uRRRs blogPaulo who, sir? Paulo Sousa! Me sir? You sir! Three bags full sir!!! |
Posted: November 20th 2008
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Fourth permanent manager in little over a year, plus a couple of caretakers, but let’s get the important bit done with first – how do you pronounce his name? Soo-za? Sowsah? Sosa? I think we should be told before we get into a Jennas / Jeenas situation...or the latest case in point, which syllable to emphasise in AgbonlaHOR...or is it the all-new Tyldesley version, AgBONlahor...
Second box that needs ticking is what capacity do we have for sub-editors’ headline punnery & tomfoolery? First one I thought of was ‘Sousa & the Banshees’...but I couldn’t envisage a scenario whereby Paulo’s motley crew could have gone through a game like a bunch of gaelic fairies...but then again. Perhaps the fans’ boos echoing round a two thirds full Loftus Road as we slide inexorably into the bottom half could be compared to the proverbial wailing of banshees, but that’s still stretching it.
No, I need the pronunciation confirmation before I can really get to work...though I did like the messageboard wag who suggested our traditional “c’mon you soopa....hoopsa!” chant be adapted to “c’mon you sousa...hoopsa!” Which, of course, only works if it’s Soo-za...
So what do we know about our new gaffer? I mean KNOW, not googled. Well I’ll be honest, golden generation or not, I have very little recollection of Paulo the player. I remember Figo...and Nuno Gomes...and Rui Costa...and there were some other dashing young latin types of whom I now vaguely recall Paulo was one. Did I know prior to yesterday’s appointment that he’d won back to back Champions’ League finals with Juve and Dortmund? No. Then again, did I remember Dortmund winning it in the first place...?
I suspect I saw him play in the flesh, as I saw one of Portugal’s group games at Euro 96. Equally, I’m sure he played a starring role when Portugal beat England 3-2 (after being 2-0 down) at Euro 2000. I’m told he was a defensive-minded but still quite dashing midfielder. But this is all second hand.
He certainly has a pedigree and medal haul that should impress the Football Manager-playing members of our squad (if I were as young as they, I may not be so ignorant of Paulo’s achievements).
So yet another new era dawns. I’m glad we’ve got a continental coach as I just couldn’t see a British one thriving in W12 under this regime...I’m glad he’s promised attacking football...I’m concerned about his limited coaching experience...and would like to know to what extent he was a right hand man / trusted aide to Scolari and, latterly, Quieroz, or was he just the bloke who trained the Portuguese schoolboys side?
Most frustratingly of all, after managing to get to loads of fixtures this season, the fates have conspired that I may, horror of horrors, be about to miss as many as the next seven, so once again I’ll be reliant on second hand feedback to make knee jerk sack him / back him judgments. And if Flavio gets an itchy trigger finger again...I might miss his reign altogether...
Nick Gordon Brown