how ~20 minutes of dominance against one of the fellow worst teams in the league before an hour of being far worse is a new "plan".

The football media in Australia love to complain about how no-one at the clubs or FFA wants to talk to them (and how the FFA apparently doesn't have a media communications manager at the moment?), but when you say something they don't like they turn on you.

Agree with much of this but not the Ange thing. Sure Slater probably wanted his mate Arnold as Socceroos coach, but others like Bozza for instance just wanted a winning team. Ange brought the comments - they weren’t whispers - on himself when he asked for more football discussion and then when people criticised his nonsensical approach of using 3 at the back with a Barca style passing game, even though he only had Championship players, he spat the dummy.

People were critical of Babbel and Ange because their approach and results sucked. Just like they were critical of Arnie when his Sydney team came 7th, or when he was a woeful Socceroos coach first time round. And at the moment people are so-so with him.

Yeah Aussie coaches get more leeway but I don’t see too many people rushing to sign Kossie or Aloisi.

6 hours ago, btron3000 said:

Rubbish.

He’s totally sprouting off because he was garbage and while some things he said are true most of it is just random stuff that pops into his head, which is to be expected because that looks like the way he coached.

He first said there was a lack of quality. Well one of the easiest things in football is stopping teams with no quality from scoring, something he couldn’t do.

Then he came out and said Aussie players are ok technically and tactically but not physically. Lol if anything it’s the opposite.

I’m not saying we should shoot the messenger but in this case we should definitely shoot the messenger because he’s talking out his arse. Yeah there’s issues with Australian football but he’s hardly the best man to diagnose them. Take everything he says with a grain of salt because his ability to understand and explain things is terrible. Maybe that’s why the teacher amongst us spotted his shortcoming very early.

Tony Popovic won the ******* Champions League with Haliti, Golec etc. Didn’t hear him whingeing about the state of Australian football.

Outside all of that, there’s the very big difference between his PR video and what he actually thinks. For someone who “tells it like it is” his video, in hindsight, was a stinking pile of PR tripe.

Finally, mate you just got the boot because you couldn’t win a game. Have some respect for yourself and the league and shut the **** up.

He had plenty of criticisms that he wasn’t afraid to voice whilst still here and in a job. I don’t think he’s the sort of bloke to just run his mouth because he didn’t get his own way. You could label him a lot of things but deceitful is not one of them. He’s an honest man, possibly a bit too honest at times.

This is exactly what I’m talking about though. An outsider makes a comment on Australian football and because it’s not a glowing endorsement, as a collective we get so defensive and try to put caveats on particular comments to downplay or disregard them. It’s putting our head in the sand. Just because his own record wasn’t great doesn’t mean his observations and opinion isn’t correct. 

1 hour ago, hughsey said:

He had plenty of criticisms that he wasn’t afraid to voice whilst still here and in a job. I don’t think he’s the sort of bloke to just run his mouth because he didn’t get his own way. You could label him a lot of things but deceitful is not one of them. He’s an honest man, possibly a bit too honest at times.

This is exactly what I’m talking about though. An outsider makes a comment on Australian football and because it’s not a glowing endorsement, as a collective we get so defensive and try to put caveats on particular comments to downplay or disregard them. It’s putting our head in the sand. Just because his own record wasn’t great doesn’t mean his observations and opinion isn’t correct. 

I’m not arguing Babel’s sincerity, just his ability to give good insight. While I am all for listening to people’s opinions no matter who they are, with Babbel it’s so difficult becomes finding wisdom and insight amongst his ramblings is like trying to find a needle ina haystack.

It’s not about putting our heads in the same Hughsey, people know Australian football isn’t perfect. It’s about being able to correctly diagnose the problems and find solutions. Why should we believe Babbel? If you want to get a handle on both the positives and negatives of Aussie football, surely better people to ask are Popa, Muscat, Ange, Merrick. People that have played/coached overseas and had success here.

Regarding Babbel, as has been pointed out by many pundits since he left, his record is worse in the second year with all (most?) of his teams. That is the record of a POOR football coach. So why would we listen to a guy who can’t win ANYWHERE, as he sprouts off about why he couldn’t win here.

And he’s talking as if the whole league is garbage. But he only had experience with one team, that was near bottom when he left. His experiences is us, not the league. He says Sydney were good, well what did you do to challenge them mate?

You talk about Australian football’s attitude. One of the things we need to be able to do is not belittle ourselves to every foreign master. Imagine a coach going to the Premier League, getting fired because he was going to get relegated and then blaming it on the fact that Liverpool and Man City have too much money and there’s too many foreigners in the league. He’d be laughed out of town. 

Ps I do believe our club should take note of what he said and evaluate whether his points are reasonable - e.g. are the juniors good enough to step up - but I don’t think he is 100% right and people are too afraid to listen.

You have to remember that he needs to use the "it wasn't me, it was them" line, as he needs to consider his coaching future. If it was all about the level of Australian football, why are some teams consistently winning and others consistently losing?

Every successful club since in the A-League has been eventually torn apart by the salary cap. Until Sydney FC's recent success started, at which point enough salary cap loopholes and changes were introduced to enable them to stay stable.

At this point I'd be happy to have a team that is good enough to be torn apart by the salary cap.

18 hours ago, mack said:

Every successful club since in the A-League has been eventually torn apart by the salary cap. Until Sydney FC's recent success started, at which point enough salary cap loopholes and changes were introduced to enable them to stay stable.

We did it to ourselves each time