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Post by stellarboy on Nov 26, 2011 7:27:35 GMT 8
Hey, I brought back this thread up again. Glad to tell you that Coach Simon is finishing up his AFC "A" coaching license course in Manila, before returning to Indonesia next week. We're glad he's stepping up the game now.
So that's what he's doing in the Philippines. Source for the info? Here's his tweet a few days ago: @simcm7: ...in the Philippines pal, just finishing my A license. Be back in Tenggarong on Monday, dying to get back
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Post by stellarboy on Dec 7, 2011 8:49:44 GMT 8
Bringing back an old article about Simon McMenemy. (FYI: It's his birthday yesterday.) McMenemy hoping football can thrill the ManilansOctober 13, 2010 By Mark Lomas In the past two months, 32-year-old English coach Simon McMenemy has experienced an extraordinary footballing transition. Having left his position as assistant manager of non-league side Worthing in July, a chance conversation on Facebook with two players he used to coach saw him swapping the south coast of England for south east Asia, and the managerial hotseat of the Philippines national team. Six weeks into his first foray into international management, McMenemy has lofty ambitions. But he doesn't just dream of transforming the fortunes of the team that FIFA ranks as 165th in the world; his goal is to help facilitate the growth of football in the Philippines - with the view to helping the sport usurp basketball as the nation's favourite. What McMenemy lacks in international experience - though he can randomly boast a single international cap for Brunei, achieved as one of the nation's once-permitted two contracted foreigners - he makes up for in raw passion and a comprehensive knowledge of football development. Having enjoyed a brief period playing in the United States and Finland, a passion for coaching emerged and spells working with youngsters at Arsenal and Chelsea followed, before a six-year stint working on grassroots football with Brighton FC and then Nike. But among his more high-profile previous jobs, it was a role coaching the youth team of Burgess Hill Town in the Isthmian League - the eighth tier of English football - that paved the way for his eventual move to the Philippines. "I didn't see the [Philippines] job advertised," McMenemy tells ESPNsoccernet from the team hotel in Chinese Taipei, where they are playing an invitational tournament along with Hong Kong and Macau. "I worked with a couple of the Philippines players before - Simon and Paul Greatwich had played for me at Burgess Hill Town - and I was just chatting to them on Facebook about leaving Worthing,when they suggested I should apply for their national team job because their manager [Des Bupin] had just left to take up a role with India's Under-19s. "I told them I didn't think I would get it at my age because they would want someone more experienced. But I got a phone call five weeks later offering me the job and just ten days after that I was setting foot in Manila. I had ten days to reorganise my life and it's all been a bit of a whirlwind since then. I've got a fiancée in England who I'm supposed to be marrying next April, so I've been trying to sort all that out too. "What attracted me to the job was simply the chance to become a national team coach at the age of 32. I'm coaching in 72,000-seater stadiums and if we make it to the Suzuki Cup [South East Asia's pre-eminent football tournament] and play Thailand, the guy sitting on the other bench is Bryan Robson. The chance to do these things at my age is priceless. Usually you wait until you are 50 or 60 to be able to work at this level and take it as seriously as I am able to take it." To reach the Suzuki Cup and a potential date with the former Manchester United and England captain at the tournament in Vietnam in December, McMenemy must guide the Philippines past Laos, Cambodia and Timor Leste in a round robin qualification tournament starting on October 22. At his disposal are a mix of Filipino locals and half-Filipino players - drafted in from as far afield as England and Iceland. The undoubted star of the team is 23-year-old Chelsea academy graduate Phil Younghusband, who was released by the Blues in the summer after 14 years at the club. The Middlesex-born striker was top scorer for Chelsea's youth team in 2003-04 and 2004-05 and his prolific record for the national team, coupled with a chiselled set of features, has ensured he has quickly become one of the most recognisable faces in the Philippines. Type his name into YouTube and you can find a range of Younghusband's television appearances, from advertising sports drinks to crooning on reality show 'Celebrity Duets'. While McMenemy admits it is fantastic to have such a talented player at his disposal, he says that striking a balance between local players and those drafted in from abroad is his toughest job. "Some of the lads are on a different level to the others, which I guess it to be expected - especially in the case of Phil and his brother James who were given a superb grounding at Chelsea. It's very tough man-managing a situation