Al Wasl, Maradona head for collision

When does a need for results outweigh the desire to increase the profile of a club? It is a question the owners of Al Wasl football club are likely to be contemplating on an ongoing basis in relation to the future of coach Diego Maradona.

It is beyond doubt that Maradona has been great not only for the profile of Al Wasl but also for UAE football. Two weeks ago Maradona was juggling tennis balls with his feet with men's number one Novak Djokovic and last week Arsenal and Holland striker Robin van Persie paid a visit to the club.

But while the club's profile has become global, results on the pitch have been in freefall. Just two points from a possible 15 in the Etisalat Pro League has even Maradona admitting hopes of recapturing a title last secured in 2007 are nothing more than a distant dream.

And to compound that gloomy scenario, there was defeat this week in the quarter-final of the President's Cup, the country's premier knock-out competition, to Al Wahda, about the same time they signed a Dh1 million deal with the region's leading fashion brand, MAX, to be their official sponsors for two years.

Voices of dissent

In the face of that downturn in fortunes, Maradona has started to publicly criticise his players, and the players themselves have caught the mood.

Goalkeeper Majid Nasser said after the most recent league loss, against lowly Dubai, that if his team-mates did not improve then he wanted to play elsewhere. He later apologised but the fact he said it in the first place suggests the dressing room is hardly a happy place.

That would be no surprise given two of Maradona's four foreign stars have been abject failures. Chilean winger Edson Puch has struggled to settle on and off the pitch and Richard Porta, the Uruguayan striker who arrived as the club's one permitted Asian signing thanks to an Australian passport, has been a disaster, netting just once in seven Pro League matches.

Porta's failings were put into even sharper focus during the President's Cup loss to Al Wahda as one of the scorers for Josef Hickersberger's Abu Dhabi club was Mohammad Shaiba, the Omani defender jettisoned by Maradona to make way for Porta's supposed greater offensive threat.

Not all the problems the club has had have been down to Maradona but in football the buck invariably starts and stops with the coach so with the season coming off the rails, it appears the bosses at Al Wasl have a decision to make.

Tough choice

Do they allow Maradona the opportunity to dismantle and reassemble the side just over six months since the last major surgery, or do they cut their losses and show him the exit?

For the time-being it appears they have opted for the former course given changes to the playing staff have already started with the signing of midfielder Ali Reza Khalatbari from Qatari side Al Gharafa to replace either Puch or Porta. But whether that support will continue if results continue to go downhill remains to be seen.

Given this column is an advocate of coaches being given time to prove their worth it would be hypocritical to change tack now and suggest it is time for Maradona to move on.

Al Wasl do have an outside chance of lifting the Etisalat Cup but that will be scant consolation to a club that expects far more. Maradona and Al Wasl are at a vital crossroads as we approach the halfway stage of the season. It will be fascinating to see whether they head on in the same direction or part ways.