Think whomever is hired it is time to make some tough calls and get rid of Durante, he brings little value as a player and is only going to be disruptive to a new coach needing to quickly change some attitudes and culture
I disagree totally. Dura has done a great job guiding Fox and Cacace into very good defenders. Defending is mostly about communication and Dura does that very well. He has had to contend with a real shark year -
a) having to play with four different keepers behind him, the relationship between the keeper and central defenders is crucial and Dura was the only constant.
b) having to play with Rossi, who 'should' have been our top defender, but played as if he'd rather be somewhere else.
c) being captain and having to deal with whatever was going on with Darije, Darije and Rado, then the coach being sacked.
d) Dura shows week in and week out that he is still up to the defending job as well
e) having a range of 'fullbacks' experimented with by the coaches, (e.g. Abbas, Parkhouse) and when they get into trouble, who has to sort it out? The centre defender.
All good points. It's impossible for anyone to perform in a defensive structure that is not organised and cohesive
Dura's been here through some tough years. So is he a victim of what is going on around him or part of the cause? I think the fact that he is a leader who has a huge influence on others makes us look at him a bit closer than we would the other players.
I sort of feel sorry for him. For a lot of his career, he could have picked any club to play for, but he stayed here. If he were at a bigger club he probably wouldn't be questioned like he is at the Phoenix.
Interesting discussion.I do think Dura's influence would make it challenging for new managers. If you don't get him onside, I imagine he'd be heavily disruptive.
As an extreme comparison, when Moyes took over at United he went through something similar. I appreciate there are other contributing factors (especially being Fergie's successor) but there are plenty of articles stating the senior players didn't respect him and disregarded his decisions.
Based on Dome's comments recently, I don't see Dura going anywhere next season, so it's imperative whoever we hire has to get on with him. If the rumours around Gombau are true, it might not be the wisest move.