Lucescu's job is now harder than a temp's


You know that feeling - it is your first day at a new job, everything seems unfamiliar and you have no clue what you're really doing. Being a temp is always the worst, you work like a joker player for all the chores in the company, all the work in no man's land is yours. You just want to know what is expected of you, clearly and concisely; but you will never know whether making coffee is part of your job description or not.

Being the coach of the Turkish national football team is the same as being a temp in a company right now. No one knows about the objectives set for coach Mircea Lucescu, but everyone expects him to bring success.

The reason behind this fog of uncertainty is that the Turkish football community does not know what they want to achieve in the first place. While on one hand, we waste professionals because they fail to bring success, the amateurs of the football community - the fans, the columnists and federation executives gathered from businessmen - cannot agree on what kind of a football they want to watch.

Fans are split into many groups, some of them just want to see their team win the next game, some want to see more young players in the team and some just want to come to the stadiums with their families to watch the games without any trouble.

The same also goes for the columnists, there is no consensus on objectives or road maps, and the only thing that all sides agree on is the disappointing place Turkish football has in the international arena.

Amid this uncertainty, the only thing these ex-businessmen can do to avoid public rage is to try and settle it by changing things like coaches, players or foreign player limits in league every two or three years.

Unfortunately, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) does not create plans or shares them with the public to gather support. If it does, it doesn't stick to its plans even if things go south. Rather, only blind public rage shapes the TFF's road map and that is why we do not see any long-term plan in Turkish football, whatever happens, is momentary.

Coach Mircea Lucescu is torn between the multiple tasks like raising young players, making his team play well and win games.

You can win games with old players, as long as you play better than your opponents, and that has always been the favorite option of coaches due to its ease. But silencing critics by taking short-cuts has brought no serious achievement to Turkish football, and the interest in national team football has been decreasing gradually.

Now is time for everyone in the Turkish football community to stop expecting the temp to do everything and make his objectives clear and concise. Federation executives and columnists should pave the way to create a new vision that would guide Turkish football.

But most importantly, they should also involve fans in this process, so that everyone can embrace the plan even when there is a problem. An organized, communicable road map for Turkish football will give the fans the endurance to follow along the way and evaluate the process in the right context. Only then, we can rightfully evaluate the temp's performance.