Originally posted by Angryred
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You do get serious about just about everything though don't you mate
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Originally Posted by Tony Adams
"When........when you take a job outside your own country, it........................represents a challenge, mentally, physically and spiritually. The question now, is............am I up to meeting that challenge? The answer is yes, yes I am. I may not be headed to Madrid to work, nor am I going to Milan. I'm going to Azerbaijan. Yes, they're bottom of the league but..........will we remain there once I've managed to get my ideas across? No, no we won't. I can assure the Gabala fans of that. We need to think about.....think about..........how the game should be played, how to reward the supporters who come to cheer for us. We need to think about them, think about them deeply. Deeply. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. Er.................the origin of myths is explained in this way. It'll be hard work but I'm.................excited........excited by the challenge.
'Religion is killing each other over who has the best imaginary friend'Comment
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Originally posted by Pablo1981 View PostYou do get angry about just about everything though don't you mate
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c'mon man. he's not manager at all. and yes, what an oportunity to manage some "god knows" team..Originally posted by Angryred View PostComment
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Originally posted by lickedlollipop View Post
The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it; if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't laugh at it, it's probably deserved.Comment
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Why Tony Adams hopes to master the art of reinvention
If Tony Adams needs inspiration as he leaps into the unknown in Azerbaijan he could look to Avram Grant
o Amy Lawrence
o The Guardian, Thursday 13 May 2010
Tony Adams does not have to look far for advice on avoiding the pitfalls as he prepares for an unusual posting in Azerbaijan. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/Empics
Even by his notably leftfield standards, for Tony Adams to choose FC Qabala of Azerbaijan as his next managerial destination takes some getting your head around. The five-year-old club currently play at a stadium with a capacity of 2,000, built adjoining a tobacco factory. The town is 140 miles inland from the capital, Baku, in a remote, mountainous region with a population which would almost (but not quite) fill Wembley Stadium.
However successful he is in his grand plan to build FC Qabala in his own image, the experience will be isolating in a way that managing Wycombe Wanderers, or coaching the youth team in Feyenoord, could never have been. You have to admire his optimism when he predicts that he might stay as long as a decade as he tries to build up a project that is being backed by local oligarchs.
What are Adams's motives for such a zany move? Depending on your level of cynicism it is somewhere between a courageous desire to broaden his own horizons and those of the folk at his new club – a hard business decision that equates to a wedge in the bank for a man who has been out of work for over a year – or an exercise in delusion. Maybe he can touch down in a country which will obviously be worlds apart from the football culture in which he grew up and instantly find the path to sporting alchemy. Maybe not.
Either way, the least we can do is send him on his way with a good-luck message. Like all managers who take a leap into the unknown, he will need it.
Adams need not look very far for advice on the pitfalls, the bewilderment, the frustrations that are as much a part of working abroad as the freshness and excitement. His old boss Arsène Wenger can tell him how baffling it was at times in Japan with Nagoya Grampus Eight, and even how complex some of the pressures were arriving at Arsenal in the Premier League. To be only days into the job and feel compelled to challenge hacks over scurrilous rumours circulating about you is one heck of a departure from your comfort zone.
This weekend, another manager who had his work cut out convincing the English public of his qualities takes centre stage. There won't be many who will not be rooting for Avram Grant for the way he has hauled Portsmouth out of the dark cellar for a well-deserved day in the sunshine. More pertinently, there won't be many who fail to respect him, and that was not always the case.
Grant was 51 years old when he first left his homeland to work abroad. He had been a manager for 20 years in Israel, which included a four-year spell in charge of the national team. He was a football man with friends in high places and a worldly outlook, but from the moment he arrived in England he was treated with distrust.
Coming from a lower-rated football nation than the likes of France or Spain meant there was scepticism about the quality of his experience. It did not help that Harry Redknapp, then the manager at Portsmouth, was not too inclined to have a director of football foisted upon him. Then there was the hangdog expression, the dry and reserved interviews. Add the unenviable position of stepping into José Mourinho's shoes at Chelsea, and the suspicion that he got the job only because he was part of Roman Abramovich's in-crowd, and the cocktail was fairly bitter.
At best, Grant was gently mocked. At worst, he received – his club later admitted – some contemptible anti-semitic abuse from Chelsea supporters. The way he has handled this turbulent season at Fratton Park has forced everyone into a rethink. He has come across in a way he never could at Stamford Bridge – passionate, droll, resilient and likeable. In life people usually find their level, and with the scrutiny less brutal than at a top-four club he has appeared more comfortable in being himself.
He was even able to skate over a scandal with the minimum of fuss. Midway through the season, Grant was the victim of an exposé that suggested he had visited an establishment with an indecorous reputation during his spare time. The story fizzled out quickly – in no small part thanks to his wife, Tzofit.
"Considering the pressure that Avram is under at Portsmouth, I'm angry for him for not going every day to have a massage," she retorted. It was such a great line it could have been borrowed from Joan Rivers. It was also a PR masterstroke. Nonetheless, imagine if Grant had still been coaching Chelsea when the press got hold of the story.
At Wembley, Grant will lead his team into a final a reinvented character compared to the man who led Chelsea into the Champions League final in 2008 – if not in himself, then certainly in our perceptions. And Adams will be hoping to do the same."The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind."
-- William BlakeComment
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Cos **** happens!...Originally posted by MrsB View PostNope, don't need anger management, you just need to stop pissing me off!Comment
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Oh I don't know.Comment
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The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it; if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't laugh at it, it's probably deserved.Comment
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He'd probably be more use playing for them!"These stories have as much relation to the truth as an egg to a chestnut." - Racing Santander President Francisco PerniaComment
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He's resigned
To be fair he lasted a good deal longer than I thought he would. 18 months.
Looks a pretty glamorous affair over in Azerbaijan
Thanks very much for being ‘This Mornings’ Farmer’Comment
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He studied sports science in Essex uni. I used to see him around Colchester all the time. Nice bloke. Softly spoken too.*Except Michael, who died.Comment
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