Why Marie-Louise Eta deserves her historic moment at Union Berlin

If you thought the government’s newly-appointed “commonsense tsar”, Esther McVey, had a job on her hands in the UK, wait until she hears about what is happening in Germany. Union Berlin have only gone and appointed Marie-Louise Eta, a real-life woman, as their new assistant coach, in the latest act of wokery to hit football. The 32-year-old is the new assistant to Marco Grote on an interim basis, and will be the first female coach to appear on a Bundesliga bench.

Eta has arrived right on time in the backroom staff after Urs Fischer was sacked, simply for being a man – or possibly because Union are bottom of the Bundesliga with six points from 11 matches, and already out of their first-ever Big Cup campaign. Either way, this appointment could spell the end for Proper Football Men, and McVey should move fast to ensure Big Sam, Big Mick and Average Height Neil are not denied further years of mediocrity by the bloomin’ wokerati.

Union’s new hire won the Frauen-Bundesliga three times, and a Women’s Big Cup, with Turbine Potsdam, before retiring from playing aged 26 to focus on becoming a coach. Does that qualify her to get the best out of Brenden Aaronson and David Datro Fofana? Can a Uefa Pro Licence and six years’ experience of coaching in youth football, including three different age groups for the German women’s national team, really prepare a person for the challenge of facing Augsburg at home? Yeah, it probably does.

“It is not a conscious decision to have a woman as an assistant coach. For me, she is a trained football teacher,” the Union president, Dirk Zingler, said on Thursday. Still, the news has made international headlines, with the Bundesliga’s website claiming Eta has “broken the grass ceiling” – a phrase that sort of sounds clever at first but actually doesn’t make sense, but that is for another edition of Football Daily.

Eta, who told Kicker last December of her ambition to be an assistant coach in the men’s leagues, is a pioneer – someone that has worked for these moments since leaving home aged 13 to attend a sports boarding school and chase her football dream. Those 19 years of hard work have seemingly paid off. Giving responsibility to someone that is highly qualified and experienced? It’s such a crazy idea, it might just work.

Join Scott Murray for Georgia 0-2 Scotland as Steve Clarke’s side, long since on the plane to Euro 2024, aim for top spot in their group. Kick-off is at 5pm GMT.

“I think Paolo Maldini said something like: ‘If you have to make a tackle, you weren’t in the right position in the first place. If a defender can go in a game and seem to be doing absolutely nothing, then he is doing absolutely everything right” – Marc Guéhi on how he hopes to be an invisible asset for England at Euro 2024.

“Re: Stephen Boxer’s dispatch from Buenos Aires [yesterday’s Letters] Football Daily is honoured to have a famous actor among its readers – but I was most impressed by the fact he managed to buy the Pink’Un in South America” – John Myles.

“Seeing Big Ron and the WBA players returning from China [Memory Lane, full email version] reminded me of John Trewick’s verdict on the Great Wall: ‘if you’ve seen one wall, you’ve seen them all’” – Alan Butler.

“Manchester United are getting a new chief suit called Patrick Stewart? Are they hoping he can turn around their Enterprise? He’ll have his work cut out to make it so” – Darren Leathley.

“I never watch reality TV, but this time I might just make an exception; the prospect of watching Nigel F*rage in the jungle has truly great appeal; for once, we can see the b0llocks going into his gob rather than coming out of it” – Simon Gill.

“Re: watching football abroad [Dailies passim]. In 2010 I was in Timisoara, watching my first live football match. The hosts were playing Manchester City in a Big Vase qualifier. When Mario Ballotelli scored the winner, I had the sense not to celebrate, surrounded as I was by 40 drunk, well-built Romanians” – Krishna Moorthy.

“It was great to see the FA Cup spirit alive and well in Charlton’s replay last night, as the Addicks printed the match tickets for their non-league opponents who had never previously had the need for paper tickets. The irony being that their opposition were Cray Valley (Paper Mills) who one would have thought were uniquely suited to this task. Aside from Wolverhampton Wanderers (stationary at Molineux since 1889), are there any other examples of inappropriately named teams?” – Keiron Fulop.

Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Keiron Fulop, who gets a copy of United with Dad by Simon Lloyd, published by Pitch Publishing. Visit their brilliant football book store here.

Marc Overmars has been suspended from working in Dutch football for one year after admitting to sending inappropriate messages to female colleagues. Overmars resigned from his sports director role at Ajax last year and issued an apology before taking up a new role in Belgium with Royal Antwerp.

Emma Hayes was in a proper funk after Chelsea’s 2-2 draw at Real Madrid in Women’s Big Cup, complaining about a penalty award for the home side’s second goal and a contentiously disallowed late goal for her side. Chelsea had “been robbed of what should have been a 3-1 game”, Hayes roared.

Also on Wednesday night, Israel nabbed a 1-1 draw with Switzerland courtesy of Shon Weissman’s 88th-minute equaliser in their Euros qualifier. On Thursday, Australia put Bangladesh to the flamin’ sword 7-0 in their opening World Cup qualifying match.

Palestine responded to their coach’s wish to “raise our flag” by earning a point against Lebanon in Sharjah. Other Asian qualifying results included a 5-0 win for Japan over Myanmar and a comfortable South Korea romp against Singapore by the same score.

And Matthew Etherington is the new permanent manager of Colchester United after taking 10 points from four League Two games as interim head coach.

Have conditions for migrant workers in Qatar really improved, one year on from the Human Rights World Cup? Pete Pattinson investigates.

David Hytner looks at Cole Palmer’s self-assurance which has helped him make a quick transition from Manchester City hopeful to Chelsea and England contender.

Jonathan Liew, meanwhile, expects Palmer and Rico Lewis to be deployed by Gareth Southgate to try something new and necessary with England’s midfield.

MLS’s bloated playoff system has sapped the domestic season of momentum, laments Graham Ruthven.

And there might be a few people who don’t find this quiz on old football grounds thrilling, but we’re sure no Football Daily readers are among them – so give it a whirl.

Forty years ago today, Northern Ireland beat West Germany 1-0 in Hamburg to keep their hopes of qualifying for Euro ‘84 alive. Norman Whiteside’s winner meant West Germany had to beat Albania in their final game to go through on goal difference. The Norn Iron manager, Billy Bingham, spent the afternoon gardening rather than watching the game – which West Germany won 2-1, getting the winner with 10 minutes to play. If head-to-head results had been the tiebreaker back then, Bingham’s side – who also beat their illustrious opponents in Belfast – would have qualified.