(Editorial) Ghotbi Fails Again!

[Mansoor]

Sorry to be late a bit. Personal matters kept me away from finishing it sooner but here it is any way:

Ghotbi Fails Again!

It wasn’t long ago when Ghotbi and his media were campaigning aggressively for national team’s head coaching job. Ghotbi and his media promised to qualify Iran to World Cup and bring Asian Cup home. Why? Because he had worked with couple of prominent coaches in the past that had “magically” converted him into a capable coach in international stage!? He knew how to beat the Koreans from North to South simply because he had a job there before!? Ghotbi’s media were exaggerating on his experience, capability, and knowledge, and did what they could to eventually land him the job.

Two years passed, and Ghotbi never succeeded with Iran’s national team. After failing to defeat either Koreans, which “he said he knew them so well”, Iran missed to qualify for the World Cup.

Even the West Asian tournament was no success for Ghotbi as he failed to deliver the championship in this rather easy tournament.

And then the Asian Cup got here. Ghotbi had two years to prepare Iran for the Asian Cup. They had football camps in Europe and middle east, played a handful of preparation matches which included the mighty Brazil, and even halted Iran’s premier league several times. An eager and talented pool of players were in his disposal to deliver what his media had advertised him for so long; an international coach with international experience to take Iran to higher steps. His exaggerated resume was the reference point by his media to present Ghotbi as “the coach Iran needs”.

But Ghotbi failed to deliver once again in Asian Cup as his team got eliminated by the Koreans which “he knew so well”. Ghotbi’s team could not even finish among the top four in Asian Cup, let alone the championship he promised during his campaigning days.

What is important though is that the score line against Korea did not justify the embarrassing show his team put against them. Korea and Iran have been Asian rivalries for decades but this time with Ghotbi’s game plan it was more like Korean superiority than Asian rivalry! The game plan, the line up, the strategy, the substitutions, and anything a coach is responsible for was spelled disaster for Iran. Ghotbi’s true capability as head coach was clearly surfaced in this crucial match.

After the embarrassing show of football, Ghotbi’s media was rushed to justify the disaster. Notes of comparing Iran and Korea’s federation was a good excuse to once again cover for Ghotbi’s shortcomings!? What was lost in such comical excuse was Iran’s decades of trouble in football management and infrastructure. Nevertheless, Iran had always managed to assemble 10-15 talented players for the national team to compete in Asian level. Even Koreans were badly defeated by the Iranian side in Asian Cup despite the distance between the two country’s football federations. Iran was never “scared” to face Korea until Ghotbi’s era. In fact, in 2004, Iran defeated the same Korea that had just finished fourth in world cup. What was the difference between then and now? The coaching of 10-15 talented players in national level .....

Ghotbi is gone from Iran for now, but a pool of talented players is still here for a proper coach to take them to next world cup. Talented youngsters such as Ehsan Hajsafi, Karim Ansarifard, Arash Afshin, Mehrdad Oladi, Mohsen Mosalman, Hamid Ali Asgari, and Bakhtiar Rahmani along with veteran players such as Javad Nekunam, Masoud Shojaei, Gholam Rezaei, Reza Khalatbari, and Mehdi Rahmati are only one good coach away from taking Iran’s national team to next world cup.

Perhaps, if Iran’s football federation boss, Ali Kaffashian, had paid more attention to Asian Cup qualifiers and could see Ghotbi’s struggle to defeat even third and fourth tier Asian teams like Jordan and Singapore, such coaching changes could have been made sooner, and Iranians could have seen a better show of football in Asian Cup.

[persian-eagle-13]

the ironic thing is that his last game was against the same team that he said he knows like the back of his hands.

[Keano]

Ghotbi and his media promised to qualify Iran to World Cup

So did Ali Daei, but how come barely anyone and in particular you Mansoor khaan ever questioned him for such poor results and rather a pathetic performance in the first 5 WCQ matches?

Two years passed, and Ghotbi never succeeded with Iran’s national team.

Dear Mansoor khaan, you talk of "Success" as our streaks of success was suddenly interrupted by Qotbi and his team, when was the last time TM really succeeded in any international tournament? if they did then please kindly enlighten us and share the success stories! TM ever since the unfortunate revolution has been nothing but disappointment and failure i n all major competitions where success and title matters!

