Message to the Ethniki Omada coaching team

Message to the Ethniki Omada coaching team

By Michael 

I am confessing now after the appointments of John Van’t Schip, Michael Valkanis and Aron Winter in mid-2019, I was not convinced based on the profiles and was very doubtful as our Ethniki Omada was in a very bad state, especially in their second game in charge in the humiliating 1-1 draw with Liechtenstein in Athens. After that everything changed drastically, and I just want to share a message to the coaching team on the previous coaches.

Previous Coaches:

Michael Skibbe – Sworn in by EPO to revive the sinking ship, and to be fair he improved the Ethniki Omada, almost earning qualification to the 2018 World Cup losing out to Croatia over a two-legged playoff. The problems? Constant selections of players who were injury prone and not performing and barely any new faces. Another problem was EPO extending his stay after our failure to qualify for the World Cup, and afterwards witnessed not only our downfall but Skibbe’s horrendous tactics as well as the mentality he possessed which passed onto the players. Still tattooed in my head is his comment before the match against Finland away in the Nations League in 2018, that we are aiming for a draw.

Angelos Anastasiadis – Where do I begin with this one? Masterclass appointment by EPO, hiring a coach with dinosaur tactics with Panagia beside him hoping for positive results. A coach who was unemployed for 2 years got the gig and failed miserably. News started emerging that Anastasiadis lost the dressing room, players were undermining his authority and even swearing at him. He later confirmed the rumours months after he was sacked and I fully support him, but let’s not forget he was clearly the wrong man for the job and his ludicrous decisions costed us qualification to EURO 2020, constant rotation of players and operating in wrong positions. Let’s also not forget Sokratis and Manolas ultimatum to EPO - “Us or Angelo”. Of course, everyone was extremely dissatisfied with Anastasiadis but that is extremely disrespectful from our two best central defenders. At that point, we lost all hope for the Ethniki Omada. Our only hope for some kind of salvage operation.

Later on, EPO found John Van’t Schip to replace Anastasiadis and happily agreed to take the job, with Michael Valkanis and Aron Winter as his assistants. As I mentioned previously I was not convinced though I prayed for change. All it took was two games, the loss against Finland and the humiliating draw with Liechtenstein (call that a loss) during the EURO 2020 qualifiers. It didn’t take long for the Dutchman to spot the problem – players who believe they are above Greece, Manolas and Sokratis, but has left the door open for their availability. 

So Van’t Schip promised changes and significantly shuffled up the selections with fresh faces, such as Pavlidis, Galanopoulos and Limnios, as well as players who show desire to play for Greece that are good technically and possess great mentality. He promised and delivered. Despite the 2-0 loss to Italy we saw massive improvement from the new team the Dutchman is building. Three wins in the last three games against Bosnia, Armenia and Finland of the EURO qualifiers speaks for itself, the Ethniki Omada are on the rise and improving, as well as the players showing winners mentality, something we never saw under Skibbe and Anastasiadis.

Let’s not carried away here, that was the last time the Ethniki Omada played competitively only for our journey to EURO 2020 resulted in a complete nightmare but finished on a high showing signs of improvement. Everything has completely changed after 10 months, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, we are back to commence our 2020 Nations League campaign with the aim of finishing top of Group 3 of League C and earn promotion to League B as well as having Qatar 2022 World Cup on our minds.

 

Now, the message to the coaching team:

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is a success” - founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford. You are now probably questioning why am I quoting an industrialist? “This is football, not about automobile companies!” Well, does not matter whose words it is. Take note that Van’t Schip holds zero responsibility for the Ethniki Omada not earning qualification for EURO 2020 and was searching for solutions to rejuvenate the team. 

The Dutchman created the Qatar 2022 plan and the 2020 Nations League is an opportunity to show that we are ready. Did Skibbe form any kind of project for all to get on board? No. Did Anastasiadis have one? It was Panagia.

So we remember, Qatar 2022 Plan - 31st August 2020,the date the team was first assembled, from here must stay together and work towards success, qualify for 2022 World Cup. 

I will take no excuses for not earning qualification.

Our journey starts now!

Hellas Football 

By Michael