The end of an unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign often comes with the parting of ways of national teams and coaches. "We thank _____ for all his efforts but we feel it is a time for a change and a new manager to take our country's football to the next level.....bla bla..."
Some countries, the minnows, may be hoping for a miracle or easily use the excuse of yet another disappointing campaign to justify getting rid of their managers. Scotland and Malta come to mind. Chris Coleman at Wales may still follow, but he's the manager of a team that was expected to possibly over-acheive, again. Dick Advocat may not be employed by the Dutch FA for much longer. Bruce Arena took the blame for the USA's embarrassing exit and jumped ship.
In a different twist, Australia's Ange Postecoglou is strongly rumoured to have submitted his resignation to take effect after the Socceroos playoff in November. Pre-emptive resignation, maybe? Or is it true that he can't tale the abuse aimed at him after Australia did not qualify automatically.
But the best, or harshest, rumours of a manager being relived of his duties are those surrounding Egypt's Hector Cuper. Apparently, many Egyptian fans are not happy with his style of play. This man figured out the perfect formula to get your country back to the World Cup after 28 years and you don't like his "style of play". Is that the style that gets your team winning multiple matches in an extremely competitive qualifying zone. Or do you prefer the style that saw your team beaten 5-0 by Ghana in the 2014 playoff? Let's see Egypt appoint a new manager and completely fall apart in Russia.
And on that note I close the book, temporarily on World Cup qualifying, and look forward to the blockbuster of a match between Liverpool and Man. United tomorrow morning. It's going to have to be outstanding to come anywhere near the excitement of last week's international matches.
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