The Big Question

Big name needed:

Nothing gets fans, players and media more excited than appointing a coach with solid international standing. And after the disappointment of failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, a spark of celebrity is exactly the kind of boost UAE football needs to fast-track a reaction ahead of their hosting of the 2019 Asian Cup, and neighbouring Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup.

I’m thinking Fabio Capello, Roberto Mancini, Frank de Boer, Laurent Blanc or Claudio Ranieri, who are all currently out of work. Critics will say that the money spent on their salary could be better spent on something else, but can you really put a price on the effect a big name coming in will have on the squad?

Not only will it raise attention here but it will also get the international media looking in and with that comes pressure to perform and players scrambling to compete for selection. Off the back of this outside attention, UAE players will get noticed and a big name coach will have the contacts to help them with moves abroad — something that is desperately needed here to raise national team standards.

The other argument is that the UAE has had big name coaches before and it hasn’t worked, but what do you class as hasn’t worked? The UAE were arguably in their footballing infancy back when the likes of Don Revie took over in 1977, but he built the framework of a system that saw the UAE go on to qualify for the 1990 World Cup, which remains their first and only appearance.

UAE football has matured since then and Mahdi Ali has put a good foundation in place ready for a big name to take it further. They may be new to local football, but sometimes it takes an outsider to see things differently.

Internal selections may have knowledge on a local level, but how does that help when they go up against international competition? None of the local candidates have great international experience either barring perhaps Al Wahda coach Javier Aguirre, who used to manage Mexico and Japan.

The compromise would be to appoint a big name coach with local experience, like Diego Maradona or Fabio Cannavaro, but they also haven’t achieved much as coaches, so it needs to be a big name from outside.

Local experience needed

The UAE’s search for a coach needs to go no further than the Arabian Gulf League. Currently, there is a wide selection of well-established coaches involved in the local scene. Most of them boast impressive CVs.

There is no need to bring in an expensive, ‘big name boss’ when the UAE has done that before and it has not worked.

The UAE needs someone who understands local football. Understands how to cajole and improve local players and has a deep knowledge of how the game operates here.

Take a step back and think who could be a possible successor to Mahdi Ali — it does not need to be an Emirati, just someone who knows the local scene — and one immediately thinks about Cosmin Olaroiu.

The Romanian, who turns 48 on June 10, is possibly the one with the best credentials. First, he has been a player himself. So understands his players.

Secondly, his coaching job has taken him across the Gulf, starting with Saudi Arabia, then Qatar and now the UAE.

Thirdly, he is young, brash, quick in his thinking and a strategist who has often got credit for outthinking opponents.

Close on his heels can be Ivan Jovanovic, who was discarded by Al Nasr following a string of adverse results at the end of last year. Even though the Serbian spent most of his managerial career in Greece, his results in the UAE have proved beyond doubt that he has the acumen to contest for the national job.

Starting in 2013, Jovanovic spent three years with Al Nasr, and during this period the team claimed the GCC Champions League in 2014, followed by twin success in the President’s Cup and Arabian Gulf Cup in 2015. This was followed by a quarter-final appearance of the Blue Wave in the AFC Champions League.

I feel that one of these two ought to get the nod as the next UAE coach who will lead the nation at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup — hosted, of course, by the UAE. The larger picture, of course, should be a qualifying spot at the 2022 Fifa World Cup being hosted by Qatar. And that’s why someone with local knowledge is imperative.