New Roar coach quietly confident
Simply getting a word in at his own press conference was tough enough for Brisbane Roar’s new interim coach Frans Thijssen.
Just imagine what it will be like to turn around an A-League club left red-faced by loose lips.
And it was a task that only seemed more daunting after the ex-Dutch international admitted he had no idea about the A-League when he finally was allowed to speak.
But Thijssen remained quietly confident of rebooting the Roar’s title defence after Mike Mulvey’s bizarre sacking – very quietly, as it turned out.
Thijssen was largely a man of mystery to the Brisbane media gathered by the Roar to unveil their new interim mentor on Monday.
And he remained that way for the first 25 minutes of an epic 45 minute press conference as Roar managing director Sean Dobson tried to explain their poor handling of Mulvey’s departure.
You might like
Dobson was clearly unimpressed that the news of Mulvey’s sacking had been leaked hours before the reigning coach of the year was officially told by the Roar on Sunday.
As Dobson went through the reasons why Mulvey fell out with the club, all Thijssen could do was sit patiently on the same table of a clearly angry Roar captain Matt Smith.
When he was finally asked a question Thijssen did his best to provide some welcome good news.
“Hopefully we can turn it around,” he said.
“When you work in a different country, there’s a lot of homework.
“(But) you don’t have to know the players to make players better.
Stay informed, daily
“I’m here to improve things.”
But the challenge before him was clear for Thijssen as he fed off the uneasy vibe from Smith and a frustrated Dobson.
“It’s for me maybe a little bit of a difficult start (with) what happened this week,” he said.
“Everybody has to defend themselves at the moment and that makes it a lot more difficult for me – and Saturday we have a game (against Perth).
“(But) if I had the idea that I’m not at the right place I wouldn’t sign because it’s a long way coming from Holland.”
Thijssen will be groomed as the Roar’s next technical director, not the next fulltime head coach.
Still, Smith made it clear what he expected from a head coach for the rest of the season when asked about the unfortunate Mulvey.
“First and foremost, he’s a good man,” Smith said.
“He’s a very, very good coach. A good leader.”
On the leaking of Mulvey’s sacking, Smith said: “I’m not sitting here liking what happened.”
Smith revealed he had a final word with Mulvey on Sunday – something denied the sacked coach by the club at Monday’s press conference.
“The conversation with him was very respectful,” he said
– AAP
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
