Anorthosis Famugusta / Temuri Ketsbaia

[madras]

If he gets them to the second round it's a bigger achivement than Mourinho winning it with Porto.

 

This.

 

As i have read, the team comes from a little town, its amazing they have enough players to even play, and on top of that they have all chances of advancing.

Amazing is half of it

 

The team is originally from the Turkish-occupied north. Essentially, it's a refugee club. One hell of an achievement is being witnessed here. Tbh I didn't even think they would get 1 point from 6 games, let alone 4 from 2.

 

Old Temuri's got them tactically spot on, and playing with their hearts on their sleeves. Beating the greeks last night was all that much sweeter. Thanks to copious amounts of celebratory tequila, i'm sat at home this morning having called in sick at work. Love it!!

they've gradually got better over the last few years and now that players will move countries more readily they have a quite cosmopolitan squad. the days when the "minnows" teams were packed with their own nationals have gone.

 

been a nice little earner having backed them to qualify against rapid wien,and to beat olymiakos at home,then last night...........however i think thats it for this season unless some unexpected value crops up.

[Optimistic Nut]

Is the Savio in their side the one who played for Real Madrid years ago? Think I heard his name mentioned on the highlights the other night anyway.

[OzzieMandias]

It's cheering to see Temuri doing well. Don't know why it should be, but it is.

[LooneyToonArmy]

Is the Savio in their side the one who played for Real Madrid years ago? Think I heard his name mentioned on the highlights the other night anyway.

 

yes,same one.Think he`s 35 now but still a creative threat

[Guest koenji]

nice read about Ketsbaia here

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/7667501.stm

[Oakie Doke]

is his team playing tonight?

[themanupstairs]

is his team playing tonight?

 

tomorrow night

[Optimistic Nut]

Mourinho v Ketsbaia.

 

Should be good viewing.

[NcToon]

just wanted to mention that I was at the game last night at San Siro and Famugusta played a decent game. Inter had very few good chances - 1-0 accurately reflects the difference between the teams on the day

[Optimistic Nut]

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34155511913

 

Started a "Ketsbaia for Toon" group...let's get the ball rolling.

[Baggio]

I'm surprised he's not getting more attention for what he's done tbh.

 

I see it as a bigger achievement than what Bilic has done with Croatia and the media lick his arse.

[Nobody]

I'd have him here In fact, I'd love him here after what he's done over there.

[Wullie]

Imagine how proud Bluf Jr will be growing up with his dad as Toon boss.

[Guest Beachcomber]

:celb:Ketsbaia to Toon.

First job, to kick F*** out of the Sports Direct  advertising boards.

[Fenham Mag]

I am up for the idea

[Oakie Doke]

it would be a phenomenal achievement if they qualify from the group stages. Are their remaining matches at home.

[oldtype]

it would be a phenomenal achievement if they qualify from the group stages. Are their remaining matches at home.

 

Bremen at home and Panathanikos away I believe.

 

Would really like to see them qualify and cause a bit of a stir.

[Optimistic Nut]

If they beat Werder Bremen at home, and Inter beat Panathinaikos, they're through.

[Chris_R]

No matter what happens to Famagusta, Ketsbaia has done wonders there and deserves massive congratulations. He's been there 4 years now and has consistently overachieved.

 

Not sure he's ready for a job like ours yet, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see him on a bigger stage sometime soon.

[Kimbo]

No matter what happens to Famagusta, Ketsbaia has done wonders there and deserves massive congratulations. He's been there 4 years now and has consistently overachieved.

 

Not sure he's ready for a job like ours yet, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see him on a bigger stage sometime soon.

 

Ready shmeddy, most people would take Shearer, i'd say Ketsbaia would be better prepared for it.

[themanupstairs]

If they beat Werder Bremen at home, and Inter beat Panathinaikos, they're through.

 

yup. think i'll be going to that. Anorthosis aren't my local side here, but i'd like to take that game in as celebrations will be out of this world should they beat the germans, and Inter beat the gutless greeks.

[Newcastle Fan]

No matter what happens to Famagusta, Ketsbaia has done wonders there and deserves massive congratulations. He's been there 4 years now and has consistently overachieved.

