Josep Gombau Is New Wanderers Manager

[mack]

Josep Gombau has been appointed as the new manager for the Western Sydney Wanderers

After the shock exit of Tony Popovic, goalkeeping coach Zeljko Kalac and assistant manager Andres Carrasco, the Western Sydney Wanderers were flooded with applicants for the vacant managerial position. Reportedly Gombau was not the first choice for the boardroom, with Australian National team assistant manager Ante Milicic and German Dirk Schuster both being preferred, only to have the appointments fall through upon salary negotiations.

Gombauis no stranger to the A-League, having lead Adelaide United for the 2013/14 & 2014/15 seasons. He began his managerial career in a less than orthodox fashion, starting as a goalkeeper for Amposta in Spain before switching to coaching as a teenager. His first major appointment, at age 27, was as a member of the famous Barcelona youth academy La Masia.

Having served at Barcelona until 2009 he joined Kitchee United in Hong Kong for his first managerial role. He bought success to the club, winning multiple league titles & cup competitions. This bought the attention of the A-League, and he joined Adelaide United, leading them to victory in the inaugural FFA Cup, in 2014. After an apparent fallout with the Adelaide United board Gombau joined the Australian national team setup where he was nominally the U23 team coach, but was a key scout under the Ange Postecoglu regime. In this role he was seen scouting across Australia, with numerous sightings at Wanderers A-League games. Gombau can be expected to replicate his attacking possession football style that bought him Cup success at Adelaide along with a 43% winning record.

With the Wanderers ending their search for a manager, Gombau will be expected to push the side into the top 4 as a minimum result, and go on the hunt for silverware that has eluded the Wanderers since their Asian Champions League victory in 2014.

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[Neverbloom]

 

very happy with this, like him as a person and a coach

[Hughesy]

what a guy

[HillsWanderer]

Very Happy!

Welcome Josep.

[Upthehill]

Very happy with this. The only downside is we are going to see more of Sotirio.

[sonar]

3 minutes ago, hughsey said:

what a guy

You make him sound like Ace Rimmer from Red Dwarf...what a guy...lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXYfnWRp1Q0

 

[Davo]

1 minute ago, Upthehill said:

Very happy with this. The only downside is we are going to see more of Sotirio.

Gombau seems to get something out of Sotirio so if that continues maybe it may not be a bad thing.

[Posthoc]

Very happy with this, good appointment.  Fits with the strategy of the club both longer term and will be able to slot straight in with our current set up.  I imagine Baccus will be very happy as he seems to value ball playing from deep.

[Thommo]

Very happy with this as well.

[JackDoff]

I understand him fine, I grew up with a heap of people who spoke Woglish!  

Ima joost wanna say , welcome to West Wanders , you do good job bloody bastard we pay cash money faarken! 

[spectacular291]

Hey Guys!! We appointed Gombau!

[xxBrandonxx]

So we are bacially Barcelona now. 

[Harvey]

Kinda relieved. I had a feeling we were going to do something stupid like stick with Foxe or get Kewell in.

Welcome.

[Zelinsky]

I was quietly hoping that we'd sign Schuster, he did an ace job in Darmstadt. He would have been something else for the HAL. But hey, Gombau will do. Any word if he is bringing in his own assistant?

Paul Lederer: " “We have a shared vision for how the Wanderers can develop and shared ambitions for our future – mark my words, we have a bold plan for this football club and I look forward to having Josep lead our team this season and beyond.” 

Don't you worry, Paul, I am marking, and I will remind you of these words in time.  It's one thing of having a plan, it's another thing of implementing it.

[Paul01]

We now have the four amigos with Gombau and Riera from Catalonia, Cejudo from Andalusia and Llorente from Madrid.

Tsatsimas to institute Spanish lessons as part of regular training 😎

Edited November 1, 2017 by Paul01
Added info

[Sithslayer1991]

Waiting for the running touchline celebration

[GK21]

[Davo]

1 minute ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Waiting for the running touchline celebration

Under the new FFA clamp down on fun he'd get a card from the referee...

[DeeDee]

happy with this. Feel like his cuddly demeanour and pitch side antics will reinvigorate our match days and maybe provide some spark to the side when we usually go missing in the second half! 

Edited November 1, 2017 by DeeDee

[ZachMercer]

Not sure on how he will go but certainly a quality replacement with passion for the game and it appears the community at large. I think Google Translate is gonna get a hell of a work out this season. 

[wanderersfanatic]

If we get an Injury time winner, I expect him to run toward rbb and crowd surf. 

[StringerBellend]

He’s going to lose some weight running to the crowd at spotless. Parts of the  stadium feel like they  are in a different postcode to the pitch

[Paul01]

Just checked his career and Oriel.

There were both at Barcelona youth in 2003-2004 so lets hope they parted on good terms.

Could we see a collaboration with the Wanderers Academy and Barcelona Academy in the future? That WOULD improve our overseas scouting.

[Edinburgh]

44 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Waiting for the running touchline celebration

With a yellow or red card to ensue

Bugger - Davo beat me to it

[ColdRock]

"After a worldwide search we've signed the guy that's been sniffing around a couple of our home games"

 

"We are confident he's the best man for the job, after our first two choices said no to our offer"

[teddies]

4 minutes ago, ColdRock said:

"After a worldwide search we've signed the guy that's been sniffing around a couple of our home games"

 

"We are confident he's the best man for the job, after our first two choices said no to our offer"

I've been out of the loop with the interview process, but who were the first 2 choices?

[Carns]

9 minutes ago, teddies said:

I've been out of the loop with the interview process, but who were the first 2 choices?

1. Ante Milicic
2. Dirk Schuster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Schuster
3. Josep Gombau

[wendybr]

I couldn't be happier about this!

PS I won't even miss having goal celebration music any longer - just seeing what Josep comes up with in response to a goal will be celebration enough!!

[wendybr]

1 hour ago, StringerBellend said:

He’s going to lose some weight running to the crowd at spotless. Parts of the  stadium feel like they  are in a different postcode to the pitch

  But but...he HAS already lost weight!!

Well...he was quite skinny when I saw him after two of our Soulless games last year!

[sonar]

The press conferences will be a highlight as well....