Osvaldo Ardiles - Management Career

Management Career

In July 1989, Ardiles moved into football management with second division Swindon Town when Lou Macari resigned to join West Ham in July 1989. He wowed fans by replacing the long ball style which had been so successful with a new "Samba style", which saw the Town playing attacking football. Part of this change was the new "diamond formation" which Ardiles implemented: a 4-4-2 style with left-sided, right-sided, attacking and defensive midfielders.

Ten months after he had joined, Ardiles led Swindon to their highest ever league position, finishing fourth in the second division. After beating Blackburn in the first leg of the play-off semi-final, the fans paid tribute with a tickertape reception in the second leg. Swindon went on to win promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history—beating Sunderland in the Play-Off Final—only to have the promotion taken from them ten days later, when the Football League demoted them for irregular payments to players.

The following season, Ardiles was told to sell to keep the club alive and Wembley hero Alan McLoughlin was the first big-money departure. With Swindon rocked by their pre-season troubles, their form deserted them. By the end of February, relegation threatened, and when Newcastle offered Ardiles the chance to become their new boss, he accepted, becoming the club's first foreign manager. But his time on Tyneside was not a success and he lasted 12 months in the job before being sacked, with the Magpies bottom of the second division, though they achieved safety under his successor Kevin Keegan.

In June 1992 Ardiles replaced Bobby Gould as manager of West Bromwich Albion, who had just missed out on the third division playoffs in 1991–92. At the end of the 1992–93 season, Ardiles guided Albion to victory over Port Vale in the Division Two playoff final. Shortly afterwards he walked out of the Hawthorns to return his former club Tottenham as manager, but his management spell was nowhere near as successful as his spell as a player. Tottenham finished 15th in the Premiership and despite the expensive acquisition of Jürgen Klinsmann, Ilie Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Popescu in the 1994 close season, Ardiles was sacked in October 1994 with Tottenham languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League. They had just been punished for financial irregularities committed during the late 1980s: with a 1-year FA Cup ban, £600,000 fine and 12 league points deducted. The punishment was later amended to a £1.5million fine and six points deducted but the FA Cup ban and points deduction were later quashed.

Ardiles became coach of Japanese side Yokohama F. Marinos in January 2000, but was sacked in June 2001 following a poor start to the season. From 2003 to 2005 he coached Tokyo Verdy 1969, with whom he won the 2004 Emperor's Cup. But in July 2005 he was fired after a nine game winless streak. In mid-2006 he moved to Israel to coach Beitar Jerusalem FC, from which he quit after only a few months in charge on 18 October 2006 due to severe differences of opinion with the club's board of directors. After a small break he was appointed Club Atlético Huracán manager in his native Argentina in September 2007, he steered the club to 7th in the table before resigning at the end of the Apertura 2007.

He joined Paraguayan club Cerro Porteño in May 2008 but was sacked in August of the same year after a string of poor results and was replaced by Pedro Troglio.