Parrots in football

FCSB coach Elias Charalambous "found his voice" after almost three years spent in Romania, with his head bowed. The Cypriot came out on the attack, annoyed that he was criticized as harshly as the team's owner, George Becali, for the current champion's lack of results.

From the beginning of his term, he was placed in a zone of total irrelevance even by his employer, who publicly admitted that he establishes the starting team, makes the changes and decides who is still allowed to play. Under these conditions, Charalambous not only accepted the role, but legitimized it through silence. For years in a row, he did not protest, did not limit himself, did not disturb. He executed.

Theoretically, he has two championship titles on his CV at the helm of this team. In fact, his merits are being questioned even by his direct superiors, who have publicly reduced his duties to those of a physical trainer and a figurehead on the sidelines. From a technical-tactical point of view, it is impossible to build something as long as everything - including the game system - is decided by a boss who does not participate in training, but claims total control.

Treated with exaggerated goodwill by everyone - from journalists to colleagues in the guild and supporters - goodwill that most likely stemmed from a sense of compassion, Charalambous became irritated and went on the attack: "When you don't win, the parrots start jumping again. I don't care, you know me. They can say what they want. Elias is very strong and they can hit and sing what they want. I know who I am and I don't care what they say and what stories they invent every day".

Targeted are all those who turned a blind eye to the unnatural situation he accepted to put himself in, those who kept quiet, relativized and mimicked normality in a grotesque system, in which the coach is a decoration and the boss is the tactical brain. He claims that he is very strong, but it wouldn't hurt to try to be dignified, even if dignity comes at a cost - as far as he is concerned, not in the sense that he has to give, but in the sense that he wouldn't take as much. And that, it seems, is too high a price.

With experience in local football, including as a player, he is probably right when he talks about "parrots". It's just that, unfortunately for him, he is not looking in the right direction.