Alex Neil vs Martin Olsson (latest blog)

[Daniel Brigham 0]

Alex Neil''s public criticism of Martin Olsson shows he''s brought some

much-needed mongrel to the dressing room. But was it wise? By Daniel

BrighamThe cricket World Cup starts tomorrow. Australia are favourites. It

is ever thus in cricket. A big tournament rolls around, the Aussies

begin it as favourites and end it as winners. The rest of the cricket

world gets a bit annoyed and moves on. This time, though, it is a

little different. Their status as the world’s best one-day

international side marks a drastic turnaround over the last 18 months.

In 2013 Australia had gone soft. The team that had dominated the last

two decades of international cricket had forgotten how to win, were

routinely taken apart by England – England! – and were often tripping

over themselves and stumbling into petty off-field arguments. It

was so unaustralian as to be almost English. Then things changed.

Darren Lehmann came in as coach. As old-school Australian as XXXX lager,

barbecues and utes, the man with a ciggy in one hand and a tinny in the

other relocated the one special ingredient that had gone missing in the

national team: the mongrel. Mongrel is at the centre of

Australian sporting expression. It is something of the outback: wild,

untamed. A will to survive, a kill-or-be-killed mentality. As soon as

Lehmann got Australia brawling again, with the snarling, provocative

David Warner as his chief conduit, they remembered their birthright:

winning at sport. In Glasgow they don’t call it “having a bit of

mongrel”. Maybe they call these sort of characters street-fighters. Or

wee b*stards. Either way, after just four weeks, it is clear Alex Neil

has brought a bit of mongrel with him.Norwich needed it. A

talented squad has, it seems, a mushy centre. Neil Adams, by all

accounts a Very Nice Man, had replaced Chris Hughton, not just a Very

Nice Man but also the Nicest Man in Football. David McNally, a

man not overly-labelled as nice, had had enough. After two avuncular

managers sculpted in the image of Delia Smith, he turned to a man more

in keeping with his own image. A man prepared to upset people for the

good of the team. On Tuesday night Norwich fans got to see

Neil’s mongrel in public for the first time. Martin Olsson – who’d had a

very good game against Blackpool following his aborted Premier League

move – had been at fault for certainly one Charlton goal, possibly both.

Despite two substitutes rescuing three points, Olsson must still have

been anticipating a rollicking when he returned to the dressing room.What

he probably didn’t expect was that the rollicking would start on the

pitch. As soon as the whistle went, Neil had one thing on his mind:

berating Olsson. You certainly couldn’t imagine Hughton or Adams

– the kind of men who would probably apologise if a waiter spilled a

bowl of soup over them – doing that. In fact, you can’t imagine many of

the football league’s 92 managers doing something similar. The Number

One rule of football management is don’t criticise your players in

public. It’s why Arsène Wenger never sees bad tackles by one of his

players and why Jose Mourinho criticises the referee, the linesmen, the

media, other managers and other players rather than ever publically

admit one of his own men had done something untoward.Public

criticism is rare and rarely looks good. Paolo Di Canio made – and then

lost – a management career out of doing it. Aside from his Tenerife Tan,

Phil Brown will only ever be remembered for forcing his Hull players to

sit in a circle on the pitch at half-time against Manchester City in

order for him to furiously wag his finger at them for three minutes. He

now manages Southend in League Two. By most accounts, Neil’s

words with Olsson was a controlled talking-to, rather than a

limb-flailing loss-of-rag. This was no absurd ego trip for the manager,

as it was for Brown, nor was it a melodramatic loss of emotion, as it

always was for Di Canio. Instead, it was for the good of the team. But

we won’t really know if it will backfire on Neil until we see how Olsson

plays on Saturday – if he is picked. Perhaps, though, Neil was

correct to do it publically. All season Norwich have pinballed from

brilliant to comically mad and bad, as if someone has a voodoo canary to

stick pins into as soon as things start going well. Whatever has been

said in the dressing room throughout the season hasn’t prevented this

from repeatedly happening. Perhaps Neil felt it was last-resort time: a

spot of public shaming to finally get the message to sink in. Whatever

the reaction from the players, they will be under no illusion about the

nature of their new manager. That they responded to letting a two-goal

lead slip by then regaining control of midfield, digging in and finding a

winner suggests some of Neil’s mongrel may already be rubbing off on

them. And, with four season-defining matches coming up against Wolves,

Watford, Blackburn and Ipswich, we may be about to find out exactly to

what extent the mongrel has been unleashed. Daniel Brigham is a sports journalist and editor. He tweets at @dan_brigham

[Bury Yellow 2]

Excellent piece and a decent observation of AN the man.

