ANGE Postecoglou and I are not all that different really. Sure people are unlikely to confuse us in silhouette and our ancestries are as disparate as the length of our last names but we have one important thing in common – we are both managing Brisbane Roar FC.
As such, the same tasks have befallen us over the recent international break - inheriting a player group, improving general fitness levels, analysing the squad for strengths and weaknesses and then acting upon them. I have proceeded with unprecedented haste and moved players in to unfamiliar positions, I have completely changed the team's formation and I went on a recruitment drive, signing superstar striker Mark Viduka on a two year marquee deal.
Unfortunately Ange Postecoglou can do none of this because he doesn't have the one contractual clause that has allowed me to throw caution to the wind and then belligerently piss against it. It is because I am the manager of Brisbane Roar FC on my laptop only - that's right, I'm talking about Football Manager 2010.
Brisbane Roar fans are in a position that we have not seen since all of three years ago as a real life change of management has coincided with the release of one of the world's most addictive football computer games. But please don't dismiss this game as being just for pasty, four-eyed geeks that are kind of scared of girls (yes, I admit I fit in to at least two of those categories).
I know that we have all come across a news story on this very website regarding a club's rumoured new signing and invariably the comments touch upon the player's ability in the Football Manager universe. Many point out that this is not a foolproof method of judging a player's ability and some even go as far that you would have to be a Clag paste-eating, primary-school dunce to even consider that it might. I agree with those sentiments.
However, for every rule there are exceptions and Football Manager's heaving sea of human researchers have managed year after year to point out in glaring detail the one critical piece that is missing from Brisbane Roar's two-time third place winning side - a goalkeeper of genuine quality.
Notice that I said goalkeeper and not the plural - this is because the A-League's salary cap makes it inevitable that clubs will only pay the money for one goalkeeper of suitable quality and then make do with whatever young and hopeful reserve goalkeepers are available.
At least that is the theory, yet at Brisbane Roar FC somehow everything got mixed up.
The club had one of the best young goalkeepers in the country when they took to the field against New Zealand Knights in that very first Brisbane A-League match. Tom Willis had represented his country at youth level and was spoken of in glowing terms by Roar goalkeeping coach Fernando vaz Alves.
Following on from a tactically and strategically inept season, Bleiberg attempted to shift the blame from himself to his goalkeeper. After an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a straight-swap of Tom Willis for Liam Reddy at Newcastle Jets he eventually just signed Reddy anyway, consequences be damned.
The end result was the presence of two goalkeepers, both on first team wages, battling for their manager's favour over a farcical series of five game spurts. Bleiberg was eventually shown the door - although based on this decision alone he should have perhaps been sent to an asylum and held for observation - and Frank Farina inherited Miron's mess.
There was little that Farina could do to improve the situation except wait until season's end. Ultimately it was the length of the player's contracts that decided who got the gig for Farina's first full season in charge. Willis's contract had expired at end of season two and unable to agree terms on a reduced contract he left the club. Liam was still under contract for another year and hence stayed on. Frank found a local league back up for the right price and all was apparently right with the world again.
This illusion was maintained throughout Frank Farina's tenure as Reddy played through injury and in spite of some restrictions to his movement was still selected ahead of reserve options Matt Ham and Griffin McMaster. The fans presumptively and foolishly believed that Reddy was a far superior goalkeeper to these promising but ultimately inexperienced backups.
The past few weeks has shown that Griffin McMaster's technical abilities and reactions are in fact superior to those of Reddy. Furthermore, after following his ad hoc injury-replacement appearances over the years, I am genuinely impressed with McMaster's development as a goalkeeper - clearly the lad learns very quickly from his mistakes.
Ange Postecoglou must see something in McMaster as well because there is a genuine chance he will be retained in goal against this weekend against Melbourne Victory even as Reddy returns from injury. Personally, I would like to see McMaster given the gloves for the rest of the season and see if he can develop further still. Postecoglou as alluded to as much in recent interviews.
However, the problem will not be solved. Reddy still has another year left on his contract and his acceptable if somewhat uninspiring performances over the years won't encourage Melbourne Heart to call the Roar offices and nut out the transfer that could solve the problem and finally reset our goalkeeping squad back to zero.
It seems that Ange Postecoglou finds himself in a similar position that Frank Farina and I did when we arrived at the club. It is unfortunate that real managers like Farina and Postecoglou can't do what I did to solve the problem in my Football Manager universe - I just sacked both goalies and brought Tom Willis back to the fold.
While this did free up enough room in the salary cap for my recruitment of Mark Viduka, in real life clubs cannot tear up contracts without the possibility of costly legal action.
Hence, it appears that much like Frank Farina, Ange Postecoglou is going to be stuck with Liam Reddy for another season yet, like it or not. That is unless Miron Bleiberg wants him at the Gold Coast - because ultimately Bleiberg was the only person that ever wanted Reddy at Brisbane Roar in the first place.
