Leszek (Shek) Borkowski

Interesting news coming out of Washington that Jim Gabarra and Emma Hayes will be working together in a sort of a coaching ménage a deux.
It seems that Gabarra will continue as a head coach and Hayes will be his consultant.
I have never been a fan of such working arrangements.
Typically, it happens when management lacks the conviction needed to make changes yet recognizes that changes must take place.
Bringing in a ‘consultant’ is tantamount to saying, “Sorry coach, you’re just not good enough. We have to help you”
It smacks of major disrespect towards whoever is currently in the job.
In my opinion any attempt to share coaching duties at any club is a “recipe for disaster”.
I don’t know anything about Gabarra and Hayes’ relationship but it doesn’t matter how friendly they are, how well they get on, it simply will be difficult to make it work long term if they continue to share duties.
Coaching is all about making decisions and you simply can’t have two people making them. One person has to do it, one person has to have the final call, and if you don’t understand that, then you are doomed to failure.
When you give the players and the media the idea that there are two bosses that you get problems. Everyone must know who is in charge.
A similar thing happened to me in Russia when Zvezda owners offered to bring in a former player as my assistant. I reemphasized to owners that only head coach makes staff decisions, we separated.