Six wins, one draw, and Slovan's first real test is Wednesday

Aug 18

3 min read

Six wins, one draw, four clean sheets, and a schedule of qualifying minnows. Celje is the first genuine test.

Yaya Touré has won six of seven. Look at who against.

Yaya Touré has won six of his first seven matches as Slovan Bratislava head coach, and not one of them has proved anything yet. Wednesday might. Slovan host Slovenian champions Celje at Tehelné pole at 21:00 in the first leg of a Champions League play-off, and it will be the first time in Touré's tenure that the opposition is roughly a peer. Everything before it has been a team Slovan were supposed to beat.

The record, and the opposition.

Start with the European ties, because they're the ones being cited. Touré's competitive debut was away at Iberia 1999 Tbilisi on 21 July, won 2–0 through Andraž Šporar and Alasana Yirajang. Sportnet's own pre-tie framing had Slovan fourth of the 28 clubs in that qualifying pool by coefficient and eighth by squad value — €37m against Iberia's €7m, twenty-second on the list. Slovan then drew the home leg 1–1. Their only dropped points under Touré came at home, against the €7m team, in front of 17,867. Round three was Mjällby AIF, Champions League qualifying debutants, Swedish champions for the first time last year, and — Sportnet's description, not mine — the sensation from a village of 1,500 people. Slovan won that 4–1 across the two legs and were comfortable. Then the league. Three wins, including a 4–0 demolition of Banská Bystrica, who were playing second-division football last season, and a weekend rout of Ružomberok in which three players scored their first Slovan goals. Six wins, one draw, four clean sheets. All of it accurate. None of it informative.

The Slovak press got there first, then let it go

Here's the part that should have made the English coverage think twice. On 28 July, Sportnet wrote that Slovan's start had gone unexpectedly well but shouldn't be overrated, that the Georgia leg could comfortably have finished level, and that the Banská Bystrica win came against a promoted side. That caution was published, then never followed up. The English-language version has run in the opposite direction. Sports Mole calls it a highly impressive start. Dailysports calls it convincing. beIN framed the Tbilisi first leg as a special night and a first major step. UEFA's own play-off preview mentions Touré only as a man who won this competition in 2009, which is true and tells you nothing about how he coaches. The Slovak Spectator, the one English outlet covering Slovan seriously, reported the Mjällby win, the guaranteed Europa League place and the minimum €4.3m from UEFA. Reported. Not weighed.

What Wednesday actually decides

Less than the framing suggests, in one direction. Slovan already have the Europa League league phase and the money banked whatever Celje do. The downside is fixed. What's not fixed is whether anyone learns anything about the coach. Celje got here scrappily, penalties past Egnatia after a 5–5 aggregate, then Ararat-Armenia 3–2 — and they're second in Slovenia behind Maribor. They are not good. They are, for the first time, roughly level. Slovan have cleared the third qualifying round once before in their history. Last year they lost it to Kajrat Almaty on penalties, and Róbert Mak spent the aftermath talking about pressure from inside and outside the club. That's the environment Touré walked into on a three-year deal with no head-coaching record behind him. So, dated and on the record, 18 August: the seven-game run is not evidence, and if Celje eliminate Slovan over the next nine days, the outlets currently calling it impressive will quietly stop and nobody will acknowledge the switch.

Ask me again on 27 August.