Rudi Garcia and the Belgium national team have gone their separate ways after the end of the World Cup, and we need to talk about Rudi because, genuinely, I don’t think his last three jobs have been particularly impressive, and he never seems to bring any real stability. Those last three jobs were at Al Nassr, Napoli and now the Belgium national team.
With Al Nassr, it was a season of work, with the most relevant period beginning after Cristiano’s arrival, and, honestly, it was poor. That Al Nassr side wasn’t particularly strong. In fact, compared to the current one, it was much weaker, but so were their rivals, including Al Hilal. My biggest criticism is the excessive reliance on, or the amount of freedom given to, Talisca, although I can understand why. The Ronaldo-Talisca partnership always felt forced, and both wanted to be the main goalscorer. Talisca never changed that mentality, and that has to fall on Rudi Garcia as well. So, at Al Nassr, it was a poor job.
At Napoli, during the 2023/24 season, he was sacked after five months because, once again, he couldn’t find any consistency. Naturally, Napoli wanted to defend the league title they had won the previous season, but Rudi Garcia left them around fourth place, already with little realistic hope of competing for anything. Napoli’s performances declined even further after he left, but that doesn’t mean Rudi did a good job.
Then we get to the Belgium national team, which is no longer the Golden Generation. The players are getting older, and to be fair, he did produce some solid moments. At this World Cup that has just ended, the group stage was dreadful. At no point did he manage to build a consistently functioning attack. They still finished top of a fairly straightforward group, pulled off what felt like a miracle against Senegal, thrashed the USA, and then lost to Spain, although they were still the only team to score against Spain throughout the tournament.
That inconsistency is always there. You simply can’t look at Rudi Garcia and see a top-level manager who guarantees trophies and sustained success.
Conclusion
His last three jobs have, overall, been more negative than positive. He still has enough quality to remain in demand, but any top club that appoints him has to understand one thing: it is very unlikely to get stability and consistency at the highest level.