Wilfried Nancy’s Cucho Hernández’s Silence Doesn’t Work in Europe

There are many unfair reasons why Major League Soccer is rarely seen as a training league for managers who aspire to coach at the top level of their clubs. But one good reason is that MLS has done little to prepare coaches to deal with the focus of local sports media that actually care deeply about their clubs and follow them closely. .

Some MLS coaches are allowed to treat even the most mechanical details of their teams as highly classified information in an environment where there aren’t enough reporters to value the threat of getting information from other sources. . And while there’s an argument that it’s actually in the best interest of the team for coaches to provide information openly (because it prevents the players themselves from being targeted for that information). , there is little general impact of not doing so in MLS.

Introducing Wilfried Nancy, the French-born, Montreal-raised Columbus Crew manager. His overwhelming success in MLS has made him almost universally seen as the league’s top managerial candidate, most likely bucking the trend of not using him. MLS is a stepping stone to Europe.

The success and style enjoyed by his teams is undeniable and his tactical approach is unique enough to attract attention from football theorists around the world.

But his stubborn mishandling of an internal disciplinary matter involving the club’s top scorer Cucho Hernandez may be a red flag for anyone looking to hire Nancy on the other side of the Atlantic.

what happened

Cucho was first removed from the team during Saturday’s 2-2 tie against Nashville SC. Afterwards, Nancy told reporters that his own absence was the result of a violation of “team policy.” As for his availability for Tuesday night’s Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal against Tigres UANL, Nancy said only, “We’ll see.”

It wasn’t the ideal reaction to a conspicuous absence, but it’s easy to dismiss his second comment as gamesmanship ahead of one of the most important games in the club’s history. Ta. Cucho didn’t get dressed again, at least not until Tuesday.

Columbus held the Mexican Giants to a 1-1 draw and were the dominant team for the first 75 minutes, but Aidan Morris was shown a red card late on. It was a performance that supported Nancy’s overall coaching style, one in which the team far exceeded expectations even without its most important player, and at the same time, “What would have happened if Cucho had stayed until the end?” That was also the question. What’s the chance? ”

However, Nancy’s refusal to address the issue again is a failure of management, and such a response will only make the story louder, as long as there is any friction between management and their attackers. , just adds more stress to everyone else in the vicinity.

Here’s what he said in response to questions from Columbus Dispatch reporter Brianna McKay:

“We just played a match and we’re talking about Cucho, but there’s no answer to that. … We don’t play tennis, we play soccer. Soccer, this is 11 players on the pitch. Please wait. I know this is your job. Next question please.”

Nancy is clearly trying to do some damage control here. However, the result is that she gets the answer wrong in three major ways.

First of all, it’s an emotional response to perhaps the most predictable question he’ll address all season. Maybe Nancy doesn’t want to talk about it. That doesn’t mean the club’s PR team can’t create some sort of statement for him to read, given the basic information.

Second, minimizing the risk of keeping the most productive attacking players off the pitch (the whole “we don’t play tennis, we play football” part) is important because soccer is a team sport. His attitude is almost condescending toward the club’s supporters, whom he knows well. It is also true that a player who scores a goal can be irreplaceable.

But the biggest mistake here is to succumb to what has been called “the tyranny of one side or the other.” It’s clear that Nancy doesn’t want to reveal the true nature of Cucho’s perceived wrongdoing, so even though she could probably reveal it, she refuses to discuss it outright. Several Capture photos in a way that most fans and journalists will be happy with while protecting your most important information.

better option

Listen to what Nancy said on Saturday that it’s unclear whether Cucho will be allowed to appear on Tuesday. If so, imagine if he had said this instead.

“Cucho violated team rules. I won’t go into details, but he will be suspended indefinitely and will need to demonstrate remorse and understanding of the situation to be reinstated. That could happen by Tuesday. But that may not be the case.”

In that scenario, Nancy could protect certain information about what actually happened while giving fans and media some sense of the severity of the breach and the impact on availability. And it will make it easier to follow up questions like the ones we received on Tuesday, which will take some of the focus off the situation.

Instead, all the players who are recognized in supermarkets, children’s daycares, and other places where they have lives outside of football, Nancy refuses to answer, because any kind of answer she accepts is empty. It ensured that I would be vulnerable to the same questions.

Fortunately, MLS players are still relatively anonymous within the community, if you want to put it this way. Indeed, for the aging stars who grace our shores after making a name for themselves in Europe, living a relatively normal weekday life without being accosted by fans in public is a league game. That’s the charm. And no matter how much Nancy instigates this situation by refusing to deal with it, it goes largely unnoticed.

But if he really is the hottest managerial candidate in MLS, that won’t be the case when Nancy takes over as manager. There, his team is much more likely to be the top building in town and have no trouble putting up billboards.

Perhaps MLS should also consider encouraging coaches to be more proactive in the absence of organic media or fan scrutiny that could welcome them in future jobs around the world. not. Initiatives like introducing more formal player status reporting are a good start. They could also consider adding mandatory pregame media interviews, similar to what happens in the Premier League, NHL, NBA and MLB. But there’s no silver bullet to make the local media care about the Columbus Crew in the same way they do Ohio State.