There goes a saying “once bitten, twice shy!“, however, in the case of Manchester United and Carlos Quieroz, it may not hold good. The man from Portugal has already had two love affairs with the Red devils, but could the estranged lovers have one final tilt at reconciliation? The rumour mills are starting to churn and smoke, more often than not, is a good indicator of fire.
Sacked from the post of Portugal’s national team coach, Carlos is currently unemployed. His high-profile trysts have gone abysmally wrong. His former employee “Man Utd” on the other hand is in a reasonably good shape, but could it be for the good of all that Carlos comes back?
Sir Alex and Carlos Quieroz – the deadly duo
Queiroz first became Sir Alex’s assistant in the summer of 2002; following his appointment, United piped Arsenal to the Championship and won their trophy back. His presence was a major boon and presumably Sir Alex’s burden was greatly reduced as “Q” was a renowned tactician. However that arrangement was short lived as the advances of Real Madrid were too strong to turn down and Carlos left Manchester to occupy the hot seat at the Bernabeu, arguably the biggest managerial job in world football. But the fairy tale didn’t quite materialize as Queiroz would have hoped for and he was sacked after a disastrous sequence of results. A meddlesome president, who cared more for shirt sale than for the team composition, was a major thorn in the flesh; Queiroz departed Spanish shores with his tail firmly between his legs.
Sir Alex and the club welcomed him back with open arms and the rest as the cliché goes is very much history. Back at the theatre of dreams the duo masterminded United’s renaissance and thwarted the challenge from the London rivals with aplomb. Sir Alex’s exemplary man management skills and Quieroz’s tactical brilliance was a match made in heaven. The duo firmly established United as the leading force in European football and even brought the European cup back to Old Trafford.
This is the proudest, happiest day of my life and it’s thanks to Alex Ferguson that I’mable to accept this great honour.
“You can tell him that I love him. I went to speak to Alex personally about this opportunity and it was not a surprise to me that he told me to grab it.”
“Alex Ferguson is football itself. No, that’s wrong, he is more thanfootball, he has a great sensitivity and humanity that people don’t knowabout.He is a gentleman and a fantastic person. I’m proud to call him my friend” –Carlos Quieroz
Quieroz then took over the reins of Portugal’s national team and guided his countrymen to the world cup finals in South Africa; however, their campaign came to an end when they were knocked out by eventual champions Spain. After that a series of events led to his inevitable sacking and once again the Portuguese’s dream move fell through with a rather sour taste in the mouth.
Quieroz and Ronaldo– friends no more?
Back at Old Trafford, Mike Phelan has done a decent job assisting the manager; he has quietly gone about doing his business without being spectacular. However, some sections still think he has been punching above his weight. Carlos Queiroz’s pedigree as Ferguson’s right hand man was never in doubt; he has always had the credentials and the charisma to match the boss. But having left the club for greener pastures, not once but twice, wouldn’t have pleased the diehard factions at all.
To be fair to the man, those two jobs (read Real Madrid and Portugal) were the only jobs for which he would have left Old Trafford; moreover, you can never condemn a man for his ambition. He is not a Mancunian but a Portuguese, and both the jobs were attractive propositions. From Man Utd’s perspective, there is a very talented but temperamental Portuguese contingent at the club; the likes of Nani, Anderson and Bebe have abundant talent and Queiroz is just the right man to shepherd them through.
“He has played an important role in building and blending the exceptional squad of players at the club.” — Sir Alex
The reasons to have Quieroz back, in any capacity, are many fold – his tactical acumen, his attention to detail during training sessions and his ability to get the best out of youngsters. No one can ever forget the defensive display put out by United against Barcalona over the two legs in the semi-finals of the 2007-08 UCL campaign, where they completely nullified Barca’s attacking play, a testimony to the man’s genius.
Quieroz–Is there a way back to Manchester?
The jury is still out and the opinions are divided. Carlos Quieroz’ opinion and Sir Alex’s views are not yet out in the open. Till this day, Queiroz remains the proverbial “bridesmaid but never the bride”. Time will decide his future – he may return to the Old Trafford club yet again, and this time he may well be in the real hot seat. We will have to wait and watch how this story unfolds, maybe the last chapter is yet to be written.
brilliant read…would surely love to have Q come back as the right hand man to Sir Alex
There is a chapter much interesting abt Queiroz, how he brought the Golden Generation of Portuguese footballers together, that was way back in the early 90’s, also when he took the national team job for the first time.
Nonethless, good read this one.
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
great read 🙂
The Court of Arbitration for Sport have granted Carlos Queiroz’s request to have his six-month suspension imposed by the Portuguese Anti-Doping Agency lifted pending the outcome of his appeal.