Is Miller the right man to lift the grounded Jets?

Scott Miller's surprise appointment as Newcastle Jets coach is a gamble Football Federation Australia hopes will pay off.

Scott Miller is the league's youngest coach Source: Newcastle Jets

The troubled Jets are managed by FFA in the wake of the withdrawal of previous owner Nathan Tinkler's A-League licence.

Melbourne-born Miller, 33, signed a two-year contract with the club after leaving his role as under-21 coach at English Championship club Fulham, where he worked for nine years.

He will be the youngest coach to handle an A-League club.

Scott's appointment is seen by many as a gamble because, no matter how good or willing you are, nothing in football can beat experience, particularly when it comes to occupying the hot seat at a club that is fighting for its very survival.

All over the world the prime age of coaches at the biggest and most successful clubs is in the mid-40s to mid-60s.

Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Fabio Capello, Arsene Wenger, Carlo Ancelotti, Louis Van Gaal, Manuel Pellegrini and Rafael Benitez have been there and done that.

Relative newcomer Pep Guardiola was a clear exception to the rule.

Nothing against Miller but the logic or wisdom behind his selection must be questioned.

In Australia we sometimes tend to ignore our own coaches at an age when they come to full experience and maturity and when they do things in a smarter and more practical way than when they were younger.

That's why, generally speaking, coaches of this age group (mid-40s to mid-60s) are far more likely to be successful than their younger counterparts.

The vast majority of the 19 FIFA World Cup-winning coaches (Italy's Vittorio Pozzo won it twice) were over 45 years of age.

There are no shortcuts in life. Whether you are a builder, a teacher or a gym instructor the more experience you have the better you are at what you do. Football is no exception.

Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou spent years in the street of hard knocks and learning as he went along before becoming the senior national team coach.

There is another side to this argument, however.

Recent history teaches us that rookie coaches with no track record are not necessarily a recipe for disaster when given a top job.

Especially if they had the opportunity to closely observe the running of a foreign professional club either as an assistant coach to the senior team or head coach of the reserves or under-21s, as was the case with Miller.

Tony Popovic was almost in the same boat as Miller when he was named first Western Sydney Wanderers coach in 2011. Look how that story turned out!

After building a team from scratch, Popovic led the club to two successive A-League grand finals and to the AFC Champions League title in what has been described as one of the finest moments of Australian club football.

By the same token one could say that a coach with wider experience could have been able to halt the Wanderers' spectacular fall from grace after reaching the heights of Riyadh.

Yet who's to say that relatively unknown Miller won't make a fist of his appointment at Newcastle and grow into the job?

Some people, in any walks of life, just need a window of opportunity to show what they can do.

The FFA's decision to appoint Miller, upon the recommendation of Postecoglou, could backfire.

The job in Newcastle involves far more than finding a winning formula for a Jets team that has been grounded for too long.

It involves recreating the spirit within the club and among the community that reached its peak when Newcastle won the A-League in 2008.

The governing body has taken a risk, no doubt about that, by opting for Miller instead of several former A-League coaches who have plenty to offer but I hope it's a calculated risk especially for Newcastle Jets' sake.

I'm not game enough to accuse FFA of recklessness, irresponsibility or lack of foresight for giving a tough job to a rookie because Miller could well prove all the doubters wrong.

Time will tell if FFA is on the money with this Miller gamble.

It had better be. The governing body cannot afford to get this wrong.

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