Let's not let bias impair our sense of justice and fairness!

Even the West Asian tournament was no success for Ghotbi as he failed to deliver the championship in this rather easy tournament.

The irnoy is that every time we win this tournament, everybody says who cares about this tourney? it's useless blab blab blab... and now that we failed to yet once again win the "Worthless" trophy, all TM experts jumped the gun and made the biggest fuss out of this "Useless" tourney final loss!

And then the Asian Cup got here. Ghotbi had two years to prepare Iran for the Asian Cup.

It's football! not all teams are supposed to reach the final, do you honestly believe we had better preparation camps and friendlies than the likes of South Korea? do we even have better selection of players compared to the likes of Australia, Japan, South Korea? if your answer is yes then I will stop this discussion right here as it's respectfully waste of time. In the team of the Asian Cup we only have one single player, and he's not even within the starting lineup!!!! I think it's time for us to get out of our shell and admit that currently our football and players are nowhere near the powerhouses of Asia: Japan, South Korea, Australia

Iran’s premier league several times. An eager and talented pool of players

With all due respect I strongly oppose that notion, currently that pool you just referred to is as shallow as a small pond!

But Ghotbi failed to deliver once again in Asian Cup as his team got eliminated by the Koreans which “he knew so well”.

Once again it's football and anything can happen, just like how last year he beat Bosnia's A team in Bosnia with their head coach Ciro Blazevic, the one who also believed he knew Iran and Iranian football just like his own country!

Nevertheless, Iran had always managed to assemble 10-15 talented players for the national team to compete in Asian level. Even Koreans were badly defeated by the Iranian side in Asian Cup despite the distance between the two country’s football federations.

Respectfully Mr. Mansoor it baffles me how conveniently you chose to forget about Iran's pathetic exit from the Asian Cup 1992 while failing to advance from its group stage, although you managed to magnify and glorify the amazing 6-2 victory over the Koreans in 1996. I believe any honest and true football fan knows today's South Korea is not remotely comparable to the past decades of Korean football, even the Korean football fans claim this fact. They've been dominating Asian in pretty much all levels, youth, clubs, national team etc. It's hypocrite to deny that, yet putting both countries' football level and its football infrastructure on par!

In fact, in 2004, Iran defeated the same Korea that had just finished fourth in world cup. What was the difference between then and now? The coaching of 10-15 talented players in national level .....

LOL, I can't believe you compare our 2004 collection of talented players with the current TM players. Comparing a Karimi at the peak of his career who could single-handedly change the fate of any Asian standard team, a superbly fit Mahdavikia, A deft goal scorer Daei, a passionate and on form Kaebi, Great defenders like Rahman Rezaei etc to AC 11 TM players! I honestly don't know what to reply here!

Ghotbi is gone from Iran for now

Exactly! therefore let's move on please!

Ghotbi’s struggle to defeat even third and fourth tier Asian teams like Jordan and Singapore

First of all we did beat Singapore, secondly and again it's football and any team may lose to any inferior teams any given day. Mind you back in 2004 and in WCQ we lost to Jordan in Azadi and in a very crucial match, and almost eliminated from second round of WCQ. Losses are part of football and as a matter of fact any sports!

Anyway we all want nothing but the best for our country and indeed our TM, but please let's be fair!

[pajamNL]

Good & valid points.
intresting to see what IFF is going to do now, with Ghotbi gone and another promise for an foreign coach being made

[maij]

So did Ali Daei, but how come barely anyone and in particular you Mansoor khaan ever questioned him for such poor results and rather a pathetic performance in the first 5 WCQ matches?

I fail to understand why Ali Daei's name has to be mentioned into each discussion referring to Team Melli's failure ??? Nevertheless , you are way wrong in your statement that barely anyone questioned Daei. This forum alone is the biggest proof of your inaccurate statement.

The ONLY official loss of Ali Daei , should not be the catalyst and the permanent excuse and justification for EVERY failure by Team Melli ?? That is to me is a defeatest attitude that mars this culture.