whereby the locals know that, no matter how hard they work in training, they will be replaced when the foreign players come in. I'm working with one lad whose last experience was on Chelsea's training ground and then another lad who has just started playing football in the last three years but is sufficiently good enough to play football in the national team. Within the same squad of 20 players I've got to be creating coaching drills that everyone can handle and everyone can learn from. It's a real challenge. "There are other good players around Phil, too. We have a midfielder called Jason de Jong who plays in the Dutch second division [for BV Veendam] - he's no relation to Nigel, but plays in the same type of way, a midfield terrier. His team have got Ajax in the next round of the Dutch Cup so hopefully we can reap the benefits of that experience. There's also a 19-year-old German lad, Manny Ott, who plays in the German second division [for FC Ingolstadt 04 II]; he's coming in next week for the Suzuki Cup qualifiers - it's a team of locals and a sprinkling of half-Filipinos. "We are trying to create a scouting network within the European leagues and further afield. It's just about raising awareness that there is a national team looking for players to play. What tends to happen is that a story will come up [it is widely claimed that Phil Younghusband's call-up was down to tip-off from an avid Football Manager player] or we will actually get approached by players. We have just got a lad from Iceland involved, Ray Jonsson, who has been playing in the Premier League there for ten years. He is a very good player and was planning on coming out here on holiday, but got speaking to someone who said 'why don't you try out for the national team', so he got in touch and we've had him join up with us in time for the tournament. "I will speak to the English FA and a couple of agents I've worked with in the past just to keep their ear to the ground. Sometimes it's the case that the players can't play. Neil Etheridge is second-choice goalkeeper at Fulham and we haven't been able to get him out here because he's sitting on the bench for a Premier League club; unfortunately that has to take priority." A heavy American influence on life in the Philippines means that football has been playing second-fiddle to basketball as the country's No. 1 sport for many years, and though coaching the players remains his main priority right now, McMenemy believes he has a wider responsibility to help develop the sport in his newly-adopted country. "It is important that we record some victories and raise the profile of the national team in the country, then more players - both local and foreign-based - will want to get involved," says McMenemy, who at 32 is the youngest international manager in the world at present according to FIFA. "It can be a snowball effect but we are battling against basketball for the public's affection. Over the last two weeks we've been having discussions with the powers that be to implement a five-year development plan. A lot of it is based around decent coaches and that's something we can look to work on with coaching clinics and pushing coaching badges with the Asian Football Confederation. "We know that football does have a passionate grassroots following and it's a matter of time and as with everything in the Philippines there is lots of paperwork and politics to deal with. It's about getting over these obstacles and until they are hurdled, football over here will always be a sleeping giant. Filipinos aren't built for basketball, it's a physiological fact, and I think football really suits them better. There is so much potential over here for growth, it just needs someone to plan it out and I hope that I can be that person - hopefully if I can tie myself down to the three-year contract I've verbally agreed then I will be looking to work out how we can forward football in this country as a whole. "My view is that if you are going to get involved in football development you have to immerse yourself in it. You can't just do it half-heartedly from another country. If I'm just going to be a national team manager I can take my time, do some coaching with the national team and just take some time and go home or scout some players, just staying on the periphery. Or I can just dive in two-footed and get stuck into things over here - that is my intention." soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=831577&sec=global&root=global&cc=5901
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Post by c_d on Jan 9, 2012 23:14:35 GMT 8
According to jakartacasual, there are rumors that Mitra Kukar will be evaluating coach Simon McMenemy's performance after only five games. Hopefully a UFL club can pick him up in case they let him go.
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Post by stellarboy on Feb 16, 2012 22:34:20 GMT 8
Simon McMenemy guests in talkSPORT radio in the UK! He is really motivated to be coaching teams in Southeast Asia, recently with Mitra Kukar, and shares his experiences while in the Borneo-based club. www.talksport.co.uk/radio/listen-again/episode/67921Click the link on the "1130-1200" mark.
