Soccer Saturday reverted to its tub-thumping worst yesterday when discussing the appointment of Marco Silva as the new manager of Hull City.
Silva's appointment comes from left-field: his previous managerial experience is successful yet relatively sparse: guiding Estoril from the second division to fifth in the Portuguese league led to his own promotion to Sporting Lisbon, with whom he won a domestic cup before joining Olympiakos for a season in which he beat Arsenal in the Champions League and sauntered to the league title, winning 17 games in a row.
So while Silva is undoubtedly a manager of great merit, it would be remarkable if he kept Hull in the League: most managers struggle upon their introduction to the rigours of the English league, and he will be severely hamstrung by the fact that Hull's squad is largely crap.
The parachuting of Silva into the league from abroad raises legitimate questions about the routes available for young English coaches into the Premier League, and it is certainly something worthy of debate. Soccer Saturday attempted to do this, but unfortunately, Paul Merson led the case for the defence, and he spouted a steady stream of bollocks.
In response to Stelling's calling out Silva's credentials, Merse shrugged that "I could win the league with Olympiakos". He then says that "they've won it 107 times, and it's only been going 106 years".
He then cast his eyes to heaven, and decried "why's it always got to be a foreign manager" before adding the disclaimer that "I've got nothing against foreign managers", masking his subsequent diatribe against foreign managers the argument the veneer of political correctness.
Merse then went to war on behalf of English managers, wondering why "this geezer" is any better than Gary Rowlett. (We assume the man he believes in so strongly here is, in fact, Gary Rowett, the former Birmingham manager).
He then says, in relation to young English coaches, that "none of them get a chance" in the Premier League, using as evidence Sean Dyche, a young English coach who has got a chance in the Premier League.
Matt Le Tissier and Stelling provided some much-needed balance: Le Tiss giving the example of Pochettino's success at Southampton and Spurs, with host Stelling pointing out that Silva won 17 games in a row with Olympiakos. Merse's response was just a jumble of words which made no sense whatsoever. He repeated the admittedly accurate existential point that "it can happen", before randomly talking about Olympiakos' fixture schedule.
Yeah, that can happen. That can happen. That can happen at Olympiakos. You ask people, that can happen at Olympiakos. That can happen. You couldn't tell me who Olympiakos are playing in two months time. Because they don't do the fixtures. They do the fixtures a month at a time. That's how bad it is. No.
You can watch his nonsense below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m88ivM2DwJ4
