Leonardo Jardim is on rocky ground at Monaco with a campaign on twitter by Monaco fans to remove him. So he may well be available. Leonardo Jardim is 45. He is Portuguese but was born in Venezuela to Portuguese parents and soon moved to Madeira, an Island off the coast of Africa, owned by Portugal that is most famous as the birthplace of Cristiano (Ronaldo) Aveiro. Jardim had an amateur playing career and moved into coaching at a young age after injury. He got to be assistant at his local side in the 3rd tier. Now Portugese football is not like British football. For example, I watched Farense (Faro) when they played in the top tier in the gorgeous Algarve Stadium that holds 30,000, yet they'd only get 3,000. So you can imagine what a 3rd tier club is like. Friends and family and no real fans.
Leo soon got a go as manager and did enough to get a better job with a bigger club on the mainland in the same division. He took them to the second tier in his only full season with the club. Then he got the Beira-Mar job. They kind of yo-yo up and down but are kind of famous in Portugal as Eusebio once played for them. He got them promoted first season and was now in the top flight. He was doing alright but left with the club in 10th in February. He was clearly tapped up as that summer he was appointed at Braga.
You have a big 3 in Portugal, but Braga could claim to be the 4th best side in Portugal and are the team that most often breaches the top 3. So it was a good job for Leo to get. Leo only stayed at Braga for a season, before falling out with the Chairman and resigning. He was able to crack the top 3, improving on 4th from the year before and edging out Sporting.
Leo kind of won the first trophy of his career as he left Braga and joined Olympiacos of Greece. He was 10 points clear at the top of the table when at the end of January he was sacked and Olympiacos brought in Michel to replace him. Olympiacos still won the league, and he's kind of credited jointly with Michel for the title. He was definitely gone by the time that Michel completed the double.I have no idea why he was sacked, I think the barmpot in charge of Olympiacos is the same one who owns Nottingham Forest and has weird ideas and he just fancied Michel for some reason.
Come the summer, Leo Jardim got the Sporting job. He had pushed them down to 4th the previous season and whilst he was in Greece Sporting amazingly fell to 7th as Vitor Pereira won the title with Porto, Jorge Jesus was 2nd with Benfica, Paulo Fonseca sensationally took Pacos de Ferreira to 3rd, his old club Braga were 4th, and Marco Silva had a sensational season with Estoril in 5th.
It was at this point that I first came across really came across Jardim. I spent a fair bit of time in Portugal and so adopted a side out there, namely Sporting. Disclaimer from the outset, as a fan of Sporting and Everton, I was a big fan of Marco Silva and thought he would be great here. So yeah, I'm probably talking nonsense. But if you want to continue reading, let me continue to make the case for Leo Jardim.
Jardim is a great coach. He did a great job at Sporting as manager in the 2013-14 season, before Marco Silva took over in the Summer of 2014. Jardim led Sporting to second in the Premiera Liga. The title was actually closer than it appeared as Silva's Estoril beat Sporting with the title already decided to widen the gap on the final day. Jardim is a great youth developer and Eric Dier made his debut for Sporting under Jardim. William Carvalho became a first team regular and Jardim even made Freddy Montero look decent. Silva took over and finished 3rd, but won the Cup.
Jardim left for Monaco in the summer of 2014. He took over from Claudio Ranieri. Now Ranieri had got the Monaco job when they dropped to the second tier. They had been relegated and finished 8th, realised going back up was not so easy and decided to hire the Italian and spend big by Ligue 2 standards and sure enough they were champions. They kept spending and roared back into Ligue 1 finishing 2nd with a side with Joao Moutinho, Ricardo Carvalho, James Rodriguez, Dimitar Berbatov, as well as the emerging Anthony Martial. Now Martial is only 17 but he struggles with 2 goals in 15 games. Ranieri then leaves in the summer as Monaco decide to go in a new direction and hire Leo Jardim to invest in youth development.
