maffff tmesis He sounds a talented guy, but it would be incredibly hard to implement his plans in a badly struggling teams that's got no heart when he can't even speak English.
He might be exactly the right manager, at exactly the wrong time.
I don't get this hang up, he speaks a little, but not fluent. Bielsa doesn't speak a lick of English, Pochettino didn't for 3 years... Mourinho was much worse than you'd expect for a long time.
The level of English is important. Even with an interpreter, things can be lost in translation, meanings, the tone etc. The interpreter has to be able to covey they exact message.
As for other managers, the better the players, the easier it is to train them. It's been said many times that with the top players, you have to only tell players things once, and the take on board the information, and put it into practice. With lesser players it takes longer. They forget. they tend to trust their (often poorer) instincts, and repeatedly revert to what they know and are used to, rather than what they have been told.
Likewise, many successful players in England have barely, slowly or never mastered the language.
for a player though, you can often just do your own thing, and providing your natural game isn't completely at odds with how the manager/team needs you to play, it'll work out.
English is a considerably easier language to learn than Portuguese, he'd be tutored, he'd have staff who are bilingual, he'd have Ilori around who is bilingual. It's not the end of the world..
I've no doubt he'd have learned English to a decent level by the end of the season. I'm just less confident he'd be able to change the way we play in that time, especially with the language handicap and the need to learn how this league works - and that could be fatal to our chances of staying up.
Now, if we are going to say OK, this is a long term plan, and we are prepared to accept relegation as part of the rebuilding process, then that's fine, but it's a heck of a risk.
I do actually like the sound of the guy, but I think whoever comes in will need at least two years to sort out the mess at the club, starting with shipping out the "bad apples" from the squad as soon as possible. Even if we can't sell them, put them on gardening leave, anything, just to get the away from the rest of the squad.
i suppose he just didn't want his words to be misinterpreted
