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Opinion

Should Newcastle United go for the modern day Rinus Michels if Eddie Howe ever leaves?

1 year ago
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Once in a generation, or even a lifetime, a pioneer, an innovator and a master in his field will come to the fore.

In the early 1970s Dutch giants Ajax were gifted such a person.

After having been in the shadow of rivals Feyenoord in the late 1960s and very early 70s, it was the now legendary Rinus Michels who transformed the Amsterdam giants Ajax into a footballing institution that became the envy of European football.

He went on to almost replicate his club success at international level, when he became manager of the Netherlands.

Who can forget the 1974 Holland team that reached the World Cup Final with the likes of Cruyff, Krol and Neeskens?

England have been crying out for a manager who can play the game with the freedom and abandonment of a Rinus Michels for the last fifty years.

After Sir Alf Ramsey, the country has had the likes of homegrown managerial talent in the form of Revie, Greenwood, Robson, Taylor, Venables, Hoddle, Keegan, McClaren, Hodgson and Southgate. They have also tried their hand with foreign managers but to little or no success.

Now I believe from what I am hearing on the not too distant grapevine, that English football may finally at last have produced their very own modern version of the Dutch Master Rinus Michels.

Step forward none other than….Tony Mowbray, the Sunderland manager these past six months.

Yes, the same Tony Mowbray who seems to have been a manager since Kyril Louis Dreyfuss was still in his romper suit.

After a chequered career as a managerial journeyman at the likes of Hibernian, Celtic, Middlesbrough, Ipswich, West Brom and Blackburn, it has taken his appointment at newly established Championship level Sunderland, to make some people sit up and take notice that England have had a tactical football genius in their midst for almost two decades without realising it.

Those folk are of the mackem persuasion, who always like to remind everyone that they ultimately know best.

Even after two relegations to the third tier of English football in the last 35 years, these lower league fans still insist that they know their stuff, and apparently some of this exhibition football currently being turned out under “Mogga”,  is some of the best they have ever seen in decades.

Indeed, only the halcyon days under Peter Reid over twenty years ago can compare to any significant degree.

It doesn’t matter that they lose as many as they win they say…because it is all part of their big project.

It is commonly assumed that if they played Wembley bound and high flying Premier League Newcastle United anytime soon, that they would wipe the floor with us.

The mackems detest Eddie Howe (apparently he is smug), even though a lot of them touted him for their top job when he was unemployed a couple of years ago.

So in the event of Newcastle United’s owners ever parting company with Eddie in the future, I wonder if they would possibly consider appointing the mackem version of Rinus Michels.

With so many disturbing things happening in such an unpredictable and topsy turvy world, it is always reassuring to know that there is always the rational heads and mindsets on Wearside to give everyone a good grounding on reality, when it is ultimately required.

God only knows what they will come out with if we turn their current darlings Manchester United over at Wembley on Sunday.

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