 

Not sure he's ready for a job like ours yet, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see him on a bigger stage sometime soon.

 

Ready shmeddy, most people would take Shearer, i'd say Ketsbaia would be better prepared for it.

 

The thing with Ketsbaia is that this is his club, he used to be their main player and now he's the manager, everyone there respects him from players to fans to the board, coming here everything will be diffrent and it'll be really hard to do what he did with Anorthosis here.

[steve_69]

What sort of football do Famagusta play?

 

90 mph football. fierce defence, cultured midfield and monster forwards. <b>he's been building this team for about 3 years now</b>, and has assembled a decent group of players who have really responded to him and play for him.

 

Might as well count him out then. The only way to survive in the Newcastle United hot seat is to achieve instant success. He'd be hounded out of the club if he didn't qualify for europe in his first season so he's better off where he is.

[Kimbo]

No matter what happens to Famagusta, Ketsbaia has done wonders there and deserves massive congratulations. He's been there 4 years now and has consistently overachieved.

 

Not sure he's ready for a job like ours yet, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see him on a bigger stage sometime soon.

 

Ready shmeddy, most people would take Shearer, i'd say Ketsbaia would be better prepared for it.

 

The thing with Ketsbaia is that this is his club, he used to be their main player and now he's the manager, everyone there respects him from players to fans to the board, coming here everything will be diffrent and it'll be really hard to do what he did with Anorthosis here.

 

I think his personality demands respect, he's not exactly shy, i think he would grab the opportunity with both hands and wrestle it to the floor. In all honesty if i was the new owner i would probably go for an experienced coach like Houllier or Sven, but i wouldn't be unhappy if we hired Kets.

[OzzieMandias]

Temuri Ketsbaia, the bald-headed Georgian, destroyer of advertising boards and Toon icon, stares across the large table. Eye to eye, it is steely, scary almost. “Would I like to manage Newcastle United?” he says, momentarily pondering. “Why not? If I will get the chance, why not? Who would not want to?”

 

It is not a job application. Not yet. As an emerging coach, Ketsbaia is moulding Anorthosis Famagusta, the long-time refugee club from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus who are now based in the Greek south in Larnaca. They are the first Cypriot side to reach the group stages of the Champions League. He is revered on the island. He is happy. Why move?

 

But he will, maybe soon. The lure of the Tyne remains; from when he played for Newcastle, from 1997 to 2000; from learning under Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit and Sir Bobby Robson, his managers at the club; from FA Cup Final appearances, albeit on the losing side, in 1998 and 1999.

 

He recalls his stay fondly. The Geordie fervour, the unquenchable desire of the fans, is ingrained. “Everyone thinks about the team, lives it, breathes it,” Ketsbaia says. “People wait outside the shops at 2 o'clock after midnight to buy new shirts. Unbelievable. If nothing else, I wish we had won one Cup.

 

“When we got back [after one final], they brought an open-top bus to get us from the airport to the city. There were hundreds of thousands of people outside. It is 20 minutes maximum to the city centre, but that day it took three or four hours to get there. Incredible. I was asking Didi Hamann on the bus, ‘Did we win the Cup?' I could not imagine what would have happened if we had won it.”

 

The supporters remember him, too. The former swashbuckling forward, outspoken, wacky - anagram of name: “I'm a true basket, I” - yet always passionate. After scoring against Bolton Wanderers in 1998, his bizarre celebration included the kicking of the McDonald's and adidas advertising hoardings at the Gallowgate End. It is a YouTube classic.

 

“Everyone from England reminds me of this,” Ketsbaia says, smiling. “You score a goal, you always enjoy it. But at that moment, I did not want to enjoy it. I felt I wasn't getting a chance to play in the team. All my life, when I'm disappointed, I wanted to express myself. This is what I was feeling.”

 

Ketsbaia, 40, expresses himself, seriously, forcefully and with a wry sense of humour. Ask a question, dare to interrupt the flow, and he ignores it. Not rudely but he is in the zone. His zone. He sits in a black leather chair in the office of Dinos Toumazis, the Anorthosis executive director, sipping a glass of rose-water through a straw.

