Declan...
He thinks his way is the best way
He has had his successes and his failures.
Declan is just like any other football coach in the world in that respect.
In NZ, this goldfish bowl is quite tiny so he stands out as being noisy because he has had a couple of players go ok. Anywhere else in the world, no one would probably give him a second thought.
That probably says more about the lack of quality of our players our system produces in that the 1-2 he does produce, standout vs our national system would produce and what would happen in other countries
So you could say that with the players his academy has produce in recent years compared to what nzf system has produced his way is the best...
My point is (and this is a lot harsher than I intend but its more to illustrate the point)
Declan is a good coach I think on an NZ landscape so I take nothing away from that - but I also think take him out of NZ, and he is just another football coach. Tab Baldwin was great for the mens basketball team, but he was just another American basketball coach of no particular worth outside of NZ. Declan has had his success that is about as measurable as if I close my eyes and throw stones at a milk bottle 20m away, I will hit if I throw enough stones. The very fact that I will hit, does not make me an expert at hitting milk bottles with stones with my eyes close from 20m away. It means that every once in a while, I am going to have success. Declan has really only had 2 players hit the big time - Ryan Thomas and Tyler Boyd
To be able to call himself great I think he needs to learn to be flexible and play nice. Thats the only reasons why he doesn't work with NZF is his lack of flexibility, or he could most likely have been the technical director by now, and then how would our stock look? We would then all be at his feet calling him the saviour.
Consider that.