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Home / Sport / Football

Football: Departure puzzling

Herald on Sunday
6 Sep, 2014 05:00 PM4 mins to read

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Ryan Nelsen is jobless these days. Photo / Getty Images

Ryan Nelsen is jobless these days. Photo / Getty Images

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Ryan Nelsen's sudden departure from Toronto FC is "puzzling and hard to explain", according to a former All White who coached alongside him at the Canadian MLS franchise.

Nelsen was sacked last week after a war of words with Toronto general manager Tim Bezbatchenko over recent patchy form.

But Duncan Oughton, who was one of Nelsen's assistants at Toronto, struggles to understand the rationale behind the decision.

"We had done what we had been asked to do at this point," Oughton said. "We were meeting expectations and were on track to make the playoffs. I've been around the game long enough to know these things happen in football but it's a bit of a head scratcher ... it's hard to explain."

Oughton said Nelsen had developed significantly as a coach and had a great rapport with the squad.

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"Usually players are relieved when coaches get sacked but this was the opposite.

"I'm not sure what he's going to do now but I have encouraged him to stay in the sport. He's a student of the game and will only get better."

Nelsen's overall record (17 wins and 18 draws in 64 games) is modest but this season he had guided Toronto to nine wins and six draws from 24 matches and they were fourth (the top five in each conference make the playoffs).

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A noticeable dip since the World Cup break - just three wins and five draws in the last 14 games - had increased the pressure but, with 10 games remaining, they needed only two victories to set a new franchise win record (the current is 10, from the 2009 season) and were inside the playoff frame.

Nelsen was replaced by Greg Vanney, a former US international. Before his most recent post as head of Toronto's academy, Vanney was in the 'pressure-filled' position of under-14 coach at the LA Galaxy.

Toronto have never in their history made the playoffs but expectations were high after a record US$100 million ($120 million) outlay that brought in big-name players such as Jermain Defoe, Michael Bradley and Julio Cesar.

"This is the most expensive roster put together in MLS history," Sportsnet writer John Molinaro said.

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"You had some real assets - Defoe is still Premier League quality and Bradley came from AS Roma. Expectations were high and Ryan wasn't able to deliver. This roster has underperformed under Ryan."

Molinaro has some sympathy for Nelsen - "it was unfair he was put in that position as a rookie coach" - but said he was also the architect of his own demise.

"He had the most assistant coaches of anyone in the league but they were mainly just buddies of his and vastly inexperienced at this level," said Molinaro.

"He also immersed himself in the excuse culture. He rarely put his hand up and took responsibility when the team didn't perform. Ryan was always shifting blame and, as things have gone downhill recently, he hasn't been able to come up with the answers."

However, Molinaro added there was no question Nelsen had left the Reds in a "much better state" than he found them and could emerge with some credit.

"It was a complete train wreck when he arrived," Molinaro said. "There were major [salary] cap issues and the roster was a shambles. He had to get rid of a lot of players and his extensive contacts allowed him to build the roster.

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"He had a great deal of respect among the players and gave some young guys a chance, some of whom have developed into great prospects."

Paul Lewis - Who would be a coach? p42

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