Limpag: Should Weiss accept PFF’s extension?

COACH Michael Weiss’s two-year contract will end on Jan. 16 and while he’s been talking about the 2015 Asian Cup, the German coach who won the country’s first trophy and steered the Philippines to third place in the AFC Challenge Cup got a six-month extension.

Mike T. Limpag

Fair Play

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Six months.

Predictably, he wasn’t too keen on the deal, and Cedelf Tupas of the Philippine Inquirer reported that he was asking for more time to consider it.

Now, should he accept a contract, which, according to TV analyst Ryan Fenix reeked of disrespect?

Anton del Rosario, the former Azkal defender, wrote on twitter that only a desperate coach would accept a six-month deal. In a way, he’s right, but Anton’s been in the outside looking in since last year, and I’ve heard he even field a case against coach Weiss and all of that stemmed from the tantrum he threw in coach Weiss’s first home game against Mongolia on Feb. 9, 2011.

Desperate? I think not. In previous talks, Coach Weiss said he wasn’t putting his life on hold on whether he’ll get the extension or not. Besides, I think a German coach who speaks fluent English, and Japanese (and a bit of French and Chinese?) will have a lot of employment opportunities. And surely, his stint in the Azkals will only boost his CV.

But where does that leave the PFF and the national team? To square one? I don’t know, but I think, surely, the management has taken into consideration the possibility of Coach Weiss rejecting such offer.

The AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers is in March, and yes, should he sign the extension, a successful stint in that tournament would mean another extension for Coach Weiss, since the PFF is concerned about whether he can really take the Azkals to a new level.

Of course, coaches come and go all the time in international football, and sometimes, coaches too get fired in the middle of a two-year contract, but I have yet to hear of one coach getting a six-month offer, especially after what it seemed was a stellar stint.

So, should Coach Weiss accept that new deal? I really don’t know, but you can’t blame him if turns it down.

(www.cebufootball.blogspot.com)