 

A McDonald's sign is affixed high on the front of the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, mercifully out of the reach of Famagusta's favourite son.

 

Newcastle, though, is for tomorrow. Not today. Perhaps when Mike Ashley, the owner, has sold up, when Dennis Wise, the executive director (football), has departed and when Joe Kinnear, the interim manager, has moved on. When the “Cockney Mafia” have left town, when the club have regained their soul and their sanity.

 

“Interim manager?” Ketsbaia says, incredulous. “I don't understand this job. No one asked me so far if you're going to be in charge, but if someone did come to me, I would say this is suicide. You want to destroy your managing career, for maybe six games, if you go there? What's the point?

 

“If you go to the end of the season, OK, I understand that. Because you can show that you are capable of doing the job. But for me to go there now? No, I say again, it is suicide. OK, it may be good money, I hear £100,000 every game, but I want to make a job that has the right base.”

 

Do not get him going, either, on the role of the much-lambasted sporting director. “I do not like what I hear about this [at Newcastle],” Ketsbaia says. “Other people were bringing in players and the manager was just sitting there. If I want to be in charge of a team, I don't care for a general manager or whatever. If it's Ronaldinho or Kaká, OK. But a manager knows what he wants.”

 

Ketsbaia enjoys a father-and-son relationship with Andreas Panteli, the Anorthosis president, but it is he who runs the show. He has hand-picked his squad from the usual football hotbeds of Brazil, France and Portugal, but also has players from Albania and Iraq. It is an eclectic, vibrant mix that has given the club a global profile.

 

“Temuri's impact on Cypriot football has been phenomenal,” Stephen Constantine, the Limassol-based Fifa coaching instructor and former Millwall first-team coach, said. “He has the passion and personality to manage a bigger club. People might not always agree with him [and] it doesn't always get you loved, but his only target is to be successful.”

 

Inter Milan versus Anorthosis Famagusta in the San Siro? In the Champions League? “I know,” Ketsbaia says. “People here would never imagine that could happen. I have been here four years and, as a team, as a committee, as the fans, we have managed to make something more.

 

“Before, people would say, ‘Where is Cyprus?' They would come here, especially from England, for their holidays. They know Ayia Napa. But, now, it is for the football, the Cyprus football. They see Cyprus playing in the Champions League.”

 

Anorthosis lost 1-0 in the San Siro last month. On Tuesday night, in the return group B fixture in the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, they led Inter 3-2 until Julio Cruz glanced in an 81st-minute equaliser. Lucky Milan, lucky José Mourinho, their coach. If not already, Anorthosis were on the map.

 

The day before that match, Ketsbaia wore a grey sports shirt and faded jeans. Casual yet animated. On Tuesday, he wore a suit and tie. Smart yet calm, standing mostly unemotionally in the technical area - arms crossed and bald pate gleaming in the floodlights - as the home fans and his backroom staff went berserk.

 

At the end, he and Mourinho warmly embraced and then posed for a snapshot with Ketsbaia's 12-year-old daughter, Lida. A special photo with the “Special One”, Mourinho gracious and accommodating amid near-humiliation for the Italian giants. “Temuri has experience of high-level football and can bring knowledge and ideas of the game,” Mourinho said. “His team is very well organised.”

 

Ketsbaia reflected ruefully. “It was a fantastic effort from my players,” he said after the match. “I am proud of them. They are disappointed not to hold on, to beat Inter. That says a lot, it shows how far we have come.”

 

In time, Ketsbaia will leave Anorthosis. He has no contract, only a gentleman's agreement with Panteli. “My contract is the word between us,” Ketsbaia says. “This is important. But as a player, I started my journey here. I then wanted to play at a better level. It is the same in the training business.

 

“I have a dream so I want to work at the better level, to go in the better leagues. But if anything will happen, it will happen in the right way. If I leave here, I will only leave in the right way. I want to be the right person with the people who gave me this great opportunity.”

 

Only when and where to need to be answered. Perhaps “Farewell Mike, Dennis and Joe” could herald “Hello Temuri”. The Georgian Geordie? It has a nice ring to it.

 

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article5101039.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=2878846