Torrid times in Romania

By Paul-Daniel Zaharia

It has been an even more stressful season than usual for coaches in Romania. Out of 16 Divizia A clubs, nine have changed coaches already in 2002/03 and with two sides having done this on two occasions, a total of eleven managers have been made redundant.

Impatient attitude
It is one of the less palatable quirks of Romanian football that there is an impatient attitude towards managers. However, there is one peculiar exception this year which has bucked the trend. FC Rapid Bucuresti brought in Mircea Rednic for his fourth spell as coach toward the end of the 2001/02 season, and he had instant success with the Romanian Cup and Super Cup. Yet, when his side were eliminated from the UEFA Cup earlier in the current campaign, those in the know were confidently predicting his dismissal.

Copos holds firm
Incredibly, by Romanian standards at least, Rapid's main shareholder George Copos chose to have faith in his coach. "I'll never make the mistakes which I made in the past, when I fired good trainers, including Rednic," he said. His decision has paid dividends, with Rapid going into the winter break with a ten point lead at the top of the first division - a situation many have put down to the continuity of coaching and the fact that Rednic, unlike his counterparts, knows he has some security.

Merry-go-round
Sadly, that has not been the case with many of Rednic's peers. FC Dinamo Bucuresti and FC Universitatea Craiova have led the way this season in terms of the rapid dismissal of coaches.

Marin resigns
Dinamo started preparations the season with a coaching duo, Cornel Dinu and Florin Marin, which was reduced to a solo act when Marin resigned. Dinu then managed the club alone before giving way to Ion Moldovan following his side's failure to reach the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. However, Moldovan was to last just three rounds before leaving for unspecified reasons, paving the way for Marin to return. Four rounds later, after a series of public arguments with Dinu, Marin resigned again and, with just eight rounds of the season gone, Dinu took sole command once more.

Erratic form
Hardly surprisingly, Dinamo's form has been erratic, but the coaching merry-go-round has been worse for Universitatea. With three wins and a draw under coach Emil Sandoi in the first four games of the season, a new-look Universitatea side were looking like title contenders.

No coincidence
However, three subsequent defeats saw Sandoi replaced by Dumitru Marcu, but as he collected only one point from the club's next two games, he was also fired. Sorin Cartu took charge in round ten, and has been unable so far to stop his side’s poor run.

Iordanescu unhappy
Such widespread upheaval makes the job of leading the national team that much more difficult for coach Anghel Iordanescu. Players are unable to build up a rapport and constant changes to training and preparations can only complicate matters.

Iordanescu ashamed
"This instability cannot be understood and cannot be accepted," said Iordanescu. "This is one of the reasons why Romanian club football is at such a low level. The club chiefs must appoint trainers for longer terms and make long-term plans."

Insecure position
The concept of job security means little in Romanian coaching, and sadly that has led to coaches being prevented from establishing roots at clubs and enforcing consistent training campaigns. The result has been an inconsistency throughout the Romanian game. For once, it looks like it will take something more than sacking the coach to improve matters.