Jardim then concentrates on youngsters like Bakayoko (now of Chelsea), Bernardo Silva (Man City), Anthony Martial (Man Utd), whilst losing Rademel Falcao (to Man Utd) and James Rodriguez (to Rea Madrid) before he starts the season. He brings through Fabinho (Liverpool), Thomas Lemar (Atletico Madrid), to replace the likes of Martial over the next couple of seasons. Jardim finishes a place lower than Ranieri in 3rd, but he spends just €13m and sells off €86m (mainly James Rodriguez to Madrid) but also loses Sergio Romero (now of Man Utd), and Rademel Falcao on loan to Man Utd as the owner slashes the wage bill. So 3rd position with a much weaker squad is no disgrace.
2015/16 season sees Anthony Martial leave for Man Utd, having matured under Jardim scoring 12 in 48. More older expensive players like Berbatov leave. But Jardim still finishes 3rd. In the summer of 2016 loads more players leave and incoming are some shrewd buys like Bruno Mendy. Rademel Falco has had his second season on loan, that dreaful season at Chelsea and as no one wants him due to his injury issues, he ends up back at Monaco. Jardim rejuvenates him and Falcao gets 30 goals from 40 games. He also brings through Sidibe and develops a very attacking style with width from the fullbacks. This is also the season he brings through teenage sensation Mbappe.
So on to the 2016/17 season. Spoiler alert, Monaco beat PSG to win the league by 8 points. They only went top for the first time at the half-way stage of 20 games. They won their last straight 11 league games, unbeaten in their last 20 league games, winning 18 of them. Not only are Monaco great in Ligue 1, but they are better in Europe. Monaco had to qualify for the Champions League Groups. They got the toughest draw you could possibly imagine. Fenerbache. They lost 2-1 in Turkey but won 3-1 in Monte Carlo to advance 4-3 on aggregate. Keeping it tight at the back for the last 25 minutes knowing an equaliser would be an away goal and so would knock them out. Winning this game, they then were still not in the groups and instead they got another tough game, and one we can relate to. A Champions League qualifying playoff with … Villareal! They won home and away.
Onto the groups, and Monaco had a low seeding and so got a tough group. CSKA, Monaco, Bayern Leverkusen and Tottenham Hotspur. They beat Spurs 2-1 in London. Drew with the Germans at home, got a creditable draw in Moscow, and then beat the Russians back in Monte Carlo. Spurs were beaten in the principality, and Monaco fielded a weakened side, got hammered in Germany and still won the group.
In the last 16 they drew Manchester City in a memorable tie. And yes this was Pep Guardiola's Man City. City go 1-0 up, Monaco respond twice before halftime, 1-2. Aguero levels for 2-2. Falco restored the Monégasque's advantage, 2-3. Aguero, Stones and Sane hit 3 quick goals 5-3 game over. City still have to go to Monte Carlo, and just need to not get beat by more than one. Easy task for Guardiola's City you would have thought. Mbappe and Fabino score 2 early goals to level the tie 5-5 on aggregate with the Monégasque's ahead on away goals. Sane puts City 6-5 up with 19 minutes left before Bakayoko scores with little more than 10 minutes left and Monaco go through on away goals.
Next round they beat Borussia Dortmund home and away. Before drawing Juve in the semi-final and getting beat home and away themselves. So a team from France beat 3 English sides, 2 german sides, and a Spanish side en route to a Champions League Semi-Final. This Jardim must be some manager eh?
His team:
Gk Subasic
Rb Djibril Sidibe (Everton)
Lb Bruno Mendy (Man City)
Cb Jemerson
Cb Kamil Glik
RW Bernardo Silva (Man City)
LW Thomas Lemar (Atletico Madrid)
MC Fabinho (Liverpool)
MC Bakayoko (Chelsea)
FC Radamel Falcao (Galatasary)
FC Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Notable Subs:
Nabil Dirar (Fenerbache)
Guido Carillo (Southampton)
Almouy Traore (Eintracht)
Joao Moutinho (Wolves)
I've listed the clubs they now play for in brackets. Yes, you see the problem. They were all sold from under Jardim's feet within 2 seasons. What did he do the following year, well he still got them to second. Incomings included the likes of Tielemens (now at Leicester).
