#TFGtake: Dynamos will repeat the same old mistake if they put star value first while hiring head coach

DELHI DYNAMOS ARE once again looking to hire a former world-renowned footballer as their head coach for ISL 2016, and they are very close to repeating the mistake they made last year.

In 2015, the Delhi-based franchise brought in a 42 year old Roberto Carlos. The legendary Brazilian left back was one of the best in the world during his playing days, but at this point he was too old to play in a professional match and had too little experience as a manager to become a head coach of an ISL team. But the Dynamos management, trying to draw more crowd to the stadium with Roberto's star appeal, made him both. 

The result wasn't pretty. The stadium remained mostly empty, and Delhi Dynamos, despite having a good squad, played a bland conservative brand of football. They made it into the semi-finals, mostly thanks to a couple of lucky good results (think Robin Singh's freakish last minute goal against Mumbai City) and a stellar shift put in the back by John Arne Riise, backed up by other defenders. And whenever Roberto Carlos came on, his sloth made him barely useful on the pitch, and even his free kicks were not up to the mark. It was similar to the sorry show the Dynamos put up by playing Alessandro Del Piero in 2014.

But without taking a lesson from that and going for a qualified, experienced coach, Delhi Dynamos are going all out to bring in yet another former superstar who is yet to pick up enough managerial skills. 

The man they are after most is Rivaldo, the former attacking medio who was an integral part of the Brazil national team for a decade. He played 74 matches for them and scored 35 goals. And he won tournaments like Confederations Cup, Copa America and the FIFA World Cup with them. In his club career, he played for major European teams like Barcelona and A.C. Milan and lifted prestigious trophies like the UEFA Super Cup and Champions League. But till date, Rivaldo has never coached a professional team. In fact, he has had a prolonged playing career, being active in lower division clubs till 2015. Sure, his role in those teams must have included some mentorship, but that does not count as concrete coaching experience. And it certainly does not make him ready to face the congested grind of ISL.

The other man in the race to become the Delhi Dynamos head coach is another former superstar full-back, Gianluca Zambrotta. He was part of the Italian team that won the Euro in 2000 and the World Cup in 2006. Like Rivaldo, he too played at Barcelona and A.C. Milan, aprt from spending some time in Juventus. With the Catalans he won the FIFA Club World Cup. 

But unlike Rivaldo, the 39 year old Zambrotta has some real managerial experience. In 2013, Zambrotta became an assistant coach at FC Chiasso, the Swiss second-tier club where he ended his playing career. The next two seasons he was the manager of the club. So that's proper coaching experience right there.

But even coaching a lower division club for 2 years in Europe does not prepare one for ISL. The private tournament, unlike any real football league, gives very little time for a new coach - who in ISL's case has always been a foreigner - to come in, get acquianted with the conditions and the players. And then follows the insufferable grind of the tournament, where teams travel incessantly and play a match every 3-4 days. The players don't enough rest and their performance grows inconsistent, and injuries force teams wayward (even more easily because ISL franchises, unlike real clubs, don't have much squad depth because it's a short tournament). 

So as far as selecting coaches goes, gimmicky star-name appointments have mostly blown up on the franchises' faces. Nicolas Anelka is another example of that from the last year. Materazzi and David James have been exceptions, but it's hard to see either of these two falling into that bracket; especially Rivaldo. Perhaps it's high time the Dynamos management went further with their thought process than this stale "yesteryear-star-sells-some-extra-tickets" trope and hire someone who will be able to mould their promising squad into a cohesive unit with strong strategic vision. With the ISL set to become a real league in 2017, these are some of the aspects of being an actual professional football club that this franchise will have to get up to date on.