Interview: "There's no set target in finishing the league" - Bengaluru FC coach Ashley Westwood

New Bengaluru FC coach Ashley Westwood at a training session.

The 2013/14 season of the I-League will be eagerly awaited by football fans in Bangalore as it sees the return of the city to the I-League, with the newly-launched Bengaluru FC. With India captain Sunil Chettri set to to captain the new side, and with top players like John Johnson and Robin Singh, much is expected from the new team.

The team also boasts former EPL player Ashley Westwood as coach. Ashley Westwood was a Manchester United Academy graduate and played for Crewe, Bradford City and Sheffield Wednesday amongst others. He was also had spells as manager at Kettering Town and as player-coach at Portsmouth. He was also assistant to Michael Appleton at Blackburn, Blackpool and Portsmouth.

Sportskeeda had the opportunity to exclusively interview coach Ashley Westwood about the challenges facing the newcomers, targets for the season, and more. Excerpts:

What’s the first thing you want to work out/address?

We just want to make sure we get organized and approach everything in a professional manner – coaching, discipline, punctuality, getting on time, eating the correct food and applying ourselves correctly in training and even outside of the club, on and off the field.

That’s the starting point really. Most clubs when you first walk in is to make sure, I say again, that we are professional, disciplined and we have a code of conduct where we respect each other. So, that’s the 3 keywords I said on the first day – professionalism, discipline and respect.

The same goes for the coaches – the coaches respecting the players and players respecting the coaches and staff and also the club and the companies (not sure) that have enabled us to be here as JSW.

How difficult a challenge is it going to be, considering that you’re starting from scratch and that you don’t really have a team and have it to build it from the beginning?

Well, you see, walking into any team or football club on day one, be it a new club or an existing club, is a challenge because you’ve got to try and get your message across and challenge yourself for everyone to abide by your methods. So, you know, for the players and coaches coming together and all being new, its a case of assessing each other out and applying your philosophy and style.

You’re immune to relegation. Do you think that’s going to give you an added bit of security to go on and build the team in years to come?

It may do from a company’s perspective, but certainly from a personal and a coach’s perspective, you set your standards and you try and reach them. So whether you’re immune to relegation or not, you still have a certain level of pride and professionalism that you want to reach so, I don’t really think that, I’ve never seen that as a bonus from a personal point of view, because it doesn’t matter as I have set my standards anyway.

So what’s the target and what kind of finish are you looking at? Top 5/top 8/top 10?

There’s no set target as in where we finish the league. It’s just professional targets, pride targets and just a case of educating and knowing that as long as we progress and are improving from a daily, weekly, monthly basis, that’s what we’re looking for.

We’ve been in for a week now, we’ve trained for a week and we’ve certainly improved in this week. We’ve improved our fitness, we’ve improved our professionalism, we’re leaving quietly, we’re coming in on time, nobody’s late. It’s very professional and being run very organized at the minute. Certainly from Day 1 to Day 5, we’ve had an improvement and we want to keep that going through the season.

So far, on the AIFF calendar, the first tournament is going to be the Federation Cup, which is sometime around Sep/Oct, as the AIFF keeps changing its schedule. Is that going to be the first tournament for you or are you going to be playing any friendlies before that?

Yeah, we’re trying to get a few friendlies. We’d like 5 to 7 games before we start, possibly. In a way you’d approach the first game, where you try to get every player about 45 minutes a game,and then there’s a gradual build up to the week before the season ideally. Then there’s the last game before the season – the team that you think is going to be your first team, you try and get those boys 90 minutes. So, we’d like 5-7 progressive games, where we get a chance to assess everybody and build them for the start of the season around 22nd – 23rd September.

How much did you know about the I-league before you joined and what is your assessment of the other teams?

About 2-3 months before it came around, I started watching games, speaking to people and just trying to get a general overview of everything that’s in place. Now, we’ve got into training, we seem to be nicely organized and buying into what we want to do as a football club and as a coach and so far so good, no complaints. The boys have been first class this week, the way they’ve applied themselves, and if they can keep up these standards, I’m sure we’ll be OK.

You played for Manchester for 3 years and then you coached Blackburn for a couple of years, you could have had a lucrative career in Europe itself. What prompted you to come to India where the football scene is still developing and we’re ranked way below and the I-league is not a world class league?

Firstly, i’ve been assistant manager at 3 championship clubs in England. I’ve always really coached a team at a first class level. The reason i’ve come to India is to add a dimension to my coaching skills, have something that’s more of a different challenge to what i’ve faced earlier. As a coach, and my career, it can only improve me personally because i’d be doing something different than what i’d been doing in England. If i just continue to coach at one single leve, for the next 15 years, you’re fairly one-dimensional. So, to go seek new experiences can only broaden my horizon as a coach.

Every coach has a mantra. Some have attacking, some counter-attacking and some defensive. What’s going to be your mantra?

Basically, just a general mix of everything. We’ll play good football, won’t be long balls, we’ll play football in the right way. WE’ll be fit and organized and we’ll have a general attacking style as well as work very hard off the ball. Just a general bit of everything really.

Talking about strikers, JSW have signed India’s No.1 striker in Sunil Chetri, how has it been working with him? How would you rate him as compared to the strikers in England?

He’s a good player, he’s technically very good. Like i say, we haven’t seen lots of him in a football capacity at the minute. He brings a good professionalism to the game and the dressing room. Good on and off the field, seems to be a leader, seems to lead by example. So, as far as that’s concerned, he’s bang in line with the professional from an English club.

What’s the average age of your team?

I would say, about 24 or 25. WE’ve got a few young lads, we havent got anyone above 30 apart from Jonny Minambra. We’ve got a good balance at the minute and we’ve got players who we can develop and bring through the system. Also, obviously, we’ll be setting up the youth side making sure to get the best players we can and we can try and incorporate a few of them. We’ve got a good range of everything at the moment.

When you compare British football, with Indian football, the major difference is the speed of the game, other than that what do you think is the difference?

I think it’s a bit unfair to compare the two. Everybody has their own style and football from their own nation. Maybe that could have been a fitness issue with the speed or a time everything which we’ll try to improve and make sure that we play at a good tempo and the right way.