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January 2005

The first column of the New Year, and hopefully a good year for all of us. After spending Christmas and New Year in England I must say I had a great time. As you know in England the football season is in full swing at Christmas and I was able to get to 4 games and two training sessions in 10 days! Not bad I thought though Lucy(my lovely wife) was not best pleased questioning my Christmas spirit! I was invited by both Arsene Wenger Arsenal and Martin Jol of Tottenham to watch training sessions and it is always good to see how things are being done by the top people in your profession. I also saw games from all levels of the game in England saving the best till last.
My first game was at Upton Park where I saw Westham take on Forest on Boxing day, it was then off to see Cambridge United get thrashed 5-2 at home after being 2-0 up against a very good Yeovil side who under Gary Johnson have done superb over the last few years. I have a great deal of respect for Gary who like me coached abroad and came back to England and has done extremely well. Following that it Millwall versus Rotherham in the Championship and finally the night before I left for Cyprus it was trip to Highbury as Arsenal took on Manchester City! A few thousand miles were clocked up but it was well worth it.

In India the AIFF decided that they would honour my contract and have asked me to stay until June. It is my understanding that they will decide what they would like to do re ending or renewing my contract sometime before that time. Of course I will have something to say about what my future is and I will decide my own fate. It must be said that the AIFF had been under a great deal of pressure to sack me by some quarters in Indian football who for reasons known only to themselves decided after three years of success and two bad results they could do better! The fact of the matter is they did not sack me when perhaps it was the easier option and for that I give them credit. I will always maintain however that if you look at what we have done in the past three years and the attention football in India has been given by the AFC and FIFA recently it is a direct result of what the National team have achieved in my time here.
The National league is in full swing and there have been some exciting games already. This year the AIFF have decided to relegate four teams from the twelve thus having ten teams for next season, and so every point is vital. I have been attending as many games as possible and the plan is to try and identify players who are under 23 and could help form part of the Asian Games team that will participate in Qatar in 2006.

So as we end the first month of 2005 I again would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who have emailed me over the last year with your best wishes and your questions. Wishing you all a healthy new year.

Stephen