By Vince Rugari
Former Socceroos assistant Peter Cklamovski has quit his post as coach of J.League outfit Shimizu S-Pulse, bringing to a premature end a difficult first season in the job.
A long-time deputy to Ange Postecoglou, Cklamovski was handed his first head coaching opportunity by Shimizu after helping guide Yokohama F. Marinos to last year's Japanese title – joining an exclusive club of Aussie managers working in major foreign competitions.
Peter Cklamovski and his long-time mentor, Ange Postecoglou, after a match between Shimizu S-Pulse and Yokohama F. Marinos.Credit: Getty
The appointment also made him just the fourth Australian to have coached in Japan's top league after Eddie Thomson, Graham Arnold and Postecoglou, who he worked with at Greek side Panachaiki, Melbourne Victory and then the Socceroos.
But little has gone the 42-year-old's way, having guided S-Pulse to second-bottom on the table with just three wins from his 25 games in charge.
In a statement, Cklamovski said he had been evaluating his position at the club for months but said it felt like the "right moment" to walk away.
"I’ve given the club everything I’ve got and had no more to give," he said.
"I started the S-Pulse chapter with the club objective behind it to create an attacking brand of football that is possession based and not reactive, which it has been for over a decade. I made a significant impact to this and hopefully this is a base for club to move forward with.
Peter Cklamovski guided Shimizu S-Pulse to just three wins from his 26 games in charge.Credit: Getty
"Every decision I made this season was based on bringing a trophy to the club in 2021. We built strong foundations of football and we tried to take our game to opponents in every match we played.
"In the end, we fell short with results but the football style was evident, players gave it everything they had but we weren’t good enough in both boxes."
COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works for Cklamovski, who had coached just one J.League match before the season was put on hold for almost five months because of the pandemic.
Cklamovski had already been given a mandate to make sweeping changes but when Japanese football authorities opted not to enforce relegation this year because of the disruption caused by the coronavirus, he was freed up even further to put the building blocks in place for a Postecoglou-inspired tactical revolution, favouring aggressive attacking tactics and young players at every turn.
Despite their poor results, he was expected to at least see out the season. But sources familiar with the situation said Cklamovski had become frustrated with Shimizu's inactivity on the recruitment front - having not brought in any players during the last two transfer windows - and believed his vision for the future was no longer aligned with the club.
Faced with the prospect of a drastically reduced budget for next season and with no confidence the club would back him to make the changes he felt were necessary, Cklamovski sought a release from his contract, which was granted by S-Pulse on Sunday.
Shimizu had shown flashes of serious promise during Cklamovski's tenure - most notably in a thrilling 4-3 defeat to Postecoglou's Yokohama F. Marinos in August - but some supporters had grown increasingly restless over the course of the year as the losses piled up.
According to a Yahoo! Japan report, however, the team was given a standing ovation by the S-Pulse away fans who travelled to watch their scoreless draw with Kashiwa Reysol on Saturday - suggesting that at least some sections of the club's fanbase were prepared to give him more time.
Cklamovski is believed to be keen on seeking another opportunity in Japan rather than an immediate return to the A-League.
Meanwhile, Postecoglou's hopes of back-to-back championships are in tatters, with F. Marinos languishing in seventh spot on the J.League ladder - 24 points behind leaders Kawasaki Frontale, with five games left to play.
With the title race over, Yokohama will soon turn their attention to the AFC Champions League, which resumes next month in a hub in Qatar. Postecoglou's side is in Group H alongside Sydney FC, who they trounced 4-0 earlier this year.