The next season, to compound Jardim's misery of having only his centre backs and his keeper left from his title winning side, he was sacked for struggling and in they brought Theirry Henry. He did even worse, and Jardim was back to rescue them in January. Ok they only finished 17th, but they stayed up. An improvement of 2 places and they were soon 16th only dropping to 17th on the last day when already safe.
This season has carried on in the same spluttering way. The Monégasques seem to want a scapegoat. Henry signed Fabregas, they have Bakayoko back from Chelsea on loan, Adrien Silva (the Leicester flop who was famously signed seconds too late to play) is on loan, and up top they have our Henry Onyekuru who has been poor. There's also Slimani, and Yedder. Yet the Monégasques think they have a decent side and should be top 6, not in the bottom 3. The last 10 games things have improved and they've won 7 of them and now sit 11th, but are only 3 points off 4th.
Onto some technical stuff - Tifo Tactics video:
Tactical analysis by a Chelsea fan who really wanted them to get him last year: Tactical Analysis
Of course, few whispers, and well down in the betting, but Jardim is attainable. The Monaco fans were all over the official Everton twitter account when we sacked Silva offering his services, hilariously saying that they were French based Everton fans who thought Jardim would be perfect. I messaged a few to find out why they would want to part with such a great coach and they told me that a lot of it is down to Luis Campos, the man Man Utd want as their first ever Director of Football and they feel that Jardim should have been able to lose the players he did and yet build a new team with the young talent brought in. Personally, I think it's impossible to lose your best players every season and keep building a new side, you are bound to break down at some point and that's what happened. The fact that we can promise this will not happen here could tempt Jardim to come.
I do have reservations. I thought Silva would be perfect for Everton and that once he had a home like Everton he would flourish. I think that ultimately he lacked the personality to succeed. He, like every other outsider before him, was shocked at the size of the club, the demands of the fans, and lacked the personality to carry us forwards. I'm afraid Leo Jardim is similar. He is quiet and studious. He speaks in hushed tones in his press conferences. He does not get angry. So, that is worry. But ultimately, this is a great coach, who has achieved great things, and surely is the man we need. He fits the Brands profile, the squad we have should fit his way of playing, and he needs to really only sign a centre back (which we need anyway) and then to sign a top class defensive midfielder to be our Fabinho in his preferred 442 formation.
Leo soon got a go as manager and did enough to get a better job with a bigger club on the mainland in the same division. He took them to the second tier in his only full season with the club. Then he got the Beira-Mar job. They kind of yo-yo up and down but are kind of famous in Portugal as Eusebio once played for them. He got them promoted first season and was now in the top flight. He was doing alright but left with the club in 10th in February. He was clearly tapped up as that summer he was appointed at Braga.
You have a big 3 in Portugal, but Braga could claim to be the 4th best side in Portugal and are the team that most often breaches the top 3. So it was a good job for Leo to get. Leo only stayed at Braga for a season, before falling out with the Chairman and resigning. He was able to crack the top 3, improving on 4th from the year before and edging out Sporting.
Leo kind of won the first trophy of his career as he left Braga and joined Olympiacos of Greece. He was 10 points clear at the top of the table when at the end of January he was sacked and Olympiacos brought in Michel to replace him. Olympiacos still won the league, and he's kind of credited jointly with Michel for the title. He was definitely gone by the time that Michel completed the double.I have no idea why he was sacked, I think the barmpot in charge of Olympiacos is the same one who owns Nottingham Forest and has weird ideas and he just fancied Michel for some reason.
Come the summer, Leo Jardim got the Sporting job. He had pushed them down to 4th the previous season and whilst he was in Greece Sporting amazingly fell to 7th as Vitor Pereira won the title with Porto, Jorge Jesus was 2nd with Benfica, Paulo Fonseca sensationally took Pacos de Ferreira to 3rd, his old club Braga were 4th, and Marco Silva had a sensational season with Estoril in 5th.
