Qatar 2022 manager power ranking
Sport Review #220
Ten - Roberto Martinez, Belgium | Despite working with the dying embers of Belgium’s golden generation, and the difficult to pull off shaved head / heavy eyebrow combo, Rob left a massive impression on the tournament by signing off through the medium of breakdance.
Nine - Walid Regragui, Morocco | After sending big dogs Spain home, Walid celebrated by doing a Pat Rafter to see his mum in the stands while pulling off the dark suit / trainers combo no problem.
Eight - Hajime Moriyasu, Japan | Just kept it really, really classic with a three piece suit and Paul Weller haircut, and showed total class by bowing to the fans after being eliminated.
Seven - Hervé Renard, Saudi Arabia | Coached Saudi Arabia to massive upset over Argentina and upstaged hosts Qatar, while being blessed with cheek bones you could fillet a snapper with.
Six - Luis Enrique, Spain | Having only finished playing a few short years ago, Luis busted out of the usual-manegerial-blue-suit-paradigm and dressed more like a creative director than football coach. Unfortunately, looking like you’re ready to order pizza and stay here until we break this ad or optimise Instagram spend wasn't enough to coach his tremendous team through a penalty shootout against Morocco.
Five - Gareth Southgate, England | Has calmly taken his team to the quarter finals after a slow start and decent performance against Senegal. Has to work under scrutiny of British tabloid press, yet still presents as decent, calm and values-driven man. Has moved on from previous awkward tie / waistcoat crimes, worryingly pivoting to a polo shirt with a zipper on it in a rare mis-step.
Four - Didier Deschamps, France | Black shirt and no tie is the sign of a man who’d tether James Bond to a chair and run him through with a laser beam before enjoying pastis, garlicky snails and an afternoon snooze. Ominous signs for Gareth Southgate.
Three - Gregg Berhalter, USA | Turning up for the World Cup in OG Air Jordan 1’s is a Kyrios-like move, and approved by Sport Review.
Two - Tite, Brazil | Like getting your uncle to do the Thriller dance at the 21st, Tite getting down and doing the pigeon dance with the players is a very powerful move and shows all is going extremely to plan for the favourites.
One - Fernando Santos, Portugal | Not only giving off strong Anthony Bourdain vibes, Ferno has shown he’s the most powerful manager here by dropping whinging Ronaldo for throwing his toys out, only to discover his team plays much better without the unpleasant prima donna. The biggest of the big dogs and not to be messed with.
Thanks for reading - Richard
This week's best NZ sport content
Last part of Brian Finn’s analysis of the Auckland Stadium shemozzle - so much fail in this story at infrastructure and governance levels. We see fine, fine stadiums overseas and want them for ourselves but continually put half arse measures and turf arguments ahead of doing things properly. Bleak [The Bounce]
Lucy Spoors is working as an athlete within the high performance rowing programme to show what’s possible for mothers wanting to remain elite athletes [Locker Room]
A glimpse into the future of cricketing contracting we didn’t ask for or deserve [Sportsfreak]
This episode with Marcus Daniell is one of the best, he’s a tremendous clear thinker and explainer, whether it’s the mindset shift that led to tennis success or his charitable foundation [Between Two Beers]
This from a couple of weeks ago was a very sobering read - I can’t imagine live sport without Twitter and while things seem to have calmed down (a little), the GOAT sport chat app is on shaky ground [Spinoff]
High quality content from TVNZ:
Video nasty
Really sad news about The Clean’s Hamish Kilgour this week.
Long read
What happened on the eve of the invasion of Ukraine [Guardian]
Recommendation
If like me you were very upset when Parks and Recreation disappeared from Netflix, I am pleased to inform you that it is now on TVNZ+.
Bring back the gif
When co-worker asks about weekend plans when there is a world cup on.