Looking at the Norwich TV video, I didn''t think it was clear how the after match discussion with Olsson evolved. Initially it looked as if the ''verbals'' were instigated by Olsson. Either way we sure have got ourselves a feisty character and yet what impresses me so far is his calmness, clarity and assured approach when interviewed.

I just hope this promise develops into something special.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

Not the first example of AN making public critisism and undoubtedly will not be the last.

It''s one aspect of the way he manages the team and manages fans perceptions of him. I''m sure he has many more management strategies at his disposal.

[Canary Jedi 578]

I like the fact that AN only hints at his displeasure in public about a player. It is good man management because he doesn''t go as far as to humiliate the player, but now the others know thy will not be mollycoddled and protected from the nasty public if thy under perform.

So far so good AN...

[Barclay seats 4849 the 3rd 0]

Just reads like self indulgent assumption to me .

Let''s hope we don''t have a Phil Brown .

[Daz Sparks 1,151]

The small snippet of video I have seen looks no more than AN talking to Olson.

As for a Phil Brown, Neil looks far too level headed to make those kind misjudgements.

[BroadstairsR 2,138]

I really think we should sell Olsson in the summer. He seems to have had a very disturbed season in many ways and from the very first game, where his performance and behaviour were possibly instrumental in us not getting something from that encounter against Wolves.

He''s not that special and £4-5m is a decent return, especially if he is disgruntled and has varying form.

Garrido is a more than decent defender and the Olsson money could be used in other areas.

Have we a youngster ready to back up Garrido for next season? Whittaker can also play in that position in any case and we will likely have a wealth of central defenders by then (Bennett back and Seb rehabilited) so Martin can revert to lb.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Daniel Brigham"]Alex Neil''s public criticism of Martin Olsson shows he''s brought some

much-needed mongrel to the dressing room. But was it wise? By Daniel

BrighamThe cricket World Cup starts tomorrow. Australia are favourites. It

is ever thus in cricket. A big tournament rolls around, the Aussies

begin it as favourites and end it as winners. The rest of the cricket

world gets a bit annoyed and moves on. This time, though, it is a

little different. Their status as the world’s best one-day

international side marks a drastic turnaround over the last 18 months.

In 2013 Australia had gone soft. The team that had dominated the last

two decades of international cricket had forgotten how to win, were

routinely taken apart by England – England! – and were often tripping

over themselves and stumbling into petty off-field arguments. It

was so unaustralian as to be almost English. Then things changed.

Darren Lehmann came in as coach. As old-school Australian as XXXX lager,

barbecues and utes, the man with a ciggy in one hand and a tinny in the

other relocated the one special ingredient that had gone missing in the

national team: the mongrel. Mongrel is at the centre of

Australian sporting expression. It is something of the outback: wild,

untamed. A will to survive, a kill-or-be-killed mentality. As soon as

Lehmann got Australia brawling again, with the snarling, provocative

David Warner as his chief conduit, they remembered their birthright:

winning at sport. In Glasgow they don’t call it “having a bit of

mongrel”. Maybe they call these sort of characters street-fighters. Or

wee b*stards. Either way, after just four weeks, it is clear Alex Neil

has brought a bit of mongrel with him.Norwich needed it. A

talented squad has, it seems, a mushy centre. Neil Adams, by all

accounts a Very Nice Man, had replaced Chris Hughton, not just a Very

Nice Man but also the Nicest Man in Football. David McNally, a

man not overly-labelled as nice, had had enough. After two avuncular

managers sculpted in the image of Delia Smith, he turned to a man more

in keeping with his own image. A man prepared to upset people for the

good of the team. On Tuesday night Norwich fans got to see

Neil’s mongrel in public for the first time. Martin Olsson – who’d had a

very good game against Blackpool following his aborted Premier League

move – had been at fault for certainly one Charlton goal, possibly both.