Keano Jan , I am afraid to say that such mentality is the Achilles heel of Iranian football and its society. Since someone has stole , it is all right for me to steal as well. The mentality of "I am not the first rapist in this country" . The idea that if every second person cheats and lies in this country , then it is all right for me to lie and cheat. The fact that Ali Daei has lost a crucial match against KSA , then Ghotbi is very well entitled to lose so...no one should criticize Ghotbi..!!!!

There is no secret that I am an avid admirer of Daei ( when he was involved with Team Melli , that is ) and never thought highly of Afshin Ghotbi in Team Melli hence I was critical of him. Time has proven me right that Ghotbi does not have the tools to succeed at International level. He even failed to win the WAFF , which Daei won with his B team.

That is not the point . though. Be it Daei , Ghlaenoei or Mayeli-Kohan, the loss of Team Melli should be addressed properly ib scientific and logical manner while leaving bias and self interest aside at home.

[Mansoor]

Pajam jaan, merci for your note. Persian Eage13, I still don't know your name after all these years but thanks as well.

Many thanks to Aghaye Panahi aziz for his effort to clarify.

Dear Keano aziz, you have been a die hard fan of Ghotbi from old days that I remember, and obviously have always chosen "not to hear" me which is perfectly fine. After so long passed, I have no interest to change that as I don't see any reason or should I say hope. So respectfully, I won't go into long debate but briefly clarify a few points that might be of interest to other readers as well.

- I can't even allow myself to put any legitimate Iranian footballer, coach or player, in the same sentence with this fake emperor let alone comparing them. But I don't remember defending Daei's coaching or even approving the way he was used by Branko in his last years of playing but I am assuming some of our dear friends didn't hear me back then either.

- I wanna kindly remind the readers that Ghotbi’s campaign for national team job which started around 2005 was not about
“oh, we didn’t do well before so let’s put Ghotbi in charge and continue not to do well anyway” or
“what have you seen from Iran in the past 30 years that you would expect Ghotbi to do different when he gets the job”
or
“Iran has serious problems with management and infrastructure so Ghotbi’s hiring won’t make any difference on competing in Asian level but let's give him the job anyway”
or
“let’s compare federations before any match and the winner will be the winner of the upcoming matches by default, no need to sweat(!)"
or
“Ghotbi will get this job to bring new system for Iran’s football with 8 defenders and goali and 3 attackers to receive long balls and fingers crossed for lucky bounces while humiliating Iranians against their rivalries”
or
“we don’t have qualified or talented players to play for mighty Ghotbi but let’s give him the job anyway”.

No doostan aziz, as in this article’s focus, the campaign was about this amazing emperor that has worked with very famous coaches and even claims of being their assistant coach (!!). Since he saw them everyday and in some occasions had hand shakes and shoulder touch, he has converted magically to a qualified coach (excuse my humor but often can’t help but laugh at this tragedy our football faced for the past 5 years). A simple video analyzer was magnified to be a very qualified person to coach Iran and “bring international football to Iran”, “show how to compete in international level”, “change Iran’s football for better”, “unlock the mysteries of how to defeat Koreans from south to north and qualify Iran to world cup”, “bring Asian Cup home”, etc.

No, obviously I did not expect miracle from an ordinary person that his “real” head coaching resume before Iran was voluntary coaching of a college team in US. They promised the miracle through their “emperor”. How convenient now to bring up Iran’s football problems as excuse for his multiple failures? Same Ghotbi’s media did not remember any of these problems back then, when they started their campaign in 2005 and aggressively criticized any coach in charge. Back then, it was about game plans, strategies, tactics, players selection, coaches resume, and basically “football in the field”. Articles after articles, TV shows after TV shows they discussed football and brought up their “expert analysis” to disqualify any coach in charge. Their Ghotbi advertisement was also about “football in the field”. Now, with his failure one after the other, and money in the bag, it is about outside the field??? About Iran’s past, Iran’s football management and infrastructure, and else!?? I will bring up the names in my next article, and our dear readers will have a chance via archives to review their work. See and judge this tragedy, or should I say comedy, for yourself as the time has come.