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Post by dingodile5 on Feb 16, 2012 23:51:26 GMT 8
He is playing in the Illegal ISL. What if he stays there? Will he banned from coaching? Hope UFL could get him hehe
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Post by stellarboy on May 2, 2012 21:31:01 GMT 8
JUST IN: Simon McMenemy now coach of Arsenal Soccer School Indonesia!(Google translated) Simon McMenemy new SSI-Arsenal coachWednesday, 02 May 2012 09:28 AIS News The former coach of the Philippines, Simon McMenemy, was named head coach of the national SSI-Arsenal. Trust management to figure SSI-Arsenal McMenemy not because his performance brought the Philippine national team reached the highest achievement in the AFF Cup 2010. "In the hands of McMenemy, Philippines for the first time in the history of convening the taste tournament semifinals. Failure at a young age is a warning to the survival of the sport, including football. Statement Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger is embedded in the minds of Soccer School Indonesia (SSI) - Arsenal, "said President of SSI-Arsenal, Iman Arief, recently. Position of national head coach carried McMenemy, said Iman, a new position. SSI plans related to the post-Arsenal soccer school to expand the network. "In Jakarta, we already have four school football., We plan to build it again in Bandung, Semarang, and several potential cities in Indonesia," said Faith. McMenemy, a former coach of Indonesia Super League (ISL) Mitra Kukar, also a reason why he received the proposal SSI-Arsenal. According to British men, Indonesia has the potential to give birth to many great players, especially with such a vast area of Indonesia. "Indonesia has the potential to deliver many of the football stars. That could happen if coaching a young age are well managed. I was challenged with that, that's why I accepted the offer from SSI-Arsenal," said McMenemy. SSI-Arsenal have its main office is an institution directly to the management of Arsenal, a club that competed in the Premier League. www.id-arsenal.com/index.php/AIS-News/simon-mcmenemy-jadi-pelatih-ssi-arsenal.html
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Post by feindouno on Aug 3, 2012 20:03:36 GMT 8
Coach Simon, hilarious as usual ;D
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Post by stellarboy on Sept 5, 2012 14:14:17 GMT 8
In light news, Coach Simon was featured in the UI Fashion Week in Jakarta. He's got the swag, man! By the way, he has now more than 12,000 Twitter followers. Seems a well-followed one in that.
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Post by stellarboy on Oct 15, 2012 22:34:44 GMT 8
Up Close With: Simon McMenemy Part 1In the first of a new series of articles about Asian football's key movers and shakers, Simon McMenemy, former head coach of the Philippines, talks to ESPNSTAR.com.BACKGROUND Simon McMenemy: After learning his craft in England, Simon McMenemy found himself in the global spotlight when he guided the Philippines to the semi-final stage of the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup - Southeast Asia's premier competition for national teams. Since then, Simon has coached at club level in both Vietnam and Indonesia. In the first part of this article, we take a detailed look at this amiable Englishman's career before the 2010 Azkals sensation. First of all Simon, what have you been doing since you left your position as Philippines coach in early 2011?Once I left the Philippines I had a number of offers from clubs across Southeast Asia. After due consideration I decided to join V-League team Dong Tam Long An, from Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, having been promised that this prestigious club where trying to challenge for the title. This was not the case, a lack of funds and an already precarious league position meant that moving them forward was tough, As I found out I was the third coach (ultimately out of four) that they had during that one season. After leaving, I signed with Mitra Kukar in the Indonesian Super League. Things looked good upon arrival, with top players being added to the squad. This was the first time they had competed at this level and to make things harder, it was a totally new squad. I used contacts I had in the United Kingdom to bring Premier League striker Marcus Bent to Indonesia. Although his goal total was relatively low, we scored in all but one game, home and away, during the first half of the campaign. I thought we were playing well, developing as a team and ready to push into the top three in the second half of the season. Unfortunately fourth place was not enough for the management. I believe the thought was that with new ideas they may push on and win the league. The management also used my lack of Bahasa Indonesia as an excuse; this would prove to be a somewhat odd reason to give me when they then hired a Swede with zero command of the Indonesian language. Mitra went on to finish ninth. I don't hold any grudges, decisions like this happen. I enjoyed my time at Mitra and wish them and their amazing fans well. I have since been working