Despite two substitutes rescuing three points, Olsson must still have

been anticipating a rollicking when he returned to the dressing room.What

he probably didn’t expect was that the rollicking would start on the

pitch. As soon as the whistle went, Neil had one thing on his mind:

berating Olsson. You certainly couldn’t imagine Hughton or Adams

– the kind of men who would probably apologise if a waiter spilled a

bowl of soup over them – doing that. In fact, you can’t imagine many of

the football league’s 92 managers doing something similar. The Number

One rule of football management is don’t criticise your players in

public. It’s why Arsène Wenger never sees bad tackles by one of his

players and why Jose Mourinho criticises the referee, the linesmen, the

media, other managers and other players rather than ever publically

admit one of his own men had done something untoward.Public

criticism is rare and rarely looks good. Paolo Di Canio made – and then

lost – a management career out of doing it. Aside from his Tenerife Tan,

Phil Brown will only ever be remembered for forcing his Hull players to

sit in a circle on the pitch at half-time against Manchester City in

order for him to furiously wag his finger at them for three minutes. He

now manages Southend in League Two. By most accounts, Neil’s

words with Olsson was a controlled talking-to, rather than a

limb-flailing loss-of-rag. This was no absurd ego trip for the manager,

as it was for Brown, nor was it a melodramatic loss of emotion, as it

always was for Di Canio. Instead, it was for the good of the team. But

we won’t really know if it will backfire on Neil until we see how Olsson

plays on Saturday – if he is picked. Perhaps, though, Neil was

correct to do it publically. All season Norwich have pinballed from

brilliant to comically mad and bad, as if someone has a voodoo canary to

stick pins into as soon as things start going well. Whatever has been

said in the dressing room throughout the season hasn’t prevented this

from repeatedly happening. Perhaps Neil felt it was last-resort time: a

spot of public shaming to finally get the message to sink in. Whatever

the reaction from the players, they will be under no illusion about the

nature of their new manager. That they responded to letting a two-goal

lead slip by then regaining control of midfield, digging in and finding a

winner suggests some of Neil’s mongrel may already be rubbing off on

them. And, with four season-defining matches coming up against Wolves,

Watford, Blackburn and Ipswich, we may be about to find out exactly to

what extent the mongrel has been unleashed. Daniel Brigham is a sports journalist and editor. He tweets at @dan_brigham[/quote]One of the arguments frequently put forward here when there is a managerial vacancy is that we should go for so and so because they had a stellar career as a player, or has been a high-profile coach, and so would command instant respect in the dressing-room. There was a strong element of the latter recently, with Phelan being advocated on the basis that because he had worked under Ferguson the Norwich City players would be bound to take him seriously in the top job.I haven''t been a professional footballer but I suspect any such automatic respect lasts about a week at most, with players very quickly working out from the evidence of their own eyes whether the famous new man actually knows what they are doing. And equally about the chap they had never heard of from some league they thought was a joke.

[Daz Sparks 1,151]

Purpe? Am I to assume that you mean the players may well have been sceptical about AN''s apparent credentials as manager, but soon found out he needs to be treated with respect and could indeed gain that respect in return?

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Daz Sparks"]Purpe? Am I to assume that you mean the players may well have been sceptical about AN''s apparent credentials as manager, but soon found out he needs to be treated with respect and could indeed gain that respect in return?[/quote]I was mainly talking theoretically but that certainly is one plausible interpretation of what I posted...[;)]

[Daz Sparks 1,151]

I think the way AN handled the Bassong situation is a mark of the man. Bassong is back in the fold and early signs seem to indicate also back to some semblance of decent form and a deal of commitment to the cause, it could so easily have been different, Bassong may must have seen enough in AN to convince him give it a try, remembering that this all occurred when the window was open, and his name was never mentioned once in connection with wanting away from Carrow Rd.

[The Great Wall Of Tettey 0]

Pretty clear olsson wants out and his agent hasn''t exactly helped things with his comments.

He''s made consistant mistakes this season then again but most of our defence unit has.

My only concern is he''s asked to bomb up the pitch for 90 minutes it''s pretty inevitable he''s going to get caught out now and again. He was brilliant in the premier league but was very rare he got over the halfway line?