After All That... Darren Bazeley Is The New All Whites Head Coach
Roughly nine months after Danny Hay’s tenure as All Whites coach ended, New Zealand Football have finally announced his replacement: former assistant and interim coach Darren Bazeley. Nine months of speculation and intrigue, of deceit and rejection, of chaos and despair... and in the end they’ve fallen back upon a bloke they could have right from the very beginning.
That wild journey wasn’t in vain though. Nine months ago if they’d come out and announced Darren Bazeley as the instant successor there would’ve been carnage in the comments sections. Nowadays the reaction has been more like a shrug of relief. First choice option? Clearly not. But at least the farce is over and after what we’ve had to deal with during this shambles of a recruitment process, from the way that Danny Hay left to the John Herdman fiasco to NZ Football’s baffling response to a couple of actually quite encouraging tours with Bazeley as interim... taking the safe and conservative option suddenly doesn’t feel like such an issue.
Bazeley has been appointed as the permanent head coach of the All Whites through until the 2026 World Cup. Along with that he also has U23 Olympic Team coaching duties leading into the Paris 2024 games. Having initially moved to Aotearoa as an import player for the New Zealand Knights back in the day, he’s stuck around and notched up plenty of coaching experience with NZ Football ever since. Lots of age grade stuff as well as being an assistant to two separate All Whites coaches (Anthony Hudson and Danny Hay).
He did briefly leave to follow Hudson to Colorado Rapids but was soon back. Bazeley recently took charge of the U20 men’s team at their World Cup, guiding them into the knockouts for the fourth consecutive time – with Baze having been head coach in three of those (although the most impressive team was Des Buckingham’s Class of 2019). He’s 50 years old. Had a long career back in his native England with Watford, Wolves, and Walsall. And has already coached four All Whites games as interim boss.
That’s all the formal stuff out of the way with. Now we get to admit that there’s nothing particularly exciting going on here. Bazeley’s a solid company man without any experience as a head coach at this level, let alone a tantalising record of past successes. They didn’t pry him away from anyone else with a glamorous offer. He was literally just the guy they already had waiting, who was told he wouldn’t be getting the gig but then hung around as caretaker boss while the ‘preferred candidates’ dropped one by one around him until the job came back around.
Fair play to Baze because that’s exactly what Danny Hay did not do. Hay was reportedly upset about being asked to reapply (even though his team had missed qualification for the World Cup which was the main objective) so he chose to step away instead. He’d probably have ended up getting his job back had he shown the same humble patience of Darren Bazeley... then again he probably didn’t want to put his professional life on hold in the meantime. Sounds like NZF weren’t so chuffed with the working relationship (or lack thereof) that they had with Hay so perhaps this was best for all parties. It’s still a credit to Bazeley though. Clearly his steady hand as caretaker played a huge role in convincing the higher-ups that he can skipper a steady ship.
International football coaching isn’t like club football coaching. With internationals, you don’t actually want a high-concept tactician because there isn’t enough time to embed those ideas in training sessions. You get a couple days with the whole squad prior to international window games if you’re lucky. The task is way more about facilitating things. Keep everyone happy and put guys in the best spots to succeed, pretty much.
In that light there’s heaps to be positive about with Darren Bazeley. He clearly wasn’t the most exciting option among the candidates and no matter how “delighted” NZF may claim to be that they’ve landed “the right person to lead the team” after that “in-depth recruitment process”... we all know that he wasn’t the guy they really wanted. Okay, fine. But he’s the guy they’ve got and they could have done a whole lot worse.
Bazeley’s two tours as interim coach made one thing very clear: he’s a player-first manager. There’s a brilliant generation of young players in this All Whites group, with some great older stalwarts too, and Baze seems to be willing to work in a collaborative way with them. The formation they played against Sweden and Qatar was a direct example of that. Baze straight-up admitted that he let his players influence how he set things up.
The player empowerment stuff is all very trendy but it can get dangerous. There’s a real risk of unbalancing the squad if some guys think they have more influence than they should... yet that all depends on the characters in the leadership group, doesn’t it? The All Whites abandoned their last game in solidarity after an instance of racial abuse was let slide by the referee. These are good blokes with a variety of cultural backgrounds and club situations represented. This feels like a group we can trust. Don’t forget that the 2010 World Cup squad was apparently hugely player-driven too.
This is something that Darren Bazeley specifically alluded to in the press release...
“I’m excited to be named All Whites head coach and can’t wait to officially get started. I’m proud of the progress we have made as a team over the last four international matches, which is a result of real collaboration between the coaching team and playing group to play a style of football that everyone wants to see. I have known and coached many of the players in this group for a long time so it will be a real privilege to continue on the journey with them to develop football in New Zealand and leave a legacy for the next generation.”
That’s BazeBall for ya. It didn’t look so flash when they drew 0-0 with China in that first game but the response was really good in the 2-1 win that followed. They got beaten 4-1 by Sweden thanks to a six-minute lapse prior to half-time but were competitive against a much more fancied team for long stretches and were 1-0 up against Qatar and looking great when that one was called-off. The back three of the first China game didn’t work so they changed it – keep in mind that was a holdover from how Danny Hay had them operating late in his tenure, not something Baze cooked up himself. That’s some positive adaptability right there. To be fair his U20s team did have similar restraints at the recent World Cup so that’s something to learn from. Different scenario though... and they still made the knockouts.
This is one of those cases where perhaps the safe option is the right one. Bazeley’s had an impressive staff working alongside him in these couple windows with Simon Elliott, Rory Fallon, and Glen Moss all involved. Dunno if he’ll keep them around now that he’s permanent but you’d imagine that’s the plan. That’s a proper coaching staff. Not a dictator with servants but a trio of clever minds for Bazeley to continue his collaborations with (because there are some things that have to happen well above the playing group – like squad selections for example).