for SSI Arsenal based in Jakarta, trying to improve their operation coaching young players across Indonesia, while always keeping the eye out for a new club. Are you missing the day-to-day involvement?100% yes. Once you experience the day-to-day involvement that comes with running a football club, it is very difficult to forget. You have to deal with the constant pressure of simply doing the right thing. Did I choose the right team? Did we do enough in training today? Are the boys ready for Saturday? Have we got the right tactics? Have we done the right preparation? If you are professional about your work then I don't believe there is a coach or manager out there that goes home and totally switches off. During my time with the Philippines, I wouldn't sleep a wink during the night before (Are we ready?) and the night after (What could we have done better?) every single game we played. As much as it is pressure, you learn to live with it, and - as I found - thrive off the excitement. I would watch games from around the world on television and compare random team's tactics to those we had been employing. My head was constantly in the game. As much as that self-imposed pressure becomes a weight that you learn to carry, when that weight is not there - rather ironically - you miss it. How eager are you to get back into full-time coaching?I travelled halfway around the world, left all my friends and family, convinced my unbelievably supportive wife to give up her lucrative job and rode the ups and downs of the rollercoaster that is Southeast Asian football to be a full time professional football coach. For me, it's the dream job. I played to a decent standard but never at an elite level. My only way to be a professional in football was to coach and at 16 I started at the very bottom. Many coaches get a helping hand in landing their first position due to the fact that they played 500 games for a known professional club and go on to a career of coaching that was only ever seen as a second option due to their "career ending injury" or simply being too old to play. I didn't have the luxury of having a long professional career. When I started at the bottom I was coaching five-seven year olds at a local primary school. I believe that this is what makes me more motivated to succeed than coaches who have seen coaching as a second option after playing. I don't believe for a second that just because you have played, you know more about the game than someone who has not played at an elite level. As we are starting to see, there are those that understand the game without having played to a high standard themselves - Roy Hodgson, (current England manager) Andre Villas Boas (Tottenham) or Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool) for example. I am not attempting to arrogantly compare myself with these guys; I am simply saying that I am highly motivated to prove myself every time I set foot on a training pitch against other coaches who do have those 500 games at a professional club on their Wikipedia page. Would you therefore, for example, be interested in coaching the Singapore national team, a role which we believe will become available in January?As far as the Singapore national team is concerned, needless to say I would love an opportunity to take the team on from the work that current coach Radojko (Raddy) Avramovic has achieved. I met him during the 2010 Suzuki Cup and his professionalism, especially compared to that of his Vietnamese counterpart, impressed me greatly. As with other national teams in Southeast Asia, there are always problems, but the opportunity to represent Singapore, to work with such a talented group of players and to follow on from a fantastic coach that I greatly respect would be nothing short of an honour. Talking of international roles, how much did you enjoy your time with the Philippines?In all honesty, it is very difficult to put it all into words. That job was the single greatest experience of my life. Representing a country is an amazingly inspiring position. Knowing that a nation is watching your every move is motivation enough to be the best you possibly can be. I was new to that level and yes, it was a huge learning curve but I treated it with the professionalism, effort and motivation that the position deserved. I applied simple knowledge and common sense to a subject that is often clouded in over thinking and 'tinkering'. I was responsible for all the coaching, the tactics, and the team selections. In terms of my responsibility, I believe I did my job better than anyone thought I could. I am not saying that 2010 was down to me. I am saying that I did my job to the best of my abilities - the players took over once the whistle blew. They are the heroes and I loved every second of watching them succeed. How did you come to land the job with the Azkals? Were you ever, at any point, overawed by the task that lay ahead of you?I think mainly it was being in the right place at the right time. I was on Facebook speaking to a player that I had worked with at a previous club who was also a member of the national team. He mentioned that the Philippines