We simply do not allow this in the same season

“We simply do not allow this in the same season.”While he acknowledged that Leeds and Spurs have acted honourably in the transfer, which is what it effectively is, of Graham, Uranga was concerned about the general concept of manager poaching.”My reasons are obvious. What we’re doing about it is private between Gazza, the club and myself.”We’re going to try and help the lad. We spoke about it yesterday and we’re trying to do something about. Everybody keeps talking about the drink and it’s a little bit of that because he does get down at times. That was only the latest in a series of drink-related incidents and Robson said Gascoigne, who has started all 10 of Boro’s matches this season, is being affected by the strain of continually being in the public eye.
“Gazza has got a problem,” admitted Robson, a former England team-mate of Gascoigne’s “It’s been building up for quite a few years. It was claimed yesterday that Gascoigne enjoyed a three-day drinking binge in the Republic of Ireland this week and returned with a facial injury sustained when falling over drunk. BRYAN ROBSON, the manager of Middlesbrough, yesterday admitted Paul Gascoigne was struggling to cope with stress and drink problems, and pledged to help the midfielder overcome his personal crisis.

They score goals but they don’t determine team tactics.”In Holland and Germany, the rules are less strict. Provided the two clubs agree and the correct financial procedures are followed, coaches are free to change clubs in the same season. The fact that they rarely do is an indication, however, of the extent to which the practice is frowned upon.Until Graham left for Spurs, the main loyalty debate raging through football board rooms concerned not coaches, but players. The Pierre van Hooijdonk case (“I don’t want to play for you, so I will go on strike until you sell me”) and the stance of other would-be movers has been condemned as a cancer in the game.However successful Graham is at White Hart Lane, his move south has effectively gagged his managerial colleagues from speaking out about lack of loyalty among players without risking the charge of hypocrisy..

“If you want to change club, you can only do so at the end of the season. It’s a rule that everyone accepts.”Corsolini subscribed to the view that coaches represent a different type of investment to players and therefore should be treated differently. “To be a coach you have to have a specific set of qualifications. You create a long-term strategy around which a club’s philosophy is built,” he said. “You can’t simply take off one uniform and put another one on whenever you feel like it It’s not the same with players. “He says he misses London but is that enough to change club? Leeds and London are not that far apart as far as I know.”The Italian league has similar laws preventing fully employed managers from switching clubs in the same season. “The Graham situation could not have happened here,” said Luca Corsolini of Bologna.

“An agreement is an agreement,” said Luis Uranga, president of Spanish First Division club Real Sociedad. A coach could easily cheat his way into another club by deliberately under-performing and persuading his board to let him go, only to succeed when he gets to his new club.”Uranga, who once employed John Toshack, was not for one moment questioning the integrity of Graham, who performed a near-miracle at Leeds But he did question Graham’s motivation for leaving. “To me, this is bizarre in the extreme,” said Roux.
“I believe if you start a job in coaching, you should finish it. If Leeds accepted compensation, it’s hard to shed too many tears for them But there’s an ethical question as well Coaches should show an example. It’s too bad the English allow this sort of thing.”They allow it in France as well, legally at least, but it rarely happens. Roux cannot recall a similar case occurring since he has been in the game “If a coach is fired, that’s different. But leaving one club to go to another when you are already in a top job? I couldn’t condone that.”Nor could clubs in Spain or Italy where, unlike here, there are strict laws preventing manager-poaching.

Which is why Roux cannot understand how Leeds United have let George Graham go to Tottenham Hotspur. GUY ROUX knows all about loyalty. He has, after all, been with the same football club, Auxerre, for 37 years, making him the longest serving manager in Europe. A fine line will have to be drawn between the Plc ownership and the club’s interests,” he said. “And don’t forget, their representative will sit down with those of 19 other clubs There will have to be some clarification.”. After consultation with his president, Roux turned the job down; he had another two years left on his contract. As president of the French coaches’ union, jumping ship halfway through his term of office would not have gone down well with his colleagues.