Give youth a go

Media pundits have exhausted the adjectives for things that go round and round - from merry-go-rounds to turnstiles – in an effort to do creative justice to the number of coaching jobs that come around in the competition.

The addition of Melbourne Heart and Sydney FC to this season’s list brings the total percentage of clubs in the 2011/2012 competition which changed coach prematurely, to 50. Albeit, Vitezslav Lavicka and John van’t Schip will see out the season.

Among the names being bandied about for the latest vacancies is the usual smattering of un-gettables - Guus Hiddink and Marcelo Lippi to name a couple, a few unlikelys like frank Rijkaard and Terry Venables, and a cavalcade of the usual suspects. Branko Culina, Aurelio Vidmar, Ernie Merrick and Lawrie McKinna have been linked to more jobs than a city window cleaner.

The best option remains to recruit a quality international coach with top credentials and a record to match - someone who will continue to push our game forward while nurturing our young coaching talent. But with many clubs struggling financially, this may prove too expensive.

Those clubs restricted by tight budgets don’t have the luxury of a fat bank account to call on. I doubt there are many in the A-League that can, or should for that matter.

Rather than reaching into the recycling bin or scouring the lower leagues in Europe for some unknown quantity, Sydney FC and Melbourne Heart both have a great opportunity to invest in youth – a mantra we often laud when it comes to players – in re-structuring their coaching setups.

We have many young coaches, a lot of them people who have played football at the highest level across Europe, completing their coaching badges in courses of a standard we previously haven’t had in Australia. Look at the likes of Kevin Muscat, Paul Okon, Tony Vidmar, Steve Corica and Zeljko Kalac, who have scaled the heights as players and are ready to achieve the same success within the coaching arena. Ante Milicic and John Aloisi are two more who are already in the Heart setup.

There is of course a large element of risk for an A-League club, especially one like Melbourne Victory or Sydney FC, to invest in a young, inexperienced coach in such demanding markets. But that’s where I would put forward an argument for a different model based around that of Crystal Palace.

The Championship club appointed 37-year-old Dougie Freedman last season. Freedman played with Palace over two stints. His coaching experience was limited to reserve team coach in 2007 while playing for the first team, a player/coach role at League two side Southend United and Palace assistant coach in 2010.

Hardly the sort of resume that would have the bean counters at Real Madrid reaching for the cheque book. But Palace, a club steeped in history with a demanding supporter-base, made a decision to invest in youth – Freedman signed a two-and-a-half year deal after taking over the gig in a caretaker capacity from sacked George Burley in 2011.

Sounds pretty similar to a few A-League clubs I’ve observed over the years. What happened next was quite different. Freedman immediately appointed the hugely experienced Lennie Lawrence as his assistant manager and his former Palace teammate Tony Popovic as First Team coach.

Freedman has since guided the team out of the relegation zone, achieving safety with a game to spare last season, and has narrowly missed out on The League Cup Final after beating Manchester United this season, as well as having the team in a strong league position, from which it will challenge for promotion in the next few seasons.

Freedman’s choice to balance youth and experience as part of his coaching team is working. In Popovic he has an ex-teammate and close friend who is a young, up and coming coach with fresh ideas and a distinguished playing career. In Lawrence he has a coach and mentor figure whose advice is forged on 30 years of experience.

The Palace model isn’t for every club, but if the consistent turnover of A-League coaches over the years is a guide, perhaps it is time clubs put it into practice.

Many will point to Mehmet Durakovic's reign at Victory to argue against this option but walking into club during its most unstable period and being surrounded by only an equally inexperienced coaching staff is not an ideal situation for anyone, let alone a rookie coach cutting his teeth in the trade.

It may be a touch too soon for the likes of Milicic, Corica or a Muscat, who will no doubt benefit from another year or two as assistants, but watching Tony Popovic's coaching career take off in Europe, Melbourne Heart and Sydney FC are ideally placed to appoint one our brightest coaching talents and build the necessary support structure around him.