- I may have different opinion than many others, but I personally believe Iran’s current talent is unique and very promising. In old days, Iran always had a savior through individual techniques and had to rely on individual players such as Parvin, Roshan, Barzegari, Derakhshan, Changiz, Azizi, and lately Karimi. But this set has the speed and physique to display a much better team work. Specifically, the proper combination and training of Ansarifard, Hajsafi(yes not as a defender invented by emperor), Shojaei, Oladi, Nekunam, Rezaei, Afshin, Ali Asgari, Teymourian or a few others can “potentially” display a better football up front than we have seen. It is pure opinion and not fact based. The only way we can examine this “opinion” is to wait and see when a “real” coach takes charge. According to my sources, we should see this very soon, but of course nothing is certain till the deal is finalized.

[Doctor DOOM]

thank mansoor jan. very good piece.

I think when we bring up the issue of ghtbi knowing the koreans like the back of his hands, many of us wrongfully shine the spotlight on the scoreline, instead of HOW we played or HOW we failed to get the required points.

you see, any team can lose to a better team. even if their coach knows the other team "like the back of his hand".
but what's important is HOW this coach arranged and played his hand against the team he "knew so well" ... which reflects on the truth or fallacy of his claims.

- when you fail to acknowledge the strengths of the koreans (especially in their flank game),
- when you fail to acknowledge the weaknesses (their defense and GK)
- when you select your team completely un-related to the strengths an weaknesses of the koreans (or even your own!)
- when your tactics and game plan is completely un-related to the above,

then THAT (not the scoreline) proves how wrong your claim of knowing your opponent is and how you lied from day one.
or in simpler terms: it proves you didnt know jack about that team (or your own team's strengths and weaknesses)

you see, in another case the coach may know all about the opponent (weaknesses & strengths) and get his line up right and his tactics right and ... but still lose to the more illustrated opponent simply becoz while they tried their best, they just couldnt muster beating the stronger team.
but this is not the case for ghtbi. he got EVERYTHING wrong. everything. and allowed a not so strong korean team (on tht particular day) to get the better of us.

[Doctor DOOM]

I'm sure mansoor will have his own responses. but I detect some of these comments are shared with some others too.

So did Ali Daei, but how come barely anyone and in particular you Mansoor khaan ever questioned him for such poor results and rather a pathetic performance in the first 5 WCQ matches?

plenty of ppl did so.


Dear Mansoor khaan, you talk of "Success" as our streaks of success was suddenly interrupted by Qotbi and his team, when was the last time TM really succeeded in any international tournament? if they did then please kindly enlighten us and share the success stories! TM ever since the unfortunate revolution has been nothing but disappointment and failure i n all major competitions where success and title matters!
Let's not let bias impair our sense of justice and fairness!

it doesnt make sense (nor does it help progress) to justify a negative (failure) with another negative (failure).
this mindset gets us going only in circles.
plz get rid of this attitude


The irnoy is that every time we win this tournament, everybody says who cares about this tourney? it's useless blab blab blab... and now that we failed to yet once again win the "Worthless" trophy, all TM experts jumped the gun and made the biggest fuss out of this "Useless" tourney final loss!

you know what's even more ironic? it is that ghtbi took this tourny very VERY seriously (fielding iran's best team) but his fans still try to do mast-mali



It's football! not all teams are supposed to reach the final, do you honestly believe we had better preparation camps and friendlies than the likes of South Korea? do we even have better selection of players compared to the likes of Australia, Japan, South Korea? if your answer is yes then I will stop this discussion right here as it's respectfully waste of time. In the team of the Asian Cup we only have one single player, and he's not even within the starting lineup!!!! I think it's time for us to get out of our shell and admit that currently our football and players are nowhere near the powerhouses of Asia: Japan, South Korea, Australia

why stop at the overall 23 man roster?
why not "game reading"?
why not "line up"?
why not "tactics and strategy"?