were looking for a coach and that I should throw my CV in and see what happens. I laughed it off but sent it in none the less. Five weeks later I got a phone call. A week later I was offered the job, 10 days on from that I upped sticks and moved to Manila. I think due to the hurried nature of my arrival and the schedule of upcoming games, I never really had the chance to sit down and think about the task I was about to start. Upon being met at the airport after a 16-hour flight, I was taken straight to training. That was a sign of the speed at which this preparation period would begin. I started coaching the squad 24 hours later. I do remember a moment of reflection as I was walking on the pitch in the Gelora Bung Karno stadium just before the start of the AFF Suzuki Cup semi-final first leg against Indonesia. 90,000 fans crammed into a cauldron of noise. I remember thinking back to how we had got here, what my friends were doing at home, and how I could do this for the rest of my life. The Philippines was certainly a sink or swim situation, fortunately I'd packed my water wings. www.espnstar.com/football/asian-football/news/detail/item873254/Up-Close-With-Simon-McMenemy-Part-1/
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Post by stellarboy on Oct 21, 2012 8:42:13 GMT 8
Up Close With: Simon McMenemy Part 2 The second part of ESPNSTAR.com's revealing interview with Simon McMenemy, former head coach of the Philippines. What were your immediate priorities both on and off the pitch when you took up your job as Philippines national team coach?After arriving in the Philippines, I was given the task of guiding the team through the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup qualifiers. There was no expectation mentioned. My aim was to have an effect on the team. After watching them in training it was obvious there was talent and effort. What was also obvious was their fitness. The squad was strong and fit, my job was to add to the quality of the football. Up until my arrival they had been trying to press teams high up the pitch and drive them into making mistakes. I continued using this tactic for the Long Teng Cup as a way of evaluating their ability to use it. It proved successful against the weaker teams, but the stronger teams were able to pass around us at will. I duly sat down with team captain Aly Borromeo and discussed what he believed some of the problems were. He mentioned the 'Locals v Fil-Foreigners' divide within the ranks. (Fil-Foreigners are not naturalized, they are players born abroad to a Filipino parent or parents). Breaking down this divide became one of my top priorities. I appointed two team captains, Aly to represent the Fil-Foreigners and Emilio 'Chieffy' Caligdong to represent the local players. The players who are regularly available for training are not always the players that end up playing the games. The Fil-Foreigners arrive in force before every competitive game. Dealing with that was problematic. As a team, we worked hard in training and any disputes were stamped out immediately. I purposely - and always humorously - made fun of established names in the squad, Aly will testify to that, so we all got used to laughing at each other. As a result, nobody was held in higher regard than anyone else. I tried to the best of my abilities to treat both Fil-Foreigners and locals with the same levels of attention and respect; any deviation from this approach was quickly brought to my attention by Chieffy. All of these efforts paid off. If you watch the highlights of the 2010 Suzuki Cup goal against Singapore, you can see the local based guys I had on the bench that day as they are warming up behind the goal. When we score. Mark Ferrer, a player who never played a second of that Suzuki Cup, is going crazy celebrating the goal. That, for me, sums up the efforts and the steps forward we had made as a team. Under your guidance, the Philippines shone at the 2010 Long Teng Cup in Chinese Taipei and then sensationally reached the Suzuki Cup semi-finals in the same year. Were you surprised at the success?The Long Teng Cup was very much preparation in terms of trying players and tactics. As it turned out we played well and all the players performed well when given their opportunity. The first game against Hong Kong was my first competitive game as head coach. We lost 4-2, but those who saw the game will testify that we could have beaten Hong Kong and were actually beaten because of a number of basic defensive mistakes. This and the semi-final against Indonesia were the only competitive games I lost while in charge of the Philippines national team. If you had told me at the end of the Long Teng Cup that we would go on to be Suzuki Cup semi-finalists I would have laughed - we were confident, but not crazy. The qualifiers in Laos were tough. Draws against Cambodia and Laos still did nothing to signify our oncoming success in the final stages. We were still using a pressing game and while it reaped dividends against Timor Leste (a 5-0 win) we held on for draws against the two more evenly matched teams, once scoring in the 94th minute to earn a point. We