Hong Kong’s new football coach Ashley Westwood has 3 aims and a warning for players, staff
The Hong Kong men’s football team’s incoming coach Ashley Westwood said he saw vast scope to improve on predecessor Jorn Andersen’s “unfinished business”, and vowed to kick out anyone not up to the task.
Englishman Westwood, who was appointed last week, is taking a “back-seat role” for a tri-nations tournament in Fiji, in which Hong Kong face Solomon Islands on Thursday then the hosts on Sunday.
Assistant boss Wolfgang Luisser – placed in caretaker charge when Andersen quit for mainland Chinese club Yunnan Yukun in May – is leading the team for both games.
Westwood said he would “get rid” of players who did not reciprocate his work ethic, and was giving existing coaching staff a chance to impress but was willing to jettison those he felt were “not doing the job”.
The local football association has tasked Westwood with raising Hong Kong’s world ranking – presently a lowly 159 – and qualifying for the 2025 EAFF Championship and 2027 AFC Asian Cup finals.
“Football is about timing, and there is room for improvement here,” said Westwood, who led Afghanistan for nine months before taking the Hong Kong role. “You wouldn’t want to follow Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, for example.
“I am not disrespecting Jorn – he must have done a good job, because he received a good offer to go to the Chinese league.
“He probably feels he had unfinished business. If he was still here, he’d be aiming to keep improving, and that is now my job.”
Andersen led Hong Kong to their first major tournament since 1968, at January’s AFC Asian Cup finals, and reinvigorated a moribund team. Asked what improvement would entail, Westwood, who plans to chat to Andersen, said: “We have to move that ranking. Let’s get under 150, then start affecting it even more.
“We have to win games. After 10 matches, I want to have won 60, 70 or 80 per cent of them. I don’t want to be sitting here having won one out of 10.”
Hong Kong have only one victory from 11 matches, and will try for a first in eight when they face 141st-ranked Solomon Islands in the Fijian capital Suva on Thursday.
Westwood said he would scour the globe for Hong Kong-qualified players, but first attended local league matches last weekend.
“I didn’t go to any games and think, ‘Jesus, what is that?’” he said. “There is potential and ability.
“I expect players to do everything with 100 per cent effort. I will drive those standards to produce a culture of trust and honesty, where you get everything from me and I expect to get everything back. If I don’t see that, I’ll just get rid of people.”
The opening address to his players lasted only two minutes. “A pet hate of mine is managers who come in and speak for an hour about how good they are, their philosophy … then they don’t produce it,” he said.
“I told the players, ‘I’m not going to talk rubbish and tell you what I’m going to do; I’m going to show you.’
“[Incumbent coaches] have the same pressure as me. If I don’t do my job, I will be changed; if they don’t, they will be changed.”
He and his players endured a three-hour coach journey to their Suva hotel after landing at 4am on Tuesday.
Talking on Wednesday, striker Matt Orr said: “We are focusing on recovery and making sure our bodies are right. We will work on tactics today … we are here to win and really looking forward to the two games.”
https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3277192/hong-kongs-new-football-coach-ashley-westwood-has-3-aims-and-warning-players-staff