Once again it's football and anything can happen, just like how last year he beat Bosnia's A team in Bosnia with their head coach Ciro Blazevic, the one who also believed he knew Iran and Iranian football just like his own country!

refer to my post above



Respectfully Mr. Mansoor it baffles me how conveniently you chose to forget about Iran's pathetic exit from the Asian Cup 1992 while failing to advance from its group stage, although you managed to magnify and glorify the amazing 6-2 victory over the Koreans in 1996. I believe any honest and true football fan knows today's South Korea is not remotely comparable to the past decades of Korean football, even the Korean football fans claim this fact. They've been dominating Asian in pretty much all levels, youth, clubs, national team etc. It's hypocrite to deny that, yet putting both countries' football level and its football infrastructure on par!

again justifying a failure with another failure!
completely unproductive
if we have our ready-made precedence (excuses) for every time we fail, and are too quick to use it as justification, then when are we going to progress?




Exactly! therefore let's move on please!

it's not about the individual ghtbi. it's about what ppl do and say to always defend and justify failures and provide plenty of excuses for falling short and hardly any for progress.
this creates a receptive bed for further failures that will be used again and again!
and it is this bed that must be gotten rid of.



First of all we did beat Singapore, secondly and again it's football and any team may lose to any inferior teams any given day. Mind you back in 2004 and in WCQ we lost to Jordan in Azadi and in a very crucial match, and almost eliminated from second round of WCQ. Losses are part of football and as a matter of fact any sports!

funny how you guys use "losing to a weaker team" to justify ghtbi's (or other coaches') losses ... but refuse to acknowledge the same thing can happen if we say why we failed to use our potential and beat a better team than us (coming up with silly excuses like stronger league, more legionnaires, ...)!!
wow!
this is too amusing.

[xoraster]

Good stuff and Valid points.

[Keano]

Maij jaan,

Thank you for your kind reply and elaboration, however I believe you misunderstood my comment about Daei or his coaching ability etc, or maybe I didn't explain myself eloquently, if that's the case, then my apologies.

In simple wording what I tried to say was that both Daei and Qotbi failed to deliver what they had promised (Qualifying to WC), however do we honestly believe the failure was entirely their (the coaches) shortcoming against our Asian counterparts or a combination of: the entire country being in a deep mess, a totally disastrous IFF (Main culprit), IPL real talent lackluster (Players), and finally and of course TM coaches.

All I am asking is to be fair, let's not just point a finger at the coach while overlooking other flaws and factors causing the flunk. Any logical person with some common sense would address the countless shortcoming of our ill football, there are so many undiagnosed diseases in our football that will take a lot more than just a clever doctor and a well equipped lab as well as a fancy operating room to diagnose and cure the epidemic illnesses of our sick football!

Qotbi is gone, all I see in most forums and discussion boards is Qotbi-bashing topics (I don't care about the name of the coach, even during Branko era and after his departure I was always a supporter and never laid relentless criticism on him, simply because I knew our deficiencies are much profound than just a coach, hell I didn't really criticize Daei during his TM coaching time either, I mainly questioned his manners and the way he would handle criticism and media, and perhaps somewhat critical of his super-conservative style of playing). I am yet to see one single constructive thread made by these critics to suggest a few tips in order to fundamentally improve our sad state of football, I am yet to see one single comment by DD whose insightful and knowledgeable football analysis has always been a delight to come across and read, to suggest how to develop youth programs and talent production schools, while scrutinizing the facts and reasons of how our talented young footballers often go to waste without getting recognized and developing their talents, turning them into formidable and key players at senior level! Taa kay mikhahim begim didin goftam? age be harfe man goosh midadin intor nemishod... Just move on and try to dig out the much more deeper causes and reasons...

Mr Mansoor,

To call me a "Die Hard" Qotbi fan is rather an overstatement, your anti-qotbi sentiments initiated while he was still in charge of Perspolis, you predicted a Qotbi failure, however later on in the season he claimed the IPL trophy and won the title!

But I also remember you banning me, along with a whole bunch of other Qotbi supporters, simply for sticking up with him. Not to mention my unreasonable ban still blows my mind, as I never crossed the boundary and never resorted to insults etc. Anyway the flash back was not my attention, however you brought up the past and I just responded.

LOL DD jaan, sometimes you're really interesting but in a good way lol. I am late to work, I will reply later on tonight or tomorrow.

