“We want Gary out” has been a very popular chant for the Newcastle faithful since the Jets’ first sloppy performance of his second tenure with the club. This may have seemed a tad harsh early last season; however it is now fully justified by the way he has completely failed to return the club to its former glory.

Upon returning to the Hunter, Gary van Egmond promised to rejuvenate the playing squad and implement a high-tempo, possession based style of football with plenty of emphasis on attack. Just like Communism however, what sounds great in theory has not worked at all in practice. Instead of a fluid short passing game, what we have seen over the most part of two seasons has been either pointless possession at the back, or hopeful long balls towards the front line. There has been a distinct lack of a true playmaker, with Bernardo Ribeiro last season being essentially permanently benched last season after performing well in the number 10 role during that campaign’s pre-season. This season saw Nathan Burns signed on loan, however he performs far better when playing on the wing as opposed to in the central attacking midfield role he was given during round one this season. This lack of a playmaker is one of the biggest problems facing the Newcastle Jets squad this season, and with the first two games having produced some rather dull attacking moments, it is quite obvious that van Egmond has once again failed to procure all of the necessary transfers during the pre-season window.

Kew Jaliens has so far performed his task of leading the defensive line and providing that much needed stability that we so severely lacked last season, so credit must go to GVE on that front. However the continual failure to bring in high quality players in key positions is a real problem for the Jets. For example, ever since the departure of Joel Griffiths, the Jets have been without a truly potent goal scorer. While the arrival of Emile Heskey has been a massive bonus to our attacking stocks, he is not the type of player who is going to score week in, week out, for an entire season. Neither was Ryan Griffiths. Imagine if last season we had a player with the goal scoring ability of Besart Berisha, Archie Thompson, Shane Smeltz or Joel Griffiths. A thoroughbred goal scorer of that calibre, playing alongside Ryan Griffiths and Emile Heskey in the forward line, would have produced one of the most dangerous forward line in the competition. Instead, GVE allowed Jeremy Brockie to move to Wellington Phoenix (where he challenged for the golden boot) and failed to bring in anyone capable of scoring more than 10 goals per season. Unless Adam Taggart suddenly hits peak form of his career, or Emile Heskey rediscovers his goal scoring form of 2000/2001, it appears as though we will once again be relying heavily on our midfield chipping in with several goals each if we are to have any say in the title race. Once again, this is due to poor use of the transfer window.

Another area in which van Egmond is spectacularly inadequate is his selection policy. Last season he chopped and changed the starting XI week in, week out for virtually half the season, making wholesale changes every game. This enormous inconsistency in the line-up translated onto the pitch, where it was very obvious that there was little cohesion and understanding between the players in the starting team each round. I’ve been told by people who have talked to van Egmond that it is his philosophy to alter the personnel and not the formation/tactics for each opponent. The impact this misguided philosophy has had on the performances is clear for everyone to see. If you compare our form from last season, where we would play exciting football one week, only for the next two games to be sloppy and frustrating, to the season the Western Sydney Wanderers had, it becomes obvious that van Egmond’s policy of changing the run on team every week is not the way to go. The Wanderers were able to achieve amazing success in their inaugural season due to the consistency in the starting XI. It may have taken the team four rounds to score one goal, but the fact that the same group of players (minus one or two each week due to suspension or injury) were given time to gel together as a true team meant that they were able to perform to a far higher level than anyone had expected. The Jets, on the other hand, had a spectacular start to the season, sitting in the top two after four or five rounds, only to succumb to the lack of consistency and the inevitable failure to reach the finals ensued. Instead of recognising that he was wrong however, van Egmond persevered with his selection policy, whether it was due to an ego problem or because he simply cannot change when his plans don’t work. Either way, the fact that he failed to solve the problem that was causing our season to fade away faster than Usain Bolt runs the 100m cannot be ignored and action should be taken.

It is not just match-day selections that Gary consistently seems to struggle with, but also in-game tactical adjustments and substitutions. Last season, as well as the opening two rounds of the current campaign, it appeared as though GVE went into every game with a single game plan and was reluctant (or incapable) of changing it when things inevitably went pear-shaped. There were numerous games, notably the 5-0 thumping to the Victory and the recent loss to Sydney FC, where van Egmond’s tactics by and large remained the same throughout the whole match despite being completely ineffectual. Rather than altering the formation to support a more compact, defensive style that would have provided the Jets with some much needed structure and solidarity at the back in these games, van Egmond left the formation unchanged and didn’t even so much as instruct the players to attempt to slow the game down and frustrate the opposition. It didn’t matter that we were being comprehensively outplayed. Never once did it appear as though Gary had instructed the players to stop trying to get forward and attack as quickly as possible, instead he made nonsensical substitutions (such as bringing the hard working Caravella off during the Sydney game but leaving the rather unfit and ineffectual Nathan Burns on the park for the full 90, or bringing holding midfielder Jacob Pepper to play on the wing, rather than Andrew Hoole, and made no attempts to aid the players in regaining some kind of control in the match.

Finally, whenever there is a poor performance, which sadly is far too often, GVE’s first action is to blame the players for either not having enough passion, or being too nervous to implement his strategies. The saying “a poor tradesman blames his tools” is rather appropriate here, as that is essentially what “Dutchy” is doing when he comes out in the press and slams his players for a poor performance. Sure, one or two bad games can be blamed on players not playing to their ability, but when there are so many poor performances during a manager’s tenure at a club, it becomes more and more obvious that it is in fact the manager who is not up to the task. In closing, while it is possible to blame the terrible season the Jets had during the 2012/13 campaign on the fact that there was a huge turnover of players and many of the new signings were inexperienced in the A-League, it is not possible to do so this season. Gary van Egmond has now had a full season, two full pre-seasons and the opening two rounds of this campaign to mould this squad into a true title threat. He has one of the best squads on paper for making the top four, yet if the current form continues, we will be struggling to finish above 10^th. The ability is there in the playing squad to procure a home final for the first time since our championship winning season, now all that remains is for a top quality manager to be brought in to replace a man who has practically driven the club as far in the opposite direction to success as possible.