Fernando Santos officially new Greece coach, succeeds Otto Rehhagel

July 1st, 2010 | by: Chris Paraskevas | Comments (0)

It’s the news everyone had been waiting for but few had probably been looking forward to, with former AEK Athens, Panathinaikos and PAOK manager Fernando Santos officially announced by the EPO as Otto Rehhagel’s successor at the helm of the Greek national team until at least Euro 2012 (or so his 450,000 euro a year contract states).

Should we be happy about the appointment? It really depends on your preference: using pragmatic, familiar and rather more predictable means to reach what would be an unprecedented third major international tournament or fostering a new generation of bright young players with aesthetically pleasing football. The appointment heavily leans towards the former though people shouldn’t be so quick to assume the football will be quite as conservative as that championed by Rehhagel at certain points during his reign. To be perfectly honest the stereotype of Greece as an ultra-defensive, painful-to-watch outfit is an unfair one considering the team played aggressive attacking football in parts of every match at Euro 2004 bar a dreadful final.

The Greeks did nothing to dispel the image at Euro 2008, which is what Greek fans won’t be wanting to see under Santos. The good thing is, I probably wouldn’t go so far as to call Santos a defensive manager as much as one who is astute when it comes to measuring the limitations of his teams. It’s what has characterized his various spells in Greece, where he was voted recently the most successful coach of the decade. Whether he’ll go as far as Rehhagel in insisting that he doesn’t have Kaka, Messi and Ronaldo at his disposal to justify a perceived negative brand of football remains to be seen; I certainly hope not.

In the likes of Sotiris Ninis, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Vasilis Torosidis, Georgios Samaras and Konstantinos Mitroglou, Santos has the tools to bring a slightly more adventurous approach to the national team. Whilst it would be suicidal to forsake the foundations of discipline laid down so successfully by Rehhagel, he needs to move quickly to leave his own mark on this squad and fine tune it.

Personally I’m not particularly fussed about the brand of football that we play so much as the individuals we use. It’s time to usher in a new generation ahead of Euro 2012 with a view to qualifying and performing well in Brazil in 2014.

Santos’ appointment by the EPO might suggest the governing body similarly aren’t concerned with bringing an attractive brand of football to the national team, perhaps conscious of not wasting Rehhagel’s legacy. It isn’t a selection to get the pulses racing but equally, it shouldn’t be one that will backfire spectacularly given the Portuguese manager’s vast knowledge of the workings of the Greek domestic scene, where he might scour for new talent more frequently than his successor.

Some might argue his appointment represents a risk in that Santos has never taken a national team before but then again, neither had Rehhagel. In fact, it’s interesting to remember that Rehhagel was famous for a cavalier, attacking brand of football from his days in charge of Werder Bremen, though it’s probably a bit much at this point to suggest the conservative Santos will bring a Thomas-Schaaf-kamikaze approach to the Ethniki.

Is it a good choice? It won’t set the world alight but it’s a fairly good decision seeing as how Santos brings natural advantages in that his style of play is only a slight departure from Rehhagel’s, which should make the transition easier for the players, as well as the fact that he’ll be familiar with the Greek domestic scene and probably unafraid to take chances with players from all over the country. He’s an undoubtedly astute tactician and whilst his record in derbies is particularly poor, that’s probably due to the fact that he’s taken the reigns of the weaker team in almost all of those scenarios. The positives certainly outweigh the negatives but only time will tell.