News

Bobby Williamson & Uganda? ‘Scuse Me?!

|
Image for Bobby Williamson & Uganda?  ‘Scuse Me?!

It was actually news more than a month ago now, but I hadn’t realised that former Hibs manager Bobby Williamson was the man that the Ugandan FA chose to succeed Csaba Laszlo as the manager of their national team.

Strange appointment? It certainly seems like it on the surface, although the Ugandans will obviously have their reasons for making this decision. I’m really just having difficulty picturing it though – Bobby Williamson in charge of a developing African country’s national team just doesn’t have a logical ring to it…..!

Over the years there have been certain managers in the game have always been able to blag their way into good roles, regardless of how good or bad their track records were. It wasn’t too long ago that in Scotland we had a ‘managerial merry go-round’ (or so the press called it) of guys who basically went straight from one job into another regardless of the extent of their latest failure. I’m thinking of names like Tommy McLean, Jocky Scott, Jim Duffy, Alex Totten and Alex Miller – and Williamson probably does fit into that group pretty well considering the ‘journeyman’-like nature of his managerial career.

I’m not saying that all of these guys are absolutely useless though. Each of them will have had at least one club where they could claim to have done a more than decent job (McLean at Motherwell, Duffy at Dundee, etc), but ultimately they were never quite good enough to hold down a very top job for any sensible period of time, and as a result eventually found their level, which tended to be moving around fairly regularly among clubs in the mid-to-lower regions of the SPL.

But occasionally one of these guys breaks the mould, with Alex Miller’s astonishing move to Liverpool a few years ago being a good example of that. People must rate the guy pretty highly to give him such an opportunity, but for those of us who merely watch football rather than work in the game, it almost defied belief!

Williamson’s latest move is for me a similarly mould-breaking switch. Manager of Uganda is perhaps not the most glamourous role in the football world right now, but it’s certainly an intriguing opportunity for him, and potentially one that could seriously raise his stock if he does well there.

Big ‘Boaby’ got a serious amount of stick when he was at Easter Road, which was apparently due to a combination of his alleged Rangers links and the boring style of football he employed, but he did do a fine job during his time with Kilmarnock.

Quite how the Ugandan job will compare with Rugby Park and Easter Road is anyone’s guess to be honest, but it’ll certainly be interesting to see how Williamson does out there. I hear he got off to a pretty poor start in his first competitive match, despite new Jambo David Obua scoring a goal for him….let’s just hope that if everything does go belly-up for him (poor choice of word for ‘Blobby’ I’ll admit!), that his punishment is slightly less violent than some of the scenes in that ‘Last King Of Scotland’ film…..!!!















Share this article

MrH

Come on the famous!

6 comments

  • Specs Haver says:

    Yes, it was remarkable that Uganda should end up appointing Mr Blobby to replace our Csaba. I read a report that his appointment had a sort of probation clause which required him to win his first 2 matches – so either that was nonsense, or else he’s been fired !! Your description of managerial journeymen such as Jocky Scott and Jim Duffy reminded me just how inward-looking our game was 10 or 15 years ago.

  • imcd says:

    Astonishing appointment – he must have played an absolute blinder at the interview. He will of, course, be found out. My guess is he will be out on his arse early doors.

  • MrH says:

    I think you’ve probably identified why these guys continually get themselves decent new jobs every so often imcd – they can come across very well in the interview situation. I can imagine the likes of Duffy and McLean being able to blag it pretty well……..doesn’t mean they can deliver though…….

  • GERS..72 says:

    not to mention dick campbell, the guys never a football manager

  • StockportJambo says:

    Oh dear… reading the papers today it would appear that Blobby is in for a hard time according to Csaba. Apparently he has an 80 year old coach who has no knowledge of football giving him instructions… who was forced upon Csaba as well. Blobby didn’t call Csaba for information either. Consequently, Uganda lost 3-1 to the worst team in the group and are out of the African Cup of Nations. A telling comment from Csaba stated that the head coach has no influence there on the team… its all about the ‘federation’. Also, Obua had to buy his own plane ticket to go there? You can see why Hearts appealed to Csaba… some influence is better than none.

  • MrH says:

    Yeah does sound pretty tough -is Blobby THAT desperate for a job?! As for Dick Campbell, that’s another decent shout, although I’d say he belongs in a category some way below the others mentioned in the article!

Leave a Reply to imcd Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *