Alberts says the FFA spoke to him about the Young Socceroo position before opting for Jan Versleijen in 2008. And he says a Dutch agency was in touch about the Perth Glory job three months ago.

So, who is Robert Alberts? He’s a former Ajax player although he was a fringe player during his three years at the Amsterdam club.

The 56-year-old has however won league championships in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and has coached in Sweden. Alberts also worked in South Korea’s youth development system in recent years working alongside Pim Verbeek.  

Last season he coached Indonesia's PSM Makassar after taking Arema Malang to a title the season prior. Now a free agent, he spoke with Aidan Ormond about his coaching philosophy, his links with Australia’s various Dutch coaches and the A-League’s growing reputation across the AFC.

First, I believe some feelers have already been put out by an A-League club? Does the A-League interest you and what do you know about the competition?

Yes the A-league does interest me. There is a Dutch football agency which has placed some players and coaches in Australia. They came to know about me and they asked if I would be interested in Perth.

According to this agency there could be a vacancy there. I replied that Perth would attract me as I like the environment. I also took the National Malaysian Youth teams there when I was Technical Director of Malaysia, and from what I know, they have been underachieving for some seasons now.

But more than that there is no further contact. Also I am not under a contract with that agency. As a matter of fact I have never worked with any agents. Jobs always come because people recognise my work and therefore I receive offers.

I am now looking at some options in the region, offers have come from some clubs in Malaysia, but I prefer to go to Australia as it’s a league in development.

Also, and I am proud of my record in the region. I have coached and won the league titles in three different countries: Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, as far as the records show not achieved by anyone else in Asia and therefore will be nice to achieve the same in a strong league outside south-east Asia.

Have you had any contact with the Dutch managers who've been/currently working in Australia such as Guus, Pim Verbeek, Rini Coolen and John van't Schip? What have they said about the league and football culture here?

I had contact with Pim when he was the national coach. We worked together in South Korea. I was the Director of Coaches in South Korea 2002-04. 

And also I had contact with the technical director Rob Baan who came to Malaysia to interview me for the Australian national U/20 position - but he preferred to work with Jan Versleijen as they worked in the Middle East together.

Therefore I have a little bit of knowledge about the league, although not in detail. But in Australia is always a strong sports culture and from what I can see, A-league on TV, it’s getting stronger as more awareness is now spreading in Australia and there are more and more people now interested in the game.  

Broadly speaking, what is your coaching philosophy?

Philosophy depends on what position you work in as a coach. Coaching senior teams means playing for points. The philosophy is simple, play attractive but simple football. Players are central, as individuals combine strength and perform as a team.

How to do that is different from team to team. At the same time there must always be individual player’s development. The player must feel he is getting better. But central is: play to win.

Coaching youth teams has a different philosophy. I worked as the national U/17 coach for South Korea, and it is a combination of different aspects. Players’ development is central, and winning must come at the right time. 

Players must be coached on the correct individual qualities. The team result is still secondary. However when you reach the final stages of world qualifying competitions winning must come central again. 

Also the philosophy depends on the culture and region you are at. As a coach you have to study and learn about what is the environment.

Are the players and club or association prepared for certain demands of the modern game? In my opinion that’s a key element in the sort of coaching philosophy that you implement in your coaching situation.

But central in my philosophy is always: players must understand their role in the team organisation, work always as one unit, in attack and defense, think out of the box, show your individual quality, always have width and depth and have attacking options once the ball is regained.

You've had success in Indonesia as a coach and now a number of Australian players are playing there. Your thoughts on Indonesian football, specifically the current situation of two leagues competing against each other?

I worked with players from Australia before, and must say that the majority always have been good ambassadors for football in Australia. The likes of Scott Ollerenshaw, Darren Stewart and one player that I took into my team in Singapore, Vlado Bozinovski, who is a great player and personality.

This season [2010] I took two players from Australia to my team PSM Makassar. Both have Serb origin but come from Australia in Srecko Mitrovic and Goran Subara.

Both players are very dedicated and truly professional. I am surprised that they play in Indonesia and not in the A-league as I feel they have great potential.

I think that many Australian players that are not making the cut in the A-league can consider Indonesia as this is a highly competitive environment.

But of course it’s having its own problems. We all know about the stories of corruption in the established ISL league. But until proven the game goes on.

The "rebel" league the Indonesian Premier League has started, but this is not sanctioned by the PSSI, therefore AFC can’t recognize it and obviously FIFA can also not approve this league.

In my opinion its better for all to just wait and see what solution can be reached in Indonesian football. There is a risk for players and officials in the LPI that FIFA can ban all, and at the moment it is all too uncertain what will happen.  

Indonesia’s wealthy Bakrie family are keen on investing in the A-League... how important are the family in Indonesia and is it a good thing they want to invest in the A-League?

From what I know, the Bakrie family has shown great interest in developing sports in the country not only football but also supporting individual sports personalities. Whether that is done from a political aspect, I could not comment on as my interest is only to see football develop.

If the Bakrie family sees an opportunity in the A-league I can only see that as a good sign: more development and more interest. And I think that the A-league is getting more popular as the Australian teams are doing well in the Asian Championships and that will help the national team(s) men and women and of course all national youth teams to play at a higher level.

What impression do Asian football people have of the A-League and Australian football in general?

Besides the results of the national senior teams, people in general are starting to look at the teams now competing in the Asian Championships.

But what is important in my opinion, is to observe the results in the various national youth teams. The strength of Australian football is to measure how the national U/17 and U/20 teams are doing.

The development of these teams will show the way the development is going. When the U/17 and U/20 teams are playing world youth qualifiers and are playing in the World Youth Cups than you have a real measurement of the quality of Australian football.