Comment: Carlos Queiroz's Downfall Was Absurd, Yet Inevitable

Carlos Queiroz's role as Portugal manager unceremoniously ended on Thursday, just two days after his side lost out 1-0 at Norway to take just one point from their first two Euro qualifiers. Yet Carlos himself could scarcely be held responsible for those results, given that he nfl jerseys
was unable to take charge of his team: he had been suspended by the local authorities. Thus in quite absurd fashion a manager was sacked after a poor result that he had little to do with.

That's all of a piece with Carlos' career. It's never been easy, and it's seldom felt quite right. In fact Queiroz's return to the national team bore an uncanny resemblance to the end of his first appointment: taking his hotseat only to be faced with an unimpressed, almost hostile support base. "Most Portuguese fans looked at his being chosen with suspicion, given that he had previously failed at the helm of the Seleccao - he could not guide the team to Euro 92 or the 1994 World Cup," says Portuguese football journalist and former Goal.com writer Luis Mira. "The appointment of Queiroz, a man still primarily known for his work with young players, did not gather many followers."

This point is key. Although Queiroz has been around the world in a coaching capacity, and of course served as assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, it is as a youth manager that he will be most fondly remembered. In fact Queiroz's one spell as a successful coach was in the late 80s and early 90s. As manager of the Portuguese youth teams he won the FIFA World Youth Championship twice, first in 1989 and then in 1991. Many of the young Portuguese of that so-called Golden Generation had been unable to play world football at a lower level: the U-16, later U-17 World Cup wasn't introduced until 1985, and the Selecao missed the first two biannual editions. (Queiroz coached Portugal at the third, also in 1989, making for a busy year. His fledglings lost in the semis to hosts Scotland.)

That Queiroz was able to take such a largely untried group to global success - not once, but twice - pays testament to his skills as both a tactician and a builder of teams. But there are two aspects to these victories - two circumstances - that were not to collide again for the rest of his career.

Stars Aligning

First of all he was blessed with talent all over the pitch. Luis Figo was coming through the ranks in time for the second tournament and it is his name that embodies his generation, but even in 1989 the likes of Joao Pinto, Fernando Couto, Paulo Sousa and an at-the-time massively rated full-back named Abel Silva were all among the best in their positions. This was only to repeat once in his career: at Real Madrid. But here he was a victim of the hubristic Galacticos program and unable to mix talent and tactics in the way that he'd grown up with. Instead it was to be all talent at all costs, with certain players to be treated as investments to be cherished rather than tools to be utilised. No wonder it didn't last. Secondly, a youth coach is seldom in the limelight. Press conferences at this level of Minnesota Vikings jersey
football are largely dutiful in presentation and muted in volume, sparsely populated by a few dozing hacks, rather than the standing-room-only affairs at the full World Cup. This lack of pressure from a media to which Carlos was perhaps honest to a fault would undoubtedly permit him to stay focused.

His weakest moments with United, in fact, were usually the product of a microphone, a camera, and his temper. Alex Ferguson's long-running spat with the BBC is well-known, and thus it fell frequently to Carlos to give United's contractually-bound interviews to the British state broadcaster. Here he'd often deviate from the script (assuming there was one) and court controversy. Nobody can get away with attacking referees when somebody might be listening - and in the Premier League, somebody is always listening. Conduct that might have flown at youth tournaments suddenly began to look reckless, even amateurish, under the glare of the flashbulbs and in front of the sponsors' logos.

Cometh The Hour

Again, his technical abilities were never in question, but against a backdrop like this his appointment in 2008 seems almost mystifying. In charge of Portugal for a second time, Queiroz had little to recommend him. It had been over five years since he last took charge of a team - his team - in a competitive match, deputising for the formidable Fergie notwithstanding. He faced a local media and fanbase that was, in Luis Mira's words, in thrall to none other than "Luis Felipe Scolari, who had helped Portugal to some of their best results in history." A terrible run of form in his opening games saw this confrontational relationship deteriorate further, and key positions lacking talent - most notably the centre-forward spot - meant that he didn't have the talent pool to win over the fans.

Of course results played their part, but ultimately it seemed to be Queiroz's mouth that saw his reign end. Or perhaps it's the other way around, his suspension for insulting the anti-doping agency proving to be the crime that the authorities needed to dispose with him quickly and relatively painlessly. Pittsburgh Steelers jersey
Regardless, it was perhaps inevitable. Carlos was never the popular appointment, nor the right one. To call him a failure as a first-team manager is perhaps harsh, yet it has truth in it. Let that never, though, detract from the man's undoubted talents. Portugal may have gained for being able to start afresh, but football as a whole will be the poorer if Queiroz's coaching talents aren't brought to bear somewhere else, and soon.