Ivan Vukomanovic joins the chorus

In my last post, I looked at the press conference where Jose Riga was unveiled as the new head coach of Standard Liege. The elephant in the room at that conference was Ivan Vukomanovic, clearly unhappy at his treatment. Since then, he's unsurprisingly refused the offer to stay on as a coach and now he's spoken out, joining the chorus of managers sacked by Roland Duchatelet. I can't see the whole interview, because it's behind a Belgian paywall, but here is what's relatively easily available from RTL Sport.

I was surprised when the management told me of their decision. I thought it was a joke. Even today, it sticks in my craw. If it had come after a series of defeats, if they had said I wasn't up to it ... but I'd got 13 points out of 15.

The Standard management had justified their decision by his lack of experience. He says

I had the experience of a well-travelled professional footballer, who'd won 5 titles and 3 cups. I have less experience as a coach but the management knew that when they gave me a contract for the rest of the season. Two questions: what experience do Bruno Venanzi [Vice-chairman] and Axel Lawarée [Sporting adviser] have in their roles?

The players, he said, "blew a gasket" when they heard about his dismissal.

They didn't understand the decision. We had worked well together. They did all they could to convince me to stay, but it just wasn't possible.

He talks about the offer to remain as a coach in the organisation.

The offer ... was purely made out of political correctness, to appease the players and the supporters. I could have been a hypocrite and accepted. Could have gone along with Jose Riga and done nothing but I'm not like that. I am someone who's straight and honest. So I decided to leave Standard.

Form your own opinion, of course, but I'll go with the only comment on the RTL site, which says that while Duchatelet is a good businessman, he's "un ignorant pathétique du football", which really doesn't need to be translated.