Many thanks

[Doctor DOOM]

keanu jan,
first of all developing and building of our football infrastructure is NOT MY JOB.
if I get the job, then you can ask me to produce my proposals. until then ....




but just to respond to your expectations, I indeed have had quite a few threads and posts on what, in my opinion, needs to be done in that aspect.

maybe you were not a member or may have missed all those threads (I think it was around the beginning of 2007 or so. other members may remember the dates better)




third, even if I had not done so, based on what logic does that take away my right to criticize flaws and deficiencies in TM?
could you plz explain that to me?

coz if there is a rule that the eligibility for criticism is first to come up with ideas on different aspects of football, then I guess we make that as a part of PFDC membership registration.
and only after the applicants have made their proposals for building our foundations are they allowed to start posting on the site





and trust me nobody is blaming ghtbi for a million shortcomings that are related to our general foundation and facilities and ... etc.
but I see that some ppl are trying so ever hard to link the two issues together.
there are a variety of issues that are simply NOT IN THE SAME PLANE and are more parallel planes. therefore, each issue can be attacked SIMULTANEOUSLY.... in parallel form.
without going too deep into the matter, I say we can attack the issue of infrastructure while we address the issue of coaching the team during a game of football.

so to all the friends here trying to bundle up all our problems, please dont do it.
address each category within its own realm and plane.

[Keano]

keanu jan,
first of all developing and building of our football infrastructure is NOT MY JOB.
if I get the job, then you can ask me to produce my proposals. until then ....

Of course it's not, I never suggested nor did I define any of the above duties as "your job" I guess overall you're blowing things out of proportion with such dramatic replies and implications DD jaan.

Although on the same token I am wondering how and why you would consider yourself qualified to criticize TM and its coach with countless constructive as well as unnecessary criticism, while disqualifying yourself from constructive "Proposals" suggestions on a discussion board!? Just to avoid further misunderstanding of one another, allow me to clear things up and mention that I hereby do not intend to disqualify you from making relentless TM brickbats, however your often one-sided position and arguments surrounding TM rather baffle me, just like how your cynicism is often aimed at TM coaches (an ongoing trait of yours) while conveniently hindering from discussing much deeper and more fundamental or in other words Roots of our football deficiencies which BTW I am confident someone with your caliber of football knowledge can analyze and pinpoint at ease).

and trust me nobody is blaming ghtbi for a million shortcomings that are related to our general foundation and facilities and ... etc.

That is a genuine statement, but hard for me to believe!

so to all the friends here trying to bundle up all our problems, please dont do it.
address each category within its own realm and plane.

Amen!

[zzgloo]

Mansoor e aziz......it is good to have you back......as I consider you a worthy and very knowledgeable person ( in football atleast )..and very spirited, which we some times lack form other Vetrans on PFDC......
You and I are proabably about same age ...although, you may have more experince in mass media and social interactions.....
While I initialy agreed with your views on Ghotbi.....( about 3 years ago ),and that can be substantiated if we go back and look at previouse posts.. ,but later, I changed my mind...and tried to give him a chance......as I admired his audacity,and ambition.....coming from ,being nobody,and working out through steps of football , being analyst, or janitor, or what ever it took, toward his goal.......................

I like to present, my disagreements to this concept of " Ghotbi bashing ", which is not neccessarly coming from you, rather, a very large section of our siociety....although,I give the credit, that you were among the very first ,and have a right to say : " I Told you so " !!!..
Yet, I present my disagreement, not to claim my view are in any way more correct, but only to say to you and others like you, that there exist others who respectfuly feel and see differently.

The points mentioned by you, were not new, and we have heard lot more, from lot more angles.........so, I like to go systematicaly and express and answer.................
.................................................. .........

Q-1:does Ghotbi deserve to be the head coach of Iranian football ??
.
A-1:NO, but, TM ,to this day, has never ,ever, had any coach that deserved the post !
................

