FANS MAKE A STATEMENT

The fans at Negeri were so furious about what happened with Andrew and Joel, they actually cut a water buffalo head off and planted it on the door of the club’s football office!

The head of a water buffalo!! 

Imagine going to work and seeing that in the A-League!

The fun and games of politics in football in Malaysia.

TAYLOR'S FAN FAUX PAUS

On a lighter note! Taylor Regan was captain of the club at the time, and hugely popular.

He went to the fans after a game following the Nabbout and Chianese sacking and started singing with them, chanting and clapping his hands over his head.

The fans loved it.

What Taylor didn’t know was the fans were chanting to get rid of the committee.

“Reegs” didn’t know what was going on.

Our team manager could see what was happening and mortified, sprinted over to get him out of there!

Taylor had no idea…

QUIET BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH EL PRESIDENTE

I worked with the AFC in the coach education department.

The President of AFC at the time, Mohamed Bin Hamman, would often come to the office. This was before all the FIFA allegations surfaced.

And if it was your birthday you got to sit with the President, have your cake and have lunch with the President.

It was his way of appreciating what you did.

Of course, you weren’t allowed to speak to the President.

You just sat there and ate in silence.

He was a powerful man and he did a lot of good things for AFC.

But interesting times were soon to follow in the AFC.

SPY GAMES IN NAM

Soon after Tonga, I was offered Fiji National team and agreed to terms. But the day before I was to fly, I rang and said ‘sorry not coming’. I was not ready to step back into coaching.

Fortunately, an opportunity in Vietnam came up (Andy Harper actually made contact with Da Nang City FC for me).

I was offered Director of Youth Development. And with two young kids and a willing wife, we were off on another adventure!

Almost three years in Vietnam. The wife loved the adventure, made great friends but only recently we found out we had spies - it was a communist country after all - move in across the road to spy on our movements!

I laugh when I read about this Leeds spy scandal. We actually had three years of it!

We loved Vietnam but from a football perspective, I needed something more.