The Turkish national team has not had a head coach since the last of the World Cup qualifiers was ended in October. With Fatih Terim's resignation, there have been plenty of rumors going around the internet as to who is the next guy on the hot seat. Perhaps, it would be best for the Turkish Football Federation to get a foreigner this time around. But some internet polls on Turkish websites have had more votes for a domestic coach than a foreign coach. But with the candidates the TFF has either interviewed or are interested in, depending on what one reads, it looks like it will be a foreign coach to take the helm.
One of the candidates is Giovanni Trapattoni. Now everyone knows he is still the coach of the Irish national team. However, Italian coaches have a reputation of getting the job done. The only reason that Ireland isn't in the World Cup at this point is obvious to everyone, so there's no need to beat a dead horse there. Trapattoni might be an old man, but I think he can be able to get the most out of the Turkish nationals. I'm not quite sure about his tactics, as I haven't been keeping up with Ireland's matches during the qualifiers, but he seems like a good fit for the job. My only question is his age, as he is or will be 70 years old, and considering what happened at Fenerbahçe with Luis Aragones, old gentlemen might not succeed. Consider also that Trapattoni's assistant has already shot these rumors down, so it seems as though Trapattoni will not be anywhere near Turkey anytime soon.
An interesting candidate whose name has come up recently is that of Mark Hughes, formerly of Manchester City. Hughes would be likely paired up with Tugay Kerimoglu as his assistant. Hughes I can't be too sure of. He nearly led the Welsh national team to an appearance in Euro 2004, only to fall short. Having Kerimoglu as his assistant would result in quite an interesting pairing. However, I am very unsure about having Hughes in. Perhaps Manchester City fans would know his ways better than I could, but how could he not lead Manchester City to at least a top four at this point with the money and players handed to him is beyond me. I really don't think he could lead Turkey anywhere near Euro 2012 if he gets hired. Then again, he does have the international experience, and he'll be in charge of a national team that has far more talent than Wales does. But he just doesn't seem like the right choice.
Should any Turkish coaches be considered? Sure, but none of them are ready to go into that hot seat. Consider Ertugrul Saglam, currently Bursaspor's head coach. He seems like a very calm presence on the sidelines, but he's inexperienced. Also, he has mentioned before that he would like to lead Bursaspor to a league title. Saglam could be the guy but it isn't his time. One television pundit in Turkey even mentioned the name of Yilmaz Vural, currently the head coach of Kasımpaşa. While Vural has coach an insane amount of teams over the last few years, he is probably the last person to coach the national team. He hasn't had any experience coaching the big three Istanbul clubs, which is perhaps the closest thing to the hot seat that the national team coaching job would bring. He has coached Trabzonspor before, but Trabzonspor has been known as a coaches' graveyard for quite some time.
So who should the Turkish national team coach be? It will be an interesting few weeks or so to see the rumors and such. When the announcement comes, there will certainly be a hack of a lot of fanfare and expectation to succeed right away. With the Turkish national team failing to qualify for the World Cup in 2010, anything but Euro 2012 qualification will be a disappointment.
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