Picture Mark Hughes if you will, back in the day when an unknown consortium called the Abu Dhabi United Group purchased Manchester City. Circumstances changed, expectations were different, the pressure increased.
Read now for the Ashburton Women’s senior team and Sinisa Cohadzic, and you can see the similarities.
“Obviously as everyone knows at the end of [last] season Ashburton Women Soccer Club merged with Ashburton United and formed a new entity that had a new committee and new structure in place,” says Cohadzic.
“With that, new expectations and objectives were put forward for all involved. There was a review of all positions at the club, even myself, I had to reapply for the position of Head Coach.
“I had to convince the new committee that I was the coach who can deliver the club’s objectives and install a new culture and direction to bring success.”
And success is what he has delivered so far, due to club’s circumstances having drastically changed in the space of an off-season.
On a dramatic final day last WPL campaign, Ashburton needed a 1-0 win over Casey Comets and a Cairnlea defeat to South Melbourne to secure its top-flight status on the Sportsmart Women’s Premier League.
Now Ashburton have risen from relegation battlers to title contenders in the space of several months.
Cohadzic believes that the merger gave the team a new impetus, a new sense of clear direction that it needed after years of battling relegation.
And much like Manchester City, it gave “new resources” that were needed to “convince some good players to come to the club” and “to make this team a competitive force this year in the league.”
A busy transfer window saw the likes of Matilda Emma Checker, Sandringham’s Kristen Stensholdt, Bulleen’s Fede Frew and a trio of former Victory W-League players in shot-stopper Melissa Maizels, former skipper Ash Brown and Laura Spiranovic join the team.
Cohadzic remains adamant that the first signing of Spiranovic “was a huge coup for the club,” and was key to show the rest of the league that this new club meant business.
“I had to go a long way to convince her that we as a club are going in a new direction in every way,” he says.
“Starting from recruiting, the plans that we have going forward and the culture of the club that sets us apart of rest of the clubs.
“Together with her in the same way we have Checker, Maizels, Stensholt and American import Georgia Cloepfil, the difference was the belief, plans and hard work that players have seen technical director Will Hastie, CEO Anthony Nichols and I have put in front of them.
“We needed to convince them that this club is one of the best in Victoria going forward and that we are passionate, hungry for success and want to turn things around.”
Having the “the backing and support from the club” has meant that Cohadzic has been able to maintain his footballing philosophy, while having time to integrate new quality signings with Ashburton’s already existing exceptional youth stocks.
“All the new players that have joined our team this year were carefully selected to fit in our culture and philosophy of the club,” he says.
“They have brought lot of confidence, hunger, quality and winning mentality to a club that was previously always battling for relegation.
“They all involved themselves in coaching young future stars which is great for all kids involved at the club. These players put in lot of hours helping out on club level with their experience and soccer knowledge.
“Younger players will only benefit from the quality and professionalism these players bring to every session and game.”
With such an influx of experienced talent, plus coupled with exceptional youth (in 15-year-old Melina Ayers, a genuine star who is the team’s leading scorer with 12 goals) and already quality stock in captain Christine Pfeiffer, there is an increased expectation that with such a talent squad, the team has to perform.
“There is no pressure at all,” Cohadzic says.
“Our aim is to slowly progress and improve on our results each year.
“We went in preseason for an away trip to Ballarat and we have set ourselves goals and what we believe and stand for. If we achieve those goals this team can do something special come the end of the year.”
What about Cohadzic himself? There is a different mental aspect in managing a team battling relegation to one fighting for a finals spot, and a possibly a title.
“As a coach my bar is always very high. All my players together with me are very hungry for success, which is giving us an extra step towards achieving the objectives we have put in front of us.
“We are very ambitious, hungry, pushing and demanding success from each other. We just need to keep on working hard and improving. If we keep on doing that our results will improve and come naturally.”
These words are quite similar to what Roberto Mancini, Hughes’ successor said at City. Maybe Cohadzic is more Mancini than Hughes at Ashburton. And football everyone knows what Mancini did for City: win the league.