Egypt and Ahli's new football coaches will be pressed to start winning and keep winning, respectively. Nashwa Abdel-Tawab profiles the country's latest hope while Alaa Shahine looks at a famed Dutchman taking the reins of an equally famous club Click to view caption After months of speculation and endless rumours, Ismaili's Mohsen Saleh jumped from the frying pan into the fire as Egypt's newest national football team coach. The pressure cooker job was given to Saleh after he guided Ismaili to the league championship which was not decided until the last minutes of the final game. The nail-biting climax, not seen in years in Egypt, made Saleh a celebrity in Ismaili although the pressure to win the city's first league title in 10 years was enormous. He now takes on Egypt which failed to make it to the World Cup and was ousted in the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup. The twin failures were seen as strong reasons why the national team should have employed a foreign coach instead. And indeed the federation tried. "However, our budget was not enough to afford a foreigner," said Mohamed El- Siagi, head of the federation's competitions committee. The Ministry of Youth also declined to help pay its share because, said El-Siagi, "it is against a foreign coach. Moreover, we don't have much time before the qualifications to the 2004 African Nations Cup. A new coach will not have enough time to get acquainted with the players but a national coach knows them well." Hence Mohsen Saleh, who has gone this route before. In 1994, he was assistant to Dutch manager Reiner Rauter. When Rauter literally fled the team before they were to fly to Algeria, which Rauter considered too dangerous a trip, Saleh took over the national team and steered it to the 1996 African Nations Cup. But perhaps because his technical methods were misunderstood and because of a dire need for total authority on the team, he suddenly quit. He then coached Misri for two years before going to Ismaili. Saleh, 53, was a midfielder for Ahli, part of one of their best generations in the 1970s. As a player, he helped guide Ahli to the league and cup double for three consecutive years starting in 1975. He then coached Ahli's juniors for a year before moving to Port Fouad, then to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman in various stints from 1980 to 1992. During that time, he led Saudi Arabia's Al- Watani to the league championship in 1987. Saleh takes over four months following the end of Mahmoud El-Gohari's tenure which came to a halt after the 2002 African Nations Cup in Mali. Saleh's contract ends following the 2004 African Nations Cup. He made it clear several months ago that he would not be leading Ismaili beyond this season. "I have been coaching Ismaili for more than two years now," he said. "And I strongly believe that this is the longest period a coach can stay with a single team. They need new ideas and I am out of them with Ismaili. "It's not an impossible mission but difficult," Saleh said, referring to his new post. "I was chosen before to train the national team but the sports authorities in Egypt saw that a foreigner would be better. "One of the things that foreigners wanted to do in Egypt was change the game plan from 3-5-2 to 4-2-4 to quicken the pace but they failed because of the system in the administration," said Saleh, who sees no improvement in the game if the manager -- he or anyone else -- has no complete authority over the choice of players, support staff and scheduling. "There are so many good coaches and players in Egypt," says Saleh. "We have to dissect the reasons for the failure of the Egyptian team in the past and try to improve our standard. My team of administrators should not only be skilful but also work in harmony to achieve our targets: the African Nations Cup in Tunisia and the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany." Saleh's assistants may include Salah Hosni as administrator manager, Hossam El-Badri and Ashraf Qassem as assistant coaches and Ibrahim Riad for goalkeepers. He will try to keep the league schedule steady. "I suffered as a league coach and I won't make league coaches suffer by stopping the league for 68 days, like this season." As for the pressure, "any coach will be put under stress from the fans and the authorities. To realise his ideas, he has to be strong and forceful to do what he sees best, not what is imposed on him. I'll consider the best, not necessarily the stars. Survival on the team is for the fittest, not for stars with past glories." Egyptians did not have long to wait before Cairo football giants Ahli announced they were hiring the services of Dutchman Adrianus "Arie" Haan who succeeded Portuguese coach Manuel Jose. Jose, whose contract expired at the end of the season, was shown the door despite leading the Red Devils to the African Champions League crown, only the third such title in the team's history and the first since 1987. He also guided the team to a first African Super Cup glory against South Africa's Kaizer Chiefs and a historic 1-0 win against Spanish legend Real Madrid last August in a friendly. Jose's wavering over whether he wanted to remain with Ahli, coupled with the team's failure to secure either the local league or cup championships, sealed his fate. Reports throughout the last few weeks indicated that Ahli were busy negotiating with coaches from England, France, Germany and Holland before shaking hands with Haan. An Ajax Amsterdam star, Haan, 54, was a member of the Dutch team which introduced, in the 1970s, Rinus Michels's "total football" concept that enabled them to reach the World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978, only to lose to the host nations on both occasions. In 1978, Haan, a defender, was instrumental in the Dutch run to the final. His 40-yard thunderbolt which clinched victory against Italy in the semi-finals is widely regarded as the greatest long-range goal of all time. Haan had given the host Argentine public a taste of his ability with a trademark 30-yarder against West Germany a few days earlier but nobody on the Italian team was expecting him to let fly when he gained possession close to the centre circle. Dino Zoff, regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world at the time, and a veteran of four World Cups, had a clear view of Haan as he prepared to wield his trusty right leg. Yet he barely had time to react before the ball had nestled in the back of his net. The ball was still rising and still gathering pace as it shaved Zoff's crossbar on its way in and although slow-motion replays show that Zoff got a fingertip to the ball, his chances of keeping it out were virtually non-existent, such was the ferocity of the strike. Haan represented his country on 35 occasions -- scoring six goals -- although he would surely have played more had it not been for a personal spat with the former Ajax and Holland coach Michels. Haan first came across Michels as a youngster in the Ajax team of the late 1960s. A strict disciplinarian, Michels did not expect his tactics to be questioned by anyone, let alone a junior member of the playing staff. So when a teenage Haan spoke out against the coach, it seemed his days at the Amsterdam club were numbered. But Haan's Ajax career received a boost when Michels took over as Holland manager, allowing Haan an opportunity to be a regular member in Ajax's fixtures. And although Haan was not a popular figure in the dressing room, his teammates were aware of his importance. The great Johan Cruyff, in particular, was always quick to stand up for Haan. "Now that Michels has gone, we will start to see the best of Arie Haan," Cruyff predicted in 1971. "He has such incredible strength in his legs and such a fearsome shot -- let's hope he will now get the chance to show us his ability." Haan was a vital member of the Ajax team which clinched the European Cup in 1972 and 1973. He them moved to Belgium where his great run of success continued with Anderlecht with which he won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1976 and 1978. As a coach, however, his history is relatively less impressive. He started his coaching career with Belgian side Antwerp before guiding Anderlecht to the Belgian league title in 1986 and 1987. He then moved to Germany where he took charge of Stuttgart and led the team to fourth place in the Bundesliga before reaching the UEFA Cup semi-finals in 1989. Haan also coached Dutch powerhouse Feynoord and guided the team to third place in the Dutch league in 1996 and the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup. However, he spent the last three seasons in the most unfancied manner, coaching modest European sides like Paok of Greece and Cyprus' Omonia Nicosia before being sacked by Austria Vienna's management after the team's poor start in the league this season.