qualified on goal difference ahead of Cambodia. Going into the final stages we knew the teams were of a higher level. While the pressing game had worked to an extent, good players simply passed their way out of trouble. To continue with this tactic may well have been an attempt to play 'beautiful football' but it was also suicidal. We had to play to our strengths. We had to do things that we were good at. Work was done on the training field to change the tactic, with defensive duties being number one on the players' priority list. Defensive responsibility was key to the way we set up. Every player knew which part of the field was his responsibility and what his role was. We set teams a challenge of breaking us down. Our aim was to be tough to beat. We looked at 45 minutes at a time, never any further forward than that. Hard work, effort, responsibility, motivation, teamwork, communication and support gave us a united strength that - as it proved - few teams could match. While many in the squad were a little surprised when we achieved our goal of being tough to beat, everyone knew we had that sort of performance in us. We got stronger as the competition went on. Our belief grew. We believed that we were stronger than the other teams. Singapore's Daniel Bennett paid the team a huge compliment in the hotel lobby after our 1-1 draw in the opening game when he said: "We just don't play against teams like you guys, you will do well against Vietnam". I cannot speak highly enough of the collected team spirit that drove those players. Odds were overcome, obstacles were hurdled (a term I used a lot in the dressing room to identify problems within Philippines football) and history was written. Do you believe the Philippines could have reached the Suzuki Cup final if you had not been forced to play both legs in Indonesia?Maybe. Then again, if Neil Etheridge hadn't miss-kicked a long ball into the Laos penalty box in the 94th minute during the qualifiers, we wouldn't have had the opportunity in the first place. I'm not one for looking at the what ifs. If we had gone on to win the Suzuki Cup in 2010, would the positives that washed over football in the Philippines have been any different? For us, success was representing the country in the correct way in every game we played - win or lose. The players had got used to 'hurdling obstacles' in order to succeed, it was what we did. Playing our home game in Indonesia was met with a muted reaction. It was almost expected. Talk of Federations selling/buying the venue for the game were in the papers and on social media sites, this though was standard behaviour and did little to disturb the players. I for one was disappointed for the guys. Given the effort that had put in to reach that level, I would have given anything for them to have played in front of their home support, their families, their loved ones and their new found supporters. In fact, that is my one regret from my time with the Philippines, never being able to play a home game. I guess with this year's Suzuki Cup, losing in the semi-final two years ago does leave some room for improvement. In your opinion, has the Philippines national side developed since you left? What about Philippines football as a whole? Is that still on an upward curve?It's difficult for me to answer this, because while I have been watching the games, I don't know enough to give a fact based answer. Obviously when bringing players in of a higher level, performances are going to improve. Money has been invested to produce an international standard stadium which is a huge step forward. Should the Philippines reach the semi-finals again, they can finally play a home game. Results have been better and recent showings at the AFC Challenge Cup will have helped build confidence ahead of the Suzuki Cup. However, as in 2010, there is still a problem as regards which players will be available. With Neil Etheridge on loan at League 2 side Bristol Rovers, he is not likely to be released for the length of the tournament. Players like Stephan Schrock obviously make the team stronger given his ability and his experience in the German Bundesliga, but again, it is down to the club as to whether or not he will be able to join up with the squad. If a full strength squad is available, I believe the Philippines have a strong chance of once again being a major player at this year's tournament. Football in the Philippines in general has developed on a nationwide scale. The national league, the UFL, is improving every season with games now live on TV and stadiums filling for club games. Grassroots programmes are commencing around the country to provide more people than ever before an opportunity to play the game. Coaches are being educated to top levels; this was something I saw for myself when enrolling in an AFC A license course in Manila during November 2011. Nevertheless, the danger with such an upsurge in football's feel good factor is that it may lead to political intervention. As with Indonesia, the intervention of political bodies into football has led to an unprecedented situation with two national leagues, two Federations and two