First of all lets applaud Gilberto Madail for having the common sense and great vision of not only hiring Scolari but also not caving to the demands to have him fired. He was brilliant in sticking to his agenda. However this will not work with Queiroz, because Queiroz is at best an average coach. All one has to do is look at his record coaching professional soccer leagues and national teams. His claim to fame was wining the sub-21 world cup with “can’t loose” team of Figo, Rui Costa and co., that had been put together by FC Porto’s current coach Jesualdo Ferreira.
Gilberto Madail has been in charge of the Portuguese Football Federation for too long. Great managers are those that recognize when their time has come. Madail briefly recognized that when he announced that he would leave with Scolari.
When Madail changed his mind and decided to stay to manage the hiring of Scolari’s successor, he destroyed what he had built. Great CEOs, Presidents, Managers and athletes know when they have peaked and know when to move over to let someone else continue their work. That is exactly why politicians have term limits, so things do not get stale and turn to worse.
After making the mistake of staying, Madail commited a bigger mistake in hiring Carlos Queiroz. His third and biggest mistake was today’s announcement that he will continue to back up Carlos Queiroz.
Madail had a chance to fire Queiroz now and use the next 5 months (before next game with Sweden on March 28, 2009) to find another coach and let the new coach come in and make amends. Better would be for him to fire Queiroz and resign immediately.
Because decided to go down this road, Portugal is now in a course to crash and burn. Too bad for us who were starting to make plans to be in South Africa.