It was at this point that I first came across really came across Jardim. I spent a fair bit of time in Portugal and so adopted a side out there, namely Sporting. Disclaimer from the outset, as a fan of Sporting and Everton, I was a big fan of Marco Silva and thought he would be great here. So yeah, I'm probably talking nonsense. But if you want to continue reading, let me continue to make the case for Leo Jardim.
Jardim is a great coach. He did a great job at Sporting as manager in the 2013-14 season, before Marco Silva took over in the Summer of 2014. Jardim led Sporting to second in the Premiera Liga. The title was actually closer than it appeared as Silva's Estoril beat Sporting with the title already decided to widen the gap on the final day. Jardim is a great youth developer and Eric Dier made his debut for Sporting under Jardim. William Carvalho became a first team regular and Jardim even made Freddy Montero look decent. Silva took over and finished 3rd, but won the Cup.
Jardim left for Monaco in the summer of 2014. He took over from Claudio Ranieri. Now Ranieri had got the Monaco job when they dropped to the second tier. They had been relegated and finished 8th, realised going back up was not so easy and decided to hire the Italian and spend big by Ligue 2 standards and sure enough they were champions. They kept spending and roared back into Ligue 1 finishing 2nd with a side with Joao Moutinho, Ricardo Carvalho, James Rodriguez, Dimitar Berbatov, as well as the emerging Anthony Martial. Now Martial is only 17 but he struggles with 2 goals in 15 games. Ranieri then leaves in the summer as Monaco decide to go in a new direction and hire Leo Jardim to invest in youth development.
Jardim then concentrates on youngsters like Bakayoko (now of Chelsea), Bernardo Silva (Man City), Anthony Martial (Man Utd), whilst losing Rademel Falcao (to Man Utd) and James Rodriguez (to Rea Madrid) before he starts the season. He brings through Fabinho (Liverpool), Thomas Lemar (Atletico Madrid), to replace the likes of Martial over the next couple of seasons. Jardim finishes a place lower than Ranieri in 3rd, but he spends just €13m and sells off €86m (mainly James Rodriguez to Madrid) but also loses Sergio Romero (now of Man Utd), and Rademel Falcao on loan to Man Utd as the owner slashes the wage bill. So 3rd position with a much weaker squad is no disgrace.
2015/16 season sees Anthony Martial leave for Man Utd, having matured under Jardim scoring 12 in 48. More older expensive players like Berbatov leave. But Jardim still finishes 3rd. In the summer of 2016 loads more players leave and incoming are some shrewd buys like Bruno Mendy. Rademel Falco has had his second season on loan, that dreaful season at Chelsea and as no one wants him due to his injury issues, he ends up back at Monaco. Jardim rejuvenates him and Falcao gets 30 goals from 40 games. He also brings through Sidibe and develops a very attacking style with width from the fullbacks. This is also the season he brings through teenage sensation Mbappe.
So on to the 2016/17 season. Spoiler alert, Monaco beat PSG to win the league by 8 points. They only went top for the first time at the half-way stage of 20 games. They won their last straight 11 league games, unbeaten in their last 20 league games, winning 18 of them. Not only are Monaco great in Ligue 1, but they are better in Europe. Monaco had to qualify for the Champions League Groups. They got the toughest draw you could possibly imagine. Fenerbache. They lost 2-1 in Turkey but won 3-1 in Monte Carlo to advance 4-3 on aggregate. Keeping it tight at the back for the last 25 minutes knowing an equaliser would be an away goal and so would knock them out. Winning this game, they then were still not in the groups and instead they got another tough game, and one we can relate to. A Champions League qualifying playoff with … Villareal! They won home and away.
Onto the groups, and Monaco had a low seeding and so got a tough group. CSKA, Monaco, Bayern Leverkusen and Tottenham Hotspur. They beat Spurs 2-1 in London. Drew with the Germans at home, got a creditable draw in Moscow, and then beat the Russians back in Monte Carlo. Spurs were beaten in the principality, and Monaco fielded a weakened side, got hammered in Germany and still won the group.
