Gary Stevens: from Tottenham to Thailand’s Premier League

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Gary Stevens: from Tottenham to Thailand’s Premier League

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http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... -tottenham

“There used to be a football club over there,” said Keith Burkinshaw famously as he left Spurs in 1984.

One wonders what the Yorkshireman would make of his former player Gary Stevens being put on gardening leave by Army United in May after just eight games of the Thai Premier League season and then, with the team in fourth, put out to pasture permanently.

Just a few nights in Bangkok and such shabby treatment by a club nicknamed “The Gentlemen” would have humbled many a hard man but Stevens, appointed after the end of the 2014 season, stayed positive, stuck around and sealed a new deal with Port FC the following month in June.

It may mean swapping a potential title challenge for a relegation dogfight but, when the bullet comes from the country’s military club, there’s not much you can do.

“I’ve got the letter here and the official reason was due to poor on-pitch performances,” Stevens says. “After five games we had won four and drawn one. We lost games six, seven and eight, won nine and 10 with a temporary coach and we were fourth in the league.

“I think starting so well raised expectations and you have three defeats and out here people think there is a reason why you win and there is a reason why you lose, but it happens. If we are top of the league after five games, it doesn’t mean we will be champions. If we lose three, it doesn’t mean we will be relegated. I told them that you have to take a longer-term view and not look at it game by game.”

United are not a traditional powerhouse. A ninth-placed finish in 2014, half of which was spent with the former Leicester City defender Matt Elliott at the helm, was about par for a team that never finished higher than fifth so there was no sense of impending doom in early May.

“I was in the office preparing for afternoon training on Thursday, a meeting was called and I was told face to face. They said that we are not firing you but we want you to go on holiday.”

Stevens showed his visiting sister the sights of Bangkok and then went to sit in the stands to watch United play wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “BOSS” across the chest.

While the signature on the official team-sheet seemed to belong to the 53-year-old, the selection of the team no longer did and soon after the departure was made the holiday became a permanent vacation.

Despite the marching orders from Army, Stevens did not desert Thailand. Instead he joined Port FC in June. “Out of what happened, the beneficiaries are the players at Port and myself. I improve the players and there will be happy players, happy fans and happy owners.”

At Port FC, the person in charge is Nualphan Lamsam, the manager of the women’s national team who did so much to bring about a first appearance at the Women’s World Cup in June.

Stevens speaks highly of “Madame Paeng” as the colourful figure is known. “I am no longer a hi-so,” she said earlier this year, disavowing her high-society credentials as she took control of a club that hails from Khlong Toei, the wrong side of the Bangkok tracks, and has something of a hooligan image.

Nothing like that was witnessed by Stevens so far in his first two games, both narrow 1-0 defeats, the second of which came at Army United 10 days ago where his name was chanted by the home fans. His first win came on Sunday, against relegation rivals TOT-CAT.

There is a long season ahead but if winning the first three games at his former club soon resulted in the sack, a couple of early losses may not be a bad thing especially as Stevens is confident he can take the team, currently four points clear of the drop zone after 13 games, up the table.

“We need to pick up points but we are looking upwards. I learnt a lot from Army United. You have to adapt and accept that things are different. If an Englishman comes to Thailand and say: ‘This is how we do things in England’, then you will soon realise that it doesn’t always work in Thailand.”

The English work, though. Peter Withe as well as Stevens’ 1986 World Cup team-mates Peter Reid and Bryan Robson are recent head coaches of the national team. It’s been harder for the former assistant at Sligo Rovers in Ireland and Gabala FC, with Tony Adams in Azerbaijan, to get opportunities back home and he believes that spending over a decade out in the real world after playing harmed his chances.

“I’ve applied for a number of positions in England. Some of them didn’t even give me the courtesy of a reply. A club in the second division will get 100 applicants so the odds are against everyone. The problem is all the people who appoint the managers in England want someone who has done the rounds so they can say ‘he had some success at Burnley’ or ‘he did a really good job at Crewe’. They just want to justify their decisions if and when it goes wrong … but if I can’t get a job in England, then I will go somewhere else.”

And so he went from England to Thailand but an increasing number are going the other way. Fans at Sheffield United, Reading and Leicester City are getting a close look at how Thai owners operate. Such businessmen see investing in the English game, one that is so popular in south-east Asia, as a cool thing to do.

Pavin Bhirombhakdi is the president of Bangkok Glass, currently challenging for the title. “It’s about having a ready-made team,” he said, overlooking the tidy Leo Stadium. “To do so in Thailand takes so much time but for people with the money, they can get involved in English football almost immediately.” It is something that the young English-educated tycoon, who has received plenty of invitations from English clubs, may consider in the future.

With teams such as Bangkok Glass and Bangkok United getting tastier on the pitch and pushing the powerhouses such as Buriram United and Muangthong United, football is improving. The national team won the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup, south-east Asia’s regional trophy, and, with six points from two games, is on course for a place in the final round of qualification for the 2018 World Cup. The Under-23s won the SEA Games in June and Thai clubs are starting to make an impact in the Asian Champions League with their best players starting to catch the attention of European clubs.

That is not on the agenda of Gary Stevens just yet. After a tricky introduction to the beautiful game in the Land of Smiles, the Englishman is simply enjoying himself.
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Re: Gary Stevens: from Tottenham to Thailand’s Premier League

Post by caller »

dozer wrote:With teams such as Bangkok Glass and Bangkok United getting tastier on the pitch and pushing the powerhouses such as Buriram United and Muangthong United, football is improving.
Interesting article. Politics and patronage play their part in Thai football as they do in many other aspects of life here. And whilst Thai football might be improving, it still has a hell of a long way to go. On saying that, I'll be looking forward to a good game on Saturday, supporting Korat Swat Cats against one of those 'powerhouses', Buriram United. It'll be packed, well over 20,000 expected.
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