Interview with Arthur Papas (Dempo SC head coach)

33-year-old Australian Arthur Papas has been a revelation since he came to India a little over a year back to coach the AIFF Regional Academy, then coaching the India Under-22 national team in the AFC Under-22 Championship qualifiers, then the Pailan Arrows in the I-League and now joining one of India’s biggest clubs in Dempo SC. I spoke to him about his new job and much, much more.

Congratulations on the new job at Dempo SC. How have the first few weeks been for you?

The first few weeks have been a little interrupted. After spending only one afternoon meeting the players and staff, I was off to Mumbai to complete the first module of the AFC Pro License for three weeks. It wasn’t the ideal way to begin a new position but a necessary part from a professional perspective, as well as part of the club’s future process of gaining AFC criteria accreditation, that means that by 2017, all I-League head coaches will need to hold the AFC Pro License.

Since returning from the coaching license, I haven’t really stopped and there is as much work off the field taking place as there is on the field. This is all part of joining a new club with ambitious plans for the future.

Mr. Dempo spoke about a new era at Dempo Sports Club, besides rebuilding the first team he also spoke about creating a proper youth development system at the club. Was that the key reason for you to join the club?

It was one of many reasons for joining Dempo SC. However, most of my decision making process revolved around my meeting with our chairman Mr. Shrinivas Dempo, at this time he shared his vision about where he wanted the club to be in the long-term, it was in line with my vision on building a club rather than just a team and further professionalizing the day-to-day running of operations on and off the field, investing in youth through development of an academy, become more and more a club for the people and not to mention the most difficult part of all being the revitalising of the first team squad.

It’s a great honour to be in a position to work for Mr. Shrinivas Dempo, to lead the next chapter of this proud club and to work in tandem to achieve the goals we have earmarked.

You worked the last season with the Pailan Arrows, now you have shifted to Dempo. What are the biggest differences between these two set-ups?

The Arrows was a team operating in the I-League with the main objective supposedly being to develop talented youth Indian footballers, results were not the most important aspect hence I encouraged a very open, possession based game for the young players because by promoting them in this manner, it allowed them the optimal chance to develop technically and tactically. In saying this, we improved in all areas regarding results from the previous season, so it proved that this style of football was not only effective for the development of the players but also for results.

With Dempo SC, there is the need to find the balance between the style of football combined with the players characteristics in order to achieve positive results both short-term and long-term. In addition, Dempo is a genuine football club, which was not the case with the Arrows, this means we cannot only focus on a single first team match but must also keep an eye on the long-term sustainability and health of the club. This only improves when you start paying just as much attention to the youth and grassroots program, fan engagement and infrastructure in the areas of technical, medical and administration.

At the Arrows you worked with youngsters, no foreigners. Now you come to one of the biggest clubs in India. Is the pressure bigger on you for your team to perform?

In every aspect of this profession you always need to be performing, there are so many ways to analyse performance and myself and the chairman have outlined what the parameters to be judged upon are to be classified successful and they do not only revolve around winning the I-League. From a personal point of view, one of my goals is that by the time I depart this great club that we are in a much healthier position in all facets of what a club constitutes and have gained our AFC Club License which we are still far off in many areas but driven to achieve.

However, lets be clear that I am as hungry as ever to win every single day, I am the head coach of Dempo SC and it cannot be any other way, this is the challenge I accepted and relish, my players see this relentless drive every single day.

Are you happy with the squad you have at your disposal or are any more transfers intended?

In our current squad, I have been pleased with the players ability to embrace the changes to the training and tactical adjustments. This is not easy for them after such a long period of working under a different system but their intention and willingness to learn has been satisfying. I still feel we could be better balanced in certain positions as well as the maturation levels of our young players in comparison to our experienced players.

Also, our squad is a much smaller squad by numbers in comparison to the previous season, which makes it even more critical that we keep our players fit and healthy. This reduction in squad size was necessary from an economic sustainability point of view, and in my opinion logical, as I still can’t understand how teams in India operate with squads of 45 to 50 plus players, it is plain reckless. Over the next three years, we aim to reduce our annual budget even further but at the same time increase our depth of talented young players to draw upon.

In line with this long-term plan, we are already looking at identifying talented young players for 2014-15 and beyond to further compliment our experienced players, with an eye on a sustainable club model that begins investing more in other aspects of the infrastructure such as facilities and medical department.

You have a lot of talented Indian youngsters in your squad. How important was it besides them to get experience in through the foreigners Simon Colosimo and Billy Mehmet besides getting back Roberto Mendes Silva?

It is about finding the balance in all areas of management and squad building. Both Simon and Billy, I worked with or against in the A-League so they are not unknowns to me and come with a certain level of quality both football and personality wise. They were signed not only to add their individual quality on the field but also to help the culture of the club for the long-term as both individuals are good characters in the dressing room and positive influences around the young players.

For young players to improve, there are so many avenues in the development process, in this particular instance it is an expectation of mine that our experienced players both foreign and Indian display the correct behavioural attributes as professionals and mentor the young players.

As for Beto, he is an important signing because he is synonymous with a very successful period in the club’s history and last year was a catalyst for Churchill’s triumph. He brings a winning mentality, understands the I-League inexplicably and showed a real desperation to rejoin the club and after one conversation we made the decision that we were just as desperate to be reunited. He has a lot to offer our project.

We are still in pre-season, but what do you expect from your new team in the 2013/14 season?

It’s a case of the unknown in a sense because from having myself away for the first three weeks, rejoining and then a week later losing our four national team players for the next five weeks, as well as the late addition of Shinnosuke Honda, there are more questions than answers right now. I think the first time we will have our full squad and staff together will be four days prior to the first game of the season, not ideal but it becomes about the team that adapts and overcomes the best.

There is still a positive in all this and that has been that it has allowed us to test our depth immediately, expose some of our younger players and use the Goa League as a platform to the I-League.

In terms of expectations we have set internal goals about where we see ourselves this season and I am sure with the ability to keep our best team on the park, we will aim to improve on last year’s final position.