WHO WILL BE OUR NEXT COACH?

The only thing I see as an objection to Claudio Ranieri is he has done the "small" club winning the Premier League thing, and with the best will in the world the EPL and the big boys ain't gonna let that happen again any time soon. For any of the other clubs of our level to stand a chance we will have to approach this from the unknown quantity position and having Claudio Ranieri at the helm is already attracting the wrong sort of attention.

 

According to this he can - or at least is improving.

http://www.umaxit.com/index.php/col...tskiy-with-his-long-awaited-chance-in-england

 

But does he speak anything other than Russian ? At least Mazzari had some players who understood Italian.

 

The last bit sounds impressive:

Now, after becoming the best coach in Russia, he wants to bring his talents to the Premier League. If his chance comes at Watford, they will be getting an impressive tactician with a perceptive mind and a list of references from almost every player, director and chairman that he has ever worked with. If he is to become the first Russian coach in the Premier League, he, more than any of his compatriots, stands the best chance of succeeding.

 

I reckon that his biography will be translated into English PDQ if he does get the job. An interesting read, the article, and I do wonder if he would actually be a good fit for us. Surely must be under serious consideration?

 

I wonder if Abramovich would boost his chance of success with us by underwriting some quality loan players.... Ake etc

 

Sounds almost too good to be true. He is of a younger breed who had to quit football earlier than expected - "Do we like that".

As for English I think his age and attitude (if what we read is true) separates him from the likes of Mazzari. If he has been in the UK and dedicated himself to 6 months of English study I wouldn't be too concerned. I do English teaching in Spain and I reckon I can get someone who is committed to the job up to a very good standard in less than 6 months.

Cologne it is a good point you make but for the players I'm not sure how many languages you'd need to cover to make everyone happy, and in any case I can't see a training session working if the coach has to repeat himself in 3 or 4 languages every time he wants to get something across to the team, even if he was capable

As far as I'm concerned Watford is an English club based in England so learn the language. For the players it is a great opportunity and a worthwhile investment that they may well treasure in later life.

wittering. I say despite what the press and opposition fans might do with his name I'd be very happy if he gets it. And who knows with his contacts at chelsea ........................ No don't let's go there again

 

Not that it would make any difference to the uneducated hordes I suppose, but the pronunciation may not be as the spelling suggests. I spoke to my sister about it the other day - she's a polyglot and Russian is one of her languages - and she reckons that the 'u' is pronounced from the back of the throat and comes out as an 'o'.

Presumably we can expect a team of Slot Machines then...

 

The point I was making is that if he only speaks Russian then he will feel very isolated at the club, both with the players and with the owners. His schooling would have been in the USSR, where foreign language learning was not on the agenda, and so he may have no contact to any western language. On paper he is a better fit than Mazzari was - and Russian football is much more direct than that in Italy but it worries me that he has never worked abroad, which tells me that he has never had to adapt to other conditions. I would also question your idea that someone can learn a first foreign language, from zero, within 6 months beyond anything more than the most rudimentary level. Learning a second or third foreign language is quicker. Gareth Bale has been in Spain for 2 years and speaks hardly any Spanish.

 

English is certainly taught in many Russian schools. I've actually sat in on classes in St Petersburg conducted in English and these were not special language schools, just School no 5, school no 18 etc!

 

That's true Theo, but that wasn't the case in the USSR. Slutsky is 49 and so his schooling was under the old system - classes may be in English in some schools in St. Petersburg but that wasn't the case in Leningrad. Up until the Soviet Union collapsed the only pupils who learned English were those destined for the secret service - some also learned German (because of the GDR). But I don't think Slutsky belonged to that class. Even Vladimir Putin does not speak very good English - he is, however, fluent in German and Swedish. Learning a first foreign language at 49 is very difficult.

 

Sorry bit of a dup. It vanished from my screen but 5 mins later ended up posted

 

The reason I have confidence is that:

He is very self motivated. He could have studied law or journalism if he hadn't been so driven by football. His motivation and self determination seem unquestionable.

He is not learning English in any traditional way. It is immersion with almost no use of his first language. His achievements after 4 months put him at intermediate level : The student is able to understand the main ideas of a complex text. He/she can interact with a degree of spontaneity, but often has trouble with grammar and vocabulary. But that was back at the beginning of April.

If you have 15 mins have a read of what his mum says. This guy is no average cookie.

http://welcome2018.com/en/journal/m...it_s_like_to_be_the_mother_of_leonid_slutsky/

Let's get him before someone else does

 

With regards to learning English it depends on the hours of graded input and study amongst other factors. I have an MA in TESOL so know a bit about it.

Six months to get to a decent level depends on 1. Where you started from. 2. The hours of study. 3. If the student is apt for it or not.

(In WM case, he understood a lot but in my humble opinion, he had a lot of trouble with pronunciation and he was only at A2 level, so no chance to give it to journalists or in training)

This is a guide to levels, what you can do with the language in each one and the hours of study needed to get there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages

That said, I have learnt my Spanish from just living it, but I have the advantage of knowing my own language rules to peg it to.

 

She might be in contention for the new adams family movie. Nice review though, my mum couldn´t have done a better job about me mind!

 

Having ended the season in such discord, we may well struggle to recruit a decent replacement particulary with our track record when it comes to coaches....

 

Well, you know what the Pozzos are like - they probably already have one waiting in the wings.

 

To take Mazzari and ALL his coaches to the airport

 

Whoever they get it should start quickly because he will need time to sift out those players who are genuinely not up to standard from those who were just not playing for WM. Any good manager who comes from outside the Pozzo pool of 'mates' is going to come in and ask how much money is available for players - and then the talks end. Another manager from the Pozzo 'mould' will be sent 20 players (all of them potentially good, with injury issues) and told to keep those he needs and send the rest back. It worries me that the only manager since SD who has not, apparently, 'lost the dressing' room was Jokanovic.

 

Duxbury finally muddles some words to communicate with the fans - http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sp...bury__Philosophies_behind_Mazzarri_departure/