national teams. In order for football to continue to grow freely throughout the Philippines, it is crucial that any political interest is kept totally separate from the game and that footballing decisions are made by footballing people - not by businessmen, congressmen or politicians. This would give the Philippines the chance to not only catch other Southeast Asian nations, but actually overtake them. You have witnessed football throughout SE Asia. What do you make of the general standard? What should be done to make that standard even better?I think anyone who has been involved in Southeast Asian football could write a book on how to improve football in the region. As mentioned before, it's my humble belief that politics finds its way far too easily into Federations, leagues, and clubs. I believe that tougher policing of leagues by either the AFC or by FIFA would help restrict the political influence. On top of this, corruption in ASEAN football is rife and blatantly obvious. Little seems to be done to stamp out this cancer. Tougher sentences for individuals found to be messing with results, be that players, officials or club owners would surely make people think twice. Lifetime bans should be handed out to anyone found to be receiving or paying money to fix a result. Every coach has his own set of war stories, but I recently watched an Indonesian Super League game live in the stadium. The referee gave a stone wall penalty. The offending player then proceeded to punch and kick the referee. I challenge anyone of the 10,000 spectators in the stadium to say they didn't see anything. This player then went on to help put the referee in a headlock, before chasing him from the field at the final whistle. All of this with no yellow card, in fact with no penalty of any description. When I asked the match commissioner what he was going to do about the scenes that we had all witnessed, he replied: "Well, this is Indonesia." For me, that attitude is not enough, nor is it acceptable. Better refereeing standards may not alleviate this particular problem, but it would go some way to improving the standard of the league. The standard of play is high. Players are often very technical but have a lack of footballing knowledge. Decision making is a difficult skill for the average player to undertake due to this lack of knowledge. A better level of grassroots coaching and a nationwide pathway for young players to develop would be a great starting point. In my experience, many players get picked at a young age from a local team and put into a better team without any developmental coaching. Once they reach the professional game there is a hole in their knowledge and bad habits have been picked up. Pathways and structure are key to any young player learning. This sort of structure must be implemented by development specialists from within national Federations. Of course I am talking ideals. There are a multitude of reasons why things don't run as smoothly as we would want. But I remain convinced that efforts must be made at grassroots level to prepare pathways for talented young players to learn and develop. And that is not particular to one country - that includes the whole ASEAN region. Finally, what would you like the future to hold for Simon McMenemy?I am tied to this game both mentally and physically. When I'm not talking about football, I'm playing it with friends. It has given me some fantastic and life changing experiences. It has allowed me to travel to numerous countries and meet some amazing people. I am keen to get back into the day to day involvement and would ultimately like to, once again, have a nation standing behind me as the head of a national team. I am still not sure if I can see myself one day working in the world's top leagues such as the Premier League or Spain's La Liga. What's certain is that having an opportunity to make a difference is more attractive.Southeast Asia, for all its faults, does have a huge amount of potential to produce great players and great teams. If I can in someway contribute to that then I would consider that success. God willing. www.espnstar.com/football/asian-football/news/detail/item874920/Up-Close-With-Simon-McMenemy-Part-2/
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Post by xyz1000 on Oct 25, 2012 6:29:55 GMT 8
Good reading. He's definitely a class act. Articulate and clear.
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Post by stellarboy on May 7, 2013 15:33:42 GMT 8
Simon has returned to his home in England to take a rest since he left ISL club Pelita Bandung Raya in late March.
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Post by stellarboy on May 7, 2013 15:35:08 GMT 8
@simcm7: Trailer for my film about SE Asian football.... will be out soon, Philippines, Mitra Kukar, PBR all feature
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Post by stellarboy on Aug 12, 2013 11:55:27 GMT 8
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Post by leoisiah on Aug 12, 2013 12:11:48 GMT 8
Ngayon ko lang nalaman na naglaro siya for Brunei national team? When was this?
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