Osvaldo
Ardiles (born August 3, 1952 in Córdoba, Argentina) is a
football coach and former midfielder who won the 1978 World Cup
as part of the Argentinian national team.
A competitive and skilled midfielder, he became a cult hero in
England, along with Glenn Hoddle and compatriot Ricardo Villa,
as a player for Tottenham Hotspur. He was notably sent home to
Argentina (along with Villa) as a result of the outbreak of the
Falklands War in 1982, thus missing most of the 1982-83 season.
As manager of Tottenham in the mid-90s, famously he played
several matches utilizing a formation that had an amazing five
forwards, a formation that hadn't been used in English football
since the 1950s, which "Ossie" mainly used because of
Tottenham's perceived defensive weakness.
In July 1989, Osvaldo Ardiles moved into football management
with Second Division Swindon Town when Lou Macari resigned to
join West Ham in July 1989.
Like Macari, the Swindon job was Ardiles' first managerial
position, and he proved to be up to the task. To the amazement
of the Town fans, he transformed the team from playing the long
ball style which had been so successful, to a new "Samba style",
which saw the Town playing attractive attacking football. Part
of this change was the new "diamond formation" which Ardiles
implemented - a 4-4-2 style with left-sided, right-sided,
attacking and defensive midfielders.
Just ten months after he had joined, Ardiles led the Town to
their highest ever league position - finishing fourth in
Division Two. After the Town beat Blackburn in the first leg of
the Play-Off semi-final, the fans paid tribute to Ardiles'
success in the second leg with a tickertape reception -
recreating the atmosphere of the 1978 World Cup, in which
Ardiles had starred. Swindon went on to win promotion to the top
flight for the first time in their history - beating Sunderland
in the Play-Off Final - only to have the promotion cruelly taken
from them ten days later, when the Football League demoted them
for irregular payments to players.
The following season, Ardiles was told to sell to keep the club
alive - and Wembley hero Alan McLoughlin was the first big-money
departure. With Swindon obviously rocked by their pre-season
nightmare, their form deserted them, and opposition clubs seemed
to come to terms with the Town's style of play. By the end of
February, relegation threatened, and when Newcastle offered
Ardiles the chance to become their new boss, he accepted.
Ardiles was not out of work for long. In June 1992 he replaced
Bobby Gould as manager of West Bromwich Albion, who had just
missed out on the Third Division playoffs in 1991-92. At the end
of the 1992-93 season, Ardiles guided Albion to victory over
Port Vale in the Division Two playoff final. Shortly afterwards
he walked out of the Hawthorns to return his former club
Tottenham as manager, but his management spell was nowhere near
as successful as his spell as a player. Tottenham finished 15th
in the Premiership and despite the expensive acquisition of
Jürgen Klinsmann, Ilie Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Popescu in the
1994 close season, Ardiles was sacked in October 1994 with
Tottenham battling relegation. They had just been punished for
financial irregularities committed during the late 1980's: with
a 1-year FA Cup ban, £600,000 fine and 12 league points deducted.
The punishment was later amended to a £1.5million fine and 6
points deducted but the FA Cup ban and points deduction were
later quashed.
From 2003 to 2005 Ardiles coached Japanese Tokyo Verdy 1969,
with whom he won the 2004 Emperor's Cup. But in July 2005 he was
fired due to the poor performance of the team, who finished
penultimate. |