In the last 16 they drew Manchester City in a memorable tie. And yes this was Pep Guardiola's Man City. City go 1-0 up, Monaco respond twice before halftime, 1-2. Aguero levels for 2-2. Falco restored the Monégasque's advantage, 2-3. Aguero, Stones and Sane hit 3 quick goals 5-3 game over. City still have to go to Monte Carlo, and just need to not get beat by more than one. Easy task for Guardiola's City you would have thought. Mbappe and Fabino score 2 early goals to level the tie 5-5 on aggregate with the Monégasque's ahead on away goals. Sane puts City 6-5 up with 19 minutes left before Bakayoko scores with little more than 10 minutes left and Monaco go through on away goals.
Next round they beat Borussia Dortmund home and away. Before drawing Juve in the semi-final and getting beat home and away themselves. So a team from France beat 3 English sides, 2 german sides, and a Spanish side en route to a Champions League Semi-Final. This Jardim must be some manager eh?
His team:
Gk Subasic
Rb Djibril Sidibe (Everton)
Lb Bruno Mendy (Man City)
Cb Jemerson
Cb Kamil Glik
RW Bernardo Silva (Man City)
LW Thomas Lemar (Atletico Madrid)
MC Fabinho (Liverpool)
MC Bakayoko (Chelsea)
FC Radamel Falcao (Galatasary)
FC Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Notable Subs:
Nabil Dirar (Fenerbache)
Guido Carillo (Southampton)
Almouy Traore (Eintracht)
Joao Moutinho (Wolves)
I've listed the clubs they now play for in brackets. Yes, you see the problem. They were all sold from under Jardim's feet within 2 seasons. What did he do the following year, well he still got them to second. Incomings included the likes of Tielemens (now at Leicester).
The next season, to compound Jardim's misery of having only his centre backs and his keeper left from his title winning side, he was sacked for struggling and in they brought Theirry Henry. He did even worse, and Jardim was back to rescue them in January. Ok they only finished 17th, but they stayed up. An improvement of 2 places and they were soon 16th only dropping to 17th on the last day when already safe.
This season has carried on in the same spluttering way. The Monégasques seem to want a scapegoat. Henry signed Fabregas, they have Bakayoko back from Chelsea on loan, Adrien Silva (the Leicester flop who was famously signed seconds too late to play) is on loan, and up top they have our Henry Onyekuru who has been poor. There's also Slimani, and Yedder. Yet the Monégasques think they have a decent side and should be top 6, not in the bottom 3. The last 10 games things have improved and they've won 7 of them and now sit 11th, but are only 3 points off 4th.
Onto some technical stuff - Tifo Tactics video:
Tactical analysis by a Chelsea fan who really wanted them to get him last year: Tactical Analysis
Of course, few whispers, and well down in the betting, but Jardim is attainable. The Monaco fans were all over the official Everton twitter account when we sacked Silva offering his services, hilariously saying that they were French based Everton fans who thought Jardim would be perfect. I messaged a few to find out why they would want to part with such a great coach and they told me that a lot of it is down to Luis Campos, the man Man Utd want as their first ever Director of Football and they feel that Jardim should have been able to lose the players he did and yet build a new team with the young talent brought in. Personally, I think it's impossible to lose your best players every season and keep building a new side, you are bound to break down at some point and that's what happened. The fact that we can promise this will not happen here could tempt Jardim to come.
I do have reservations. I thought Silva would be perfect for Everton and that once he had a home like Everton he would flourish. I think that ultimately he lacked the personality to succeed. He, like every other outsider before him, was shocked at the size of the club, the demands of the fans, and lacked the personality to carry us forwards. I'm afraid Leo Jardim is similar. He is quiet and studious. He speaks in hushed tones in his press conferences. He does not get angry. So, that is worry. But ultimately, this is a great coach, who has achieved great things, and surely is the man we need. He fits the Brands profile, the squad we have should fit his way of playing, and he needs to really only sign a centre back (which we need anyway) and then to sign a top class defensive midfielder to be our Fabinho in his preferred 442 formation.
