Big Question: Do the High Profile Coaches Really Make a Difference?

I admit to being a bit stunned yesterday when I read that South Africa would like to hire Sven-Goran Eriksson to be its head coach leading up to the 2010 World Cup. The future hosts are willing to break the bank to land one of the top coaches in the world, but they will undoubtedly face some competition in the Sven sweepstakes. Meanwhile, club teams and countries are falling all over themselves to buy the services of Australia’s Guus Hiddink, who is widely considered to be one of the best coaches in the world. And there is that figure known as Jose Mourinho has linked himself to the Portugal position and just about everywhere else in the world.

With all the attention and all the money being spent on these high profile men, it does beg the question of whether the head coach is all that critical to a country’s World Cup success.

Certainly we have seen in the past that the wrong coach can lead to disaster. Coaching a national team is as much about managing egos as it is about managing the game. A coach who does not have the respect of his stars is going to be in trouble from the start and may never recover. A coach who has a system that doesn’t match his player’s talents is going to have a hard time succeeding.

But can a good coach be the difference between winning and losing the World Cup?

For teams that are in the development stage, a good coach can help them get over the top to qualify for the World Cup. I look at the job that Leo Beenhakker has done at Trinidad and Tobago and can’t help but think that he has brought a disciplined style that the Soca Warriors have lacked in the past. I see the same thing with Hiddink with the Socceroos. A coach like Bora Milutinovic has been the master of helping teams on the fringe get into the World Cup, but no further than that.

At the end of the day, I’m of the belief that it is the players who win championships. A good coach without talent can only go so far. A bad coach with talent can still win. The really good teams in the world don’t need a great coach. They need the right coach for their particular pool of players.

Perhaps one reason that so much attention is being paid to coaches these days is because of the money being paid to the players. Coaches might just feel like they need to be high paid celebrities in their own right in order to get the respect they need from their stars.

One thing I do know for certain is that we will continue to hear about coaching changes from now until the end of the World Cup.