Finke holds nerve as press mob demands his head

SPECIAL REPORT: Cameroon's press are becoming hostile towards the German boss but he is sticking to his principles.

A few minutes after Cameroon had been eliminated from the World Cup by an embarrassing 4-0 capitulation against Croatia last June, coach Volker Finke sat down to talk to the media in the stadium in Manaus.

A Cameroonian journalist began by standing up and addressing Finke. “Coach, you picked the wrong players in the squad, you picked the wrong players in your starting team, you used the wrong tactics, you don’t know what you’re doing. Please, put us out of our misery and tell us, right here, right now that you resign.”

It happens all the time: the players let down their nation, and the coach gets the blame.

No matter that Alex Song had stupidly been sent off for an assault on Mario Mandzukic, that full-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto had come close to head-butting team-mate Benjamin Moukandjo during an argument in stoppage time. No matter that the team’s preparations had been interrupted by interminable arguments about players’ bonuses, and that they had arrived late at their training camp because of the disruption.

Amazingly, this time the players went, not the coach. Fifteen of the 23 in that World Cup squad have not played for Cameroon since. Samuel Eto’o has retired, Song has retired, Assou-Ekotto is a has-been. There is a new bonus system based on merit, a new team based on merit, and Finke is still there, rebuilding step by step.

The changes produced sensational results. Cameroon finished top of their qualification group, conceded only one goal in six games, and thrashed Ivory Coast 4-1. They face Ivory Coast again, in Malabo on Wednesday, with a good chance of reaching the quarter-finals of the Cup of Nations.

That is still not enough, though, for the Cameroon media – or at least that part of it that is anti-Finke. “We had the worst record of any team at the World Cup, we were 32nd of 32,” said Yospane Clobere of Diasporanews.

“You cannot finish last and keep your coach. For a while I was in favour of Finke, but now I think he should go. Stephane Mbia [the captain] picks the players, not Finke.

“The Cameroon federation has its favourites in the media, about 20 people, and everybody else wants Finke to go.” He said Puma, the Cameroon sponsors, had too big a say in team affairs.

Before the tournament, Finke said, “The situation after the World Cup was really hard. That's why I decided to make a cut and bring new players, younger players into the team. If you don’t use young players, your team will die.”

By the time Cameroon host the Cup of Nations in 2019 they will perhaps be favourites to win it. But not now, not so soon after such a cataclysmic overhaul.

“We are in a rebuilding stage,” said Mbia, one of the few senior players to have survived the post-World Cup cull. The captain, who plays at Sevilla, said he was “very, very confident” for the Ivory Coast game, but there was a note of caution.

“This 2015 tournament is very important for our country and for us players, but we are also here to prepare for the 2019 Afcon that will take place at home," he added.

"He [Finke] has been able to impose his decisions and discipline which will be our strength in the coming years. We are all pulling in the same direction. The fact that we are all prepared to work for each other shows what the mood within the squad is like."

The point was emphasised by Max Choupo-Moting, the Schalke forward and vice-captain to Mbia, when he said, “We came here to win, of course, but we are building a new team.”

In qualifying, defensive midfielder Mbia played in the back four alongside the continent’s most promising young central defender, Nicolas Nkoulou – though he is back in midfield here in Equatorial Guinea. Finke brought in new goalkeepers, too.

The results in qualifying raised expectations, perhaps too high. Finke tried to temper hopes after the 1-1 draw with Guinea – the fourth successive 1-1 scoreline in the tightest group of the tournament.

“I’m surprised you all say Cameroon are the favourites in Group D,” Finke told reporters. “Take a look at the Fifa rankings, for example. Guinea are three places ahead of us. We have many young players, we are going step by step. This is a work for the future, not just for now.

“This is a very difficult tournament. There are seven or eight teams capable of reaching the final.”

Finke has been one of Germany’s most respected coaches over the past two decades. He masterminded a famous 5-1 thrashing of Bayern Munich in 1994 by lowly Freiburg, the club where he spent 16 years. He also worked at Urawa Red Diamonds in Japan, at Koln, and has been with Cameroon since 2013.

Now 66, Finke appears to know exactly what he is doing. Many Cameroon journalists think they know better, not to mention the supporter at the Guinea game who kept holding aloft a banner that read ‘I am Samuel Eto’o, I am Alex Song’ and shouting “Finke non! Finke non!”

Finke has been shouted at in press conferences for not starting with Clinton Njie, the out-of-form Lyon striker. He gave a long, calm, considered reply about how he had helped to develop Njie as a striker, how young players reach new levels in stages, not all at once, and how he had not discarded him.

The German was also taken to task on tactics by another Cameroonian reporter who told him he should concentrate on winning corners and scoring from set-pieces.

“OK, you are obviously the best coach in the world, so we’ll play for corners,” said Finke. After the press conference he put his arm around the reporter to pose for a photograph.

If Finke is left in charge, the stability would surely help Cameroon, who have not won a trophy since 2002. But will it happen?

The final question in the press conference for the Ivory Coast game was just like the one in Manaus. “Coach, just about everybody in the press detests you,” said a reporter from a Cameroon television station. “If you don’t qualify, are you going to quit?”

His reply? “My only concern is the Ivory Coast game.”