Coaching Carousel: It’s All About Money & Self-Belief

By: chris | May 7th, 2009

As much as we may criticize making career decisions simply for the sake of money, it is refreshing when someone calls a spade a spade and says “yes, it was all about the money” whilst showering themselves in barrels of money and cackling uncontrollably.

Enter Felix Magath, who will be joining Schalke 04 next season despite leading Bundescinderella #3 to the top of the table this season and currently sit as favorite for the title:

“We are in professional sport and it is all about money,” Magath admitted. “Everything else is a load of tosh.”

Even coaches aren’t exempt to the allure of The Almighty Euro, as let’s face it: most in professional football would streamroll their own grandma if it opened the door to a 15% raise.

And for Magath the choice is clear, as Wolfsburg is still but a tiny club owned by a tiny, German village company who surely couldn’t afford to pay the coach which is unthinkably leading them to a title. Volkswagen, or something, I think is their name.

Wait, that doesn’t sound right.

Just over in the rolling hills of Holland, we have Bizarro Wolfsburg. Ajax is a club steeped in history and winning, not just on the domestic scene, but also in Europe. They’re a veritable giant trying to find their way back.

And though they picked up one of the hottest commodities coming out of last year’s Euro’s, Golden Son Marco Van Basten, they still couldn’t return to the Glory Days. They couldn’t even return to decent days, in fact. No title, no Champions League and all in spectacularly bad fashion – losing 6-2 to PSV and 4-0 to Sparta in the last two weeks, prompting Van Basten’s resignation, something he’s threatened numerous times.

“I came to the conclusion that my qualities are not enough to do better with this squad next season,” he said. “I am not able to fulfil the demands that Ajax have for a coach.”

You say “self-belief“, I say “my squad is largely rubbish“. Mostly true – it’s certainly not up to typical Ajax standards (some have the talent but they don’t necessarily play like it).

And thus we’ve deciphered the groundbreaking, sport-shattering key to a happy and successful title-winning coach: pay them loads of money and give them good players.

You heard it here first.

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Category: Bundesliga, Dutch Eredivisie

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Konrad Tank

My initial thought, when I heard the weasel Felix Magath intended to leave the club for Schalke, was disgust and that the management of Wolfsburg must take him away from the team. I became upset that he backstabs the whole organization and the team with his poor timing for leaving the decision. Yes I’m upset and not even a Wolfsburg supporter.

This must be one of the most unprofessional conducts in all of sports. He announces to leave the team with 4 games to go of the season when this underdog team is leading the table. He clearly backstabs the team with the decision not to wait after the season with this announcement. Instead he opts for a bigger club that has underperformed and that will sure finish better than 7th next season - by that he sends a clear message of what he thinks of the future of Wolfsburg. And he creates disturbance for the team focusing on the final four games. Wolfsburg management should suspend him a.s.ap. Watching the game against Stuttgart is clear evidence that this has had a negative impact on the team – letting in a goal in the first minute and a second after only 20 minutes. Felix Magath is clearly a megalomaniac type of person that only sees after his own interest.
Jan

"it is refreshing when someone calls a spade a spade and says “yes, it was all about the money”"

Well it would be refreshing, but Felix Magath did not say it. He held a very convoluted 10 minute monologue in front of the press and even native German speakers had trouble extracting what exactly he was talking about the whole time, but he certainly wasn't honest enough to say it was just about the money and that the rest is "a load of tosh".

Basically

"We are in professional sport <del>and it is all about money,” Magath admitted. “Everything else is a load of tosh.”</del>"

that much he actually said. And the bits how he had been sacked despite his success before and that he knows the business for a long time now - though the article worked a lot of creative freedom into those statements as well.

The media in Germany is actually not really sure what to make of this move - whether he wants to leave at the peak, is a secret romantic who prefers a club like Schalke over a "plastic club" like Wolfsburg, whether Schalke have cancelled their plans to reduce their budget in light of the poor league performance and missing out on Europe and will give him serious money to spend, or whether he really is just into a bigger paycheck vs a big paycheck + CL football.
chris

Two questions:

i. What does Iniesta have to do with Felix or Marco?

ii. What does a Swede have to do with Iniesta, Felix or Marco?
Chris

Yeah, with loads of help from that Swedish duche, sport. . .
Manuelito

Iniesta beat those fuckers nice and good!