The Great 2016/17 Coaching Saga

Whom ever it is he must be a bit shady and had a checkered past if the visa is such an issue

Possible answers:

1) if he's Bosnian then visas might be an issue what with all the war criminals on the run knocking about (sorry Boxey)

2) I can see benefits in a coach who is linked to the underworld and he knows people and they tell him things.

More importantly though, who is Zac going to choose tonight???

Is a couple of weeks a long time? It's taken me several months to get my uk citizenship even though my mum was born there. It also took my girlfriend a couple of months just to get a returning resident visa on her Latvian passport despite the fact that she's live in NZ and has been a resident since childhood.

It's not like he can come on a normal working visa for those under 30.

Great requirements to fix the lack of discipline within the team on the field. Do what I say or there are some concrete football boots waiting for you at Queens Wharf - understand me?

Didn't work for Terry.

"In the A-League, first you get the money, then you get the marquee players, THEN you win the league."

I think you'll find that Roberto Martinez is aiming a little higher.

He's been manager of Belgium since August last year (4 W 3 D 1 L).

Actually, the strongest rumours are that it is Darije Kalezic, born in Switzerland of Montenegrin and Bosnian parentage.

His nationalities are Bosnian and Swiss.

Started his playing career in Bosnia, his mother's country, from a young age.

His coaching career has been mostly in the Netherlands from 2009.

Any visa hold-up may because he's a Bosnian recently living in Saudi Arabia.

He was in charge of Saudi club Al Taawoun for seven matches at the beginning of the current Saudi season (runs the same months as the European season) from July to October 2016 before stepping down. His replacement only lasted a few months too. Now they're on their third coach for the season.

Al Taawoun under Kalezic:

League games: 1 W 1 D 3 L

Cup games: 1 W 1 L

Kalezic on Transfermarkt:

http://www.transfermarkt.com/darije-kalezic/profil...

See comments section below this article:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/footbal...

Kalezic's Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darije_Kalezi%C4%87

He's a good age at 47 with lots of experience coaching in the Netherlands.

Playing career in Bosnia and in Holland (Eredivisie)

Coached in Eredivisie (De Grafschaap, Roda JC) and Dutch second tier (won the title with De Grafschaap; and he also coached PSV Eindhoven reserve team for two seasons)

Most recently he was coaching Roda JC in the Dutch Eredivisie (until May 2016) and in Saudi Arabia with Al-Taawoun.

Kalezic already had A-League scouting contacts when he was at Roda JC and had three Aussies playing under him there - Tommy Juric, Royston Griffiths and Danny de Silva (ex Perth Glory youngster)

He's never stayed more than two seasons at a single club (coaching as a first team manager since 2009) and was only at Stockport County for two months and Zulte Waregam in the Belgian top flight for half a season.

Diego? You mean Roberto.

Viarni won the coin toss.

Ryan's Rovers‏ @Ryans_Rovers May 8

" Atm its just speculation, a Football Agent said we are going to appoint a Swiss/Bosnian Manager instead of his client."

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The reason Kalezic was sacked by Roda JC a week after securing survival in their first season back in the Eredivisie in May last year, was for criticizing the club's technical director in the media after the last game of the season:

http://www.football-oranje.com/roda-jc-sack-coach-...

He'll no doubt be happier at the Nix with no technical director interfering.

Also, as a Bosnian immigrant to the Netherlands, the situation for immigrants has turned nasty in recent years with the rise of the right and Gert Wilders, attacks on Muslims, job discrimination etc.

He might be looking for a better living situation for him and his family.

Kalezic also has a relationship with Melbourne-based player agent Dragan Jevtic who helped Kalezic sign three Aussies for Roda JC in 2015:

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2015/08/16/...

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From the editor of Roda JC Live:

Sem Caelen‏ @SemCaelen May 8

 He has close ties with Han Berger, who worked for the Australian FA as well if I'm correct. Advised my club Roda JC on these transfers.  

Ryan's Rovers ‏@Ryans_Rovers May 8

What is Kalezic like as a manager? A-League seems to favor teams that set up to defend & counter quickly, mostly playing 4-5-1

Sem Caelen‏@SemCaelen May 8

Well, that perfectly sums up Kalezic' style. Likes to play 'realistically', in other words disciplined, well-organised defensive

That's what he did at Roda, scored very little goals when he managed our club. As a person, he is very authoritarian if you know what I mean

Managed to prevent us from relegation. Was still fired after the last match because of attitude and an ongoing conflict with sports director

That's a crucial element for Kalezic. He wants full and single responsibility in that field. Btw, the conflict here was not only his fault.

Dragan Jevtic passed away last year. He is the one who brought Ninkovic and Holosko to the league. Also Huysegems and  was the agent for Smeltz..

If went through a couple of winters in the Netherlands he'd be completely at home in Wellington.

Stockport are Shi-ite, but not THAT sharke.

It was Newport County for Hudson was at! 

Kalezic's average of 1.31 points per game across 243 matches seems a decent average

Or to put it another way, it's worse than a win, draw and loss ratio of 1:1:1.

And still 15 points more than the Jest

So if he has an average season with us we do better than we did this year. And if he has a slightly better season we do better than we've done four out of the last five years.

This is doing my head in.

Obviously stats don't tell the whole story (depends on the relative resources he had vs rivals and so on) but on stats alone he's not exactly inspiring.

Very true. The stats are not going to tell us much without having a good understanding of their context. So, meh.

We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Talking smack on a few meaningless stats in the off-season? not at all what we do...

At least its good to actually have someone to discuss and know that there is some kind of planning in motion for next season!

Nothing new from SST tonight, Rallis still has no idea on the name. He said "I think he was at Roda JC" but that wasn't said with any conviction, so not taking that as fact.

So, if we do get Darije, should we expect a less-attacking game plan than what Ernie put in place?

David Moyes has just (resigned) Jumped before the firing squad.

Is he on his way for a summer holiday

How he did well at Everton, yet at Sunderland ? The United experiment was down due to SAF and Ryan Giggs undermining him.

No, the United experiement was down to him being sharke

.@Johnmck419 just said he reckons Darije Kalezic is ‘set to be confirmed in the coming days’ as @WgtnPhoenixFC coach. Does he get a biscuit?

— Andrew Voerman (@andrewvoerman) May 23, 2017

If it is Kalezic then the forum collectively owes RR a beer for some outstanding digging.

ATE sort of chant can we make out of that name?

NZ took 2 months to give my wife a visitors visa so no surprises in the process takes a while for a work visa.

If Ramon is definetly out of the picture, I'd be open to him taking the AW reins after what's been served up at AW and U20 levels under Hudson.  It could be a refreshing change, maybe the "God Father" could be involved too.