Three clubs still to name coaches, and the problems of substitutes

Clarence United, Kingborough Lions United and Taroona have yet to name their senior coaches for the 2010 Premier League season.

My bet is that all three will retain their coaches from the past season, namely Andrew Brown (Clarence), Geoff Freeman (Kingborough) and Ben Horgan (Taroona).

The three men did the job required.

Brown took his team from fourth place to win the Milan Lakoseljac Memorial Trophy and the State championship.

Freeman kept Kingborough Lions away from the wolf’s door, namely relegation.

And, Horgan won promotion to the Premier League for his club.

Now that we are into November, some clubs will commence pre-season training in the next couple of weeks, so it will be interesting to see player movements.

One that I do know of is teenager Jayden Hey, who will move from First Division Northern Suburbs DOSA to Premier League outfit Olympia, where his father, Chris, is the new coach.

Hey Jnr is also an accomplished athlete and his speed was quite evident in football.

Athletics training is obviously doing him a world of good in his football career and it will be interesting to see how he copes at a higher level.

* * * * *

No-one likes to be substituted.

Originally, no substitutes were allowed in the game, but we have now moved to the situation where three are permitted.

Ronaldinho’s reaction to being substituted for AC Milan in the 2-2 draw with Napoli last weekend was an eye-opener.

The famous smile was gone and he brushed aside the attempted handshake from the man replacing him.

Not only that, but he snubbed coach Leonardo as well.

In fact, he did more than that. As Leonardo, himself a former and very accomplished Brazilian international, went to shake hands, Ronaldinho brushed his coach aside and actually dropped his shoulder and bumped him as he stormed to the dugout.

It will be interesting to see if Ronaldinho faces disciplinary action for his behaviour.

And, Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager, has been at it again.

Liverpool lost their fifth match of the season on Saturday, going down 3-1 away to Fulham.

They went 1-0 down before Fernando Torres pulled them level.

And, what was his reward for equalising? Benitez substituted him immediately.

Torres was far from happy and showed it, while Fulham were inspired and went on to win.

To add insult to injury, Liverpool also had two players sent off.