Q-2: Has Ghotbi had " Ghotbi Media " ?
.
A-2: No, very few people initialy endorsed him, but the humonges amount of criticisms against him perfectly proves,he is the lonly sole among the wolves !
................
Q-3:. Did he exaggeratted his resume ?
.
A-3: .yes, and there is nothing wrong with that....there is not a sole in the world that does not.
................
Q-4: .Does he have a coaching liecense ?
.
A-4: .Yes, probably among the 10% of coaches in IRAN who does.
.................
Q-5:.Did he promise ,and did not deliver ?
.
Q-6:.yes,but there is nothing wrong with that either...every coach has a unique personality, and his is " American ", and in America,the positive thinking,and seting goals high, and " fake it till you make it ", is the part of the culture.
Infact, this part of his personality was the only reason perspolise won the championship under him......beside...he actualy did deliver alot ,with very little at his disposal.
................
Q-6:.Did he Bull shit about knowing the Koreans ?
.
Q-7: .No, he knew them well, and he proved that by beating the S.korea in Seoul,and tieing north and the south ,even in his first 4 months at work....although, his knowledge of Koreans is not sufficient to counter 35 points difference in FIFA ranking.
.................
Q-7:.Did he do a good Job at his friendly games ?
.
A-7:. Yes...better than even Branko.
................
Q-8:.Did do a good job at west Asian games ?
.
A-8 :. yes,...other than an accidental loss vs Kuwait , other games were very acceptable.
.................
Q-9:.Did he do a good job at the Asian Cup ?
.
A-9:. YES..he did , thinking other wise,is wishful thinking,and frustration.
................
................
................

Mansoor e aziz......, in the last 4 years, every single post you had, was about ,and against, this " Sharlatan " who has fooled every one....and you expressed your view very forcefuly....and obviously, you feel very strong about it, and has put a lot of thoughts behind it......
People like me, are in no way fools, and do not believe, not even for one moment, Ghotbi deserves to take our beloved TM to higher places......
But, we think,to begin with, He did not steal the job...he was offered the job by IFF,while it was in a desprate situation.....and that is a big point to remember.......and with the system at hand, and with our transitional talent period, and with the fact, we have fallen behind in Asia.........that japan and South Korea, displayed a honorable performance in the World Cup, and we even with a better coach were misrable in it.........problems are far deeper,that Ghotbi.....
problems, that are multy dimentional..from our system of managements, to our culture, to our poletical isolation, to lack of inferstructure,lack of style of football,lack of proffesionalism,.etc,etc,etc....

It would be a big disservice to our people,and to our football...to keep the attention of our fans toward Ghotbi,and waist huge amount of efforts in that direction....while letting the real issues stay hidden.



.

[Mansoor]

Merci Peyman jaan for the kind words and your feedback. Excellent posts back to back.

Mr Mansoor,
To call me a "Die Hard" Qotbi fan is rather an overstatement, your anti-qotbi sentiments initiated while he was still in charge of Perspolis, you predicted a Qotbi failure, however later on in the season he claimed the IPL trophy and won the title!
But I also remember you banning me, along with a whole bunch of other Qotbi supporters, simply for sticking up with him. Not to mention my unreasonable ban still blows my mind, as I never crossed the boundary and never resorted to insults etc. Anyway the flash back was not my attention, however you brought up the past and I just responded.

hmmm, I am not sure if we are dicussing Ghotbi's failure or some membership violation from 2-3 years ago here. I am confident that all my work to maintain a good site was justified at the time, as members using foul language and/or harsh words were handed a temp or permanent ban by the staff of this site. I am not aware of current policies but at the time such matters were always discussed and reviewed by other staff to maintain the integrity of the site. I have no responsibilities and no interest at the moment to go over them as my focus is football and editorials.

Obviously, it is no secret that you have been a die hard fan of Ghotbi. Even in these days that his obvious flaws are surfaced you are rushed to justify his failures with federations, players, management, previous coaches, and anything and everything but the emperor himself. That frankly is a sign of a die hard fan. You even have trouble seeing the story behind Perspolis championship that year you mentioned, and what happened the year after that he had to run away in middle of the night and in a very embarrassing way. But like I said before, if you could hear me, you would have by now, and I seriously don't see any hope to open such obvious discussions one more time.

I only ask you please not to distort the truth by making series of false remarks about the past and my work to defend the emperor. My interest is to inform people. It is up to them to either get the message or deny it. Respect to you and other readers to read and decide accordingly.

[Mansoor]

Agha Bahman, salam be shoma and must say excellent post and interesting perspective that deserves more time before responding. It is a type that requires deeper discussion as you have invited to be, and I will post it as soon I find sufficient time.