OUR two most recent Socceroo interviews in the magazine have presented two green and gold regulars with vastly different approaches to managing their careers.
For our September issue I met Socceroos captain Lucas Neill in Melbourne, while in October’s issue (out now) I spoke to Scott Chipperfield on the phone from Switzerland.
When I met our country’s unemployed leader, he was friendly, responsive and ultimately came across as a likable ambassador for the game. Chippers was far more informal, but an equally agreeable character. Both good guys, but they've had very different career paths and views on how to manage themselves.
In my opinion, there isn’t much between Lucas and Chippers talent-wise on the pitch (many/most would probably disagree there). The main difference seems to be in their own assessment of their ability – I think Lucas overrates himself and Chippers has been too modest for his own good.
The fact that I’m inking this blog after four EPL games having been played and our captain is still floating around club-less in a World Cup year is truly baffling. With every passing day the Lucas “brand” is diminishing in the eyes of the Australian public.
I wouldn’t go as far as calling Lucas greedy as I simply don’t know enough about the background to the delay (it seems no-one does), but football fans who won’t be contacted by Lucas’s legal advisors will be saying as much.
If Lucas thinks he can do better than captaining a top 10 EPL side at 31 with worsening pace and average (by EPL standards) ability then he’s kidding himself. If his ego was bruised by a reduced wage offer in the wake of the GFC and the bankruptcy of the club’s owners, then he is welcome to try and command his previously excessive wage elsewhere, but it simply won’t happen.
You might contest that if he has an over-inflated opinion of his ability, he would have fancied his chances at Liverpool, rather than opting for East London at the beginning of 2007. I’ll leave that point alone by suggesting all that does in hindsight is fuel the fire of the accusers of Lucas’s greed.
If he’d gone to West Ham as he genuinely saw them as a better option, why has he abandoned them after two and a half years in which he has settled his family and earned the captaincy of a club – a club which has been led by the likes of World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore?
Lucas has managed to maximise the value of his ability during his career and parlay that into a series moves which would have benefited him far beyond any more level-headed expectations. Mark Schwarzer and Tim Cahill are better players than Lucas, but their more humble approach has seen them stay loyal to the club’s who have given them their opportunities.
This leads me onto the vast opposite that Scott Chipperfield presents compared to Lucas. Despite boasting 11 more caps that his captain, Chippers has just moved into his ninth season with FC Basel in the Swiss Super League. One theme that did seem to emerge from the piece in the mag this month was Chippers’ humble opinion of himself and his loyalty to club and family.
To get some background on the man, I spoke to renowned NSL and former Newcastle Jets coach Nick Theodorakopoulos. The coach who “discovered” Chippers while at the Wollongong Wolves praised his talent, but the only negative he tagged-on was that before he signed for the NSL club, he was happy to keep knocking around in the state league.
This is a player who has gone on to play Champions League and World Cup football. Even once he’d made his Socceroos debut Chippers was still working as a local school bus driver.
“I drove the school bus right up until I came to Europe when I was 25,” Chippers told me. “I was playing for Australia too…the kids on the bus wanted me to sign things for them.”
When I asked him why he’d stayed in Basel for so long, he cited how great the club is and his Swiss wife Stefanie. “Just because you move to a bigger league it doesn’t mean you are going to be happy.”
Clearly a modest figure, but you could argue too modest. Does he need to take lessons from Lucas to further his career, or should Lucas be talking a leaf out of Chippers’ book? Perhaps Lucas’ bullish approach to getting the best deal is what separates him as our on-pitch leader?
For the full interview with Scott Chipperfield, see the October issue of Australian FourFourTwo, out now.
For our September issue I met Socceroos captain Lucas Neill in Melbourne, while in October’s issue (out now) I spoke to Scott Chipperfield on the phone from Switzerland.
When I met our country’s unemployed leader, he was friendly, responsive and ultimately came across as a likable ambassador for the game. Chippers was far more informal, but an equally agreeable character. Both good guys, but they've had very different career paths and views on how to manage themselves.
In my opinion, there isn’t much between Lucas and Chippers talent-wise on the pitch (many/most would probably disagree there). The main difference seems to be in their own assessment of their ability – I think Lucas overrates himself and Chippers has been too modest for his own good.
The fact that I’m inking this blog after four EPL games having been played and our captain is still floating around club-less in a World Cup year is truly baffling. With every passing day the Lucas “brand” is diminishing in the eyes of the Australian public.
I wouldn’t go as far as calling Lucas greedy as I simply don’t know enough about the background to the delay (it seems no-one does), but football fans who won’t be contacted by Lucas’s legal advisors will be saying as much.
If Lucas thinks he can do better than captaining a top 10 EPL side at 31 with worsening pace and average (by EPL standards) ability then he’s kidding himself. If his ego was bruised by a reduced wage offer in the wake of the GFC and the bankruptcy of the club’s owners, then he is welcome to try and command his previously excessive wage elsewhere, but it simply won’t happen.
You might contest that if he has an over-inflated opinion of his ability, he would have fancied his chances at Liverpool, rather than opting for East London at the beginning of 2007. I’ll leave that point alone by suggesting all that does in hindsight is fuel the fire of the accusers of Lucas’s greed.
If he’d gone to West Ham as he genuinely saw them as a better option, why has he abandoned them after two and a half years in which he has settled his family and earned the captaincy of a club – a club which has been led by the likes of World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore?
Lucas has managed to maximise the value of his ability during his career and parlay that into a series moves which would have benefited him far beyond any more level-headed expectations. Mark Schwarzer and Tim Cahill are better players than Lucas, but their more humble approach has seen them stay loyal to the club’s who have given them their opportunities.
This leads me onto the vast opposite that Scott Chipperfield presents compared to Lucas. Despite boasting 11 more caps that his captain, Chippers has just moved into his ninth season with FC Basel in the Swiss Super League. One theme that did seem to emerge from the piece in the mag this month was Chippers’ humble opinion of himself and his loyalty to club and family.
To get some background on the man, I spoke to renowned NSL and former Newcastle Jets coach Nick Theodorakopoulos. The coach who “discovered” Chippers while at the Wollongong Wolves praised his talent, but the only negative he tagged-on was that before he signed for the NSL club, he was happy to keep knocking around in the state league.
This is a player who has gone on to play Champions League and World Cup football. Even once he’d made his Socceroos debut Chippers was still working as a local school bus driver.
“I drove the school bus right up until I came to Europe when I was 25,” Chippers told me. “I was playing for Australia too…the kids on the bus wanted me to sign things for them.”
When I asked him why he’d stayed in Basel for so long, he cited how great the club is and his Swiss wife Stefanie. “Just because you move to a bigger league it doesn’t mean you are going to be happy.”
Clearly a modest figure, but you could argue too modest. Does he need to take lessons from Lucas to further his career, or should Lucas be talking a leaf out of Chippers’ book? Perhaps Lucas’ bullish approach to getting the best deal is what separates him as our on-pitch leader?
For the full interview with Scott Chipperfield, see the October issue of Australian FourFourTwo, out now.