To their credit, NZ Football always prioritised a head coach who had tangible connections to Aotearoa. In the past there’s been an inferiority complex about these things as though we need to import someone to teach us how to play football. Look at the calibre of kiwi players these days and that’s a laughable sentiment. Bazeley is the most reliable company man of the top candidates but all of the known shortlisters had similar links. A national team should represent the nation that it represents... if that makes sense.
Coaches should be trying to summon a natural and reflective identity out of their team, not imposing their own ways upon them. Perhaps at the very highest level there’s enough money and talent to go chasing such mercenary elite coaches... but not for a country like Aotearoa. Also just quietly every single men’s World Cup winning team has been coached by a native citizen. From Alberto Suppici in 1930 to Lionel Scaloni in 2022. Same deal with the Women’s World Cup as long as you count Jill Ellis, who is a naturalised American citizen (Bazeley’s been an NZ citizen since 2015, if you’re wondering).
The biggest risk with Bazeley is that he proves to have been a solid assistant who got been promoted beyond his capabilities. That last two windows have helped ease most of that anxiety. Further tours will determine the rest of it – with the All Whites expected to play in both the October and November international windows (there are also Olympic qualifiers in August).
This article is definitely trying to keep an optimistic view on this appointment but nobody can predict the future and it may end up reading kinda silly down the line if this era turns sour. There are certainly a lot of doubters out there... but what we all need to ask ourselves is how much of that is because Bazeley himself is somehow underqualified and how much is because of the chaotic appointment process.
Bazeley was part of a five-man shortlist after all the applications were assessed. That list has never been revealed but it’s understood to have also included Des Buckingham, Ufuk Talay, John Herdman, and Scot Gemmill. The latter did play for the NZ Knights late in his career and currently coaches the Scotland U21s but kinda feels like the outsider in the group. Bazeley was the turtle who ended up winning the race ahead of the hares. The other three were the funky frontrunners.
Problem was: they all turned the job down for various reasons. Buckingham opted to re-sign with Mumbai City – or more accurately with City Football Group Ltd – to remain on that elevator to the top. Talay was initially told he wasn’t going to be hired and then withdrew his candidacy. Reading between the lines it sounded like he wanted to remain a club coach throughout whereas NZF quite rightfully preferred a full-time option. And then there was John Herdman.
Herdman was the preferred candidate. Reports in February suggested that he was about to leave Canada Soccer to take up this All Whites gig and that it would’ve already been sorted had it not been for a pressing family issue. The day after those reports old mate Herdman put out a statement through Canada Soccer reaffirming his commitment to them in emphatic terms. Yet, bafflingly, NZF continued to suggest that they were in productive communication with their unnamed (but well-known) preferred candidate.
One way or another, Herdman was playing games. He was either using NZF as a bargaining tool to get better resources out of Canada or he was stalling for time with the statement whilst secretly still coveting that NZ offer. Dunno what to make of that. Don’t really have to make anything of it now that it’s no longer our business.
This guy made sense as the top candidate. He’s done wonders with Canada, taking them from not so far ahead of the All Whites in the FIFA rankings to becoming a genuine force in CONCACAF and competing at a first World Cup for 36 years (although they did somewhat underperform when they got there – not helped by Herdman stirring up some beef with the entire nation of Croatia). He’s got strong links to Aotearoa going back to when he coached the Football Ferns, while his son was one of the star players for the Bazeley-coached U20s at that recent World Cup. Plus despite being personally well set with Canada, the ongoing carnage in the boardroom and financial wreck of Canada Soccer maybe wasn’t an environment he felt was going to continue to work for him.
You have to wonder if maybe he’s now regretting how this has all worked out because Herdman’s stature with Canada has gotten rather shaky lately. Despite co-hosting the Gold Cup they only barely made it out of the group stage after draws against Guadeloupe and Guatemala. They did beat Cuba in the last group game to advance but on form they’ll probably lose to the United States in the quarters.
Now that the results are turning, he’s facing criticism of being too loyal to his regulars to the point where he’s playing several of them out of position. His Canada team also doesn’t appear to be getting any better at dealing with direct attacks, particularly set pieces, with Herdman’s tactical inflexibility another aspect to this. Granted, the extensive administrative mess with Canadian footy is by far the biggest problem they’ve got to deal with. But yeah Herdman star’s ain’t shining as brightly as it was when he said this...
Sidenote: Qatar are competing in the Gold Cup as an invitation team fresh off their controversial clash with New Zealand. In fact the bloke at the centre of the racism accusations, Yusuf Abdurisag, put them into the lead in their first game against Haiti. They ended up losing that match 2-1 due to a goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Then in their next game they were leading against Honduras from the seventh minute right up until conceding an equaliser in the 90+6th minute. However they still made the knockouts because they beat a rotated Mexican side 1-0 in game three despite trailing on the xG counts by 2.27 to 0.05. Strange old campaign. They’ll face Panama in the knockouts.
That it took so long for New Zealand Football to figure this thing out was frustrating. That they got catfished by John Herdman was downright embarrassing (even if there may well have been other factors behind the scenes that we don’t know about). But we’re there now.
A new head coach has been announced, nine months after the last guy left and about seven months after they first planned to have a replacement locked-in by. That new head coach is Darren Bazeley. His task is to get the All Whites to the 2026 World Cup. He has the support of the most talented squad of players that Aotearoa has ever had... and also the convenience of the easiest pathway to a World Cup we’ve ever had. Onwards to glory.
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