Former Sheffield Wednesday and Bradford City centre-back Ashley Westwood talks to The Yorkshire Post's Stuart Rayner about his role as manager of Hong Kong and his future coaching ambitions
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00:00And working with Hong Kong, do you think it's a big advantage that you've sort of seen all levels of the game?
00:08You've seen the very best, but you can empathise with, you know, non-league players, for example,
00:13and maybe some of the issues that Hong Kong professionals would have,
00:19as opposed to, you know, someone at Manchester United or what have you?
00:22Yeah, I mean, obviously, I took over here, there were 1-5-9 in the world.
00:27That was actually the same, ironically, position Afghanistan was when I took over at Afghanistan, the 1-5-9.
00:34We got some good results and I managed to get to 1-5-1 within a 10-month period.
00:40And now again, Afghanistan now sit at 1-5-9 because they lost five since I've left, five on the trot.
00:46And we sit at 1-5-3, I'm tracing to overtake that 1-50 mark.
00:51So that's where we are in the world.
00:53I think there's 208 countries, 210 countries, you know, I believe Hong Kong are better than where they sat at 1-5-9, 1-60 when I took over.
01:02And there's a lot of improvement.
01:04But of course, you're not competing against the top 50 in the country, which means you're not competing against world-class players.
01:10There are good players, you can still have the same standards, you can still try and demand the same professionalism.
01:15But it does, you know, you hear stories of, you know, certain ex-pros that have only ever played at Premier League level and the takeover of managers and they can't fathom why somebody can't pass the ball from A to B.
01:27Because it's simple, so sometimes you can get a little bit obsessed with that.
01:32I try not to focus too much on the individual ability, although we are, we have got good individuals, we have got good players.
01:39I don't think anybody from my side would, you know, would be outside the non-league, if you like.
01:45You know, you look at the, you know, the conference now, if you like, or whatever it's called, and League 2, you know, they'd be OK at that standard, that level.
01:55You know, some of them could play higher.
01:56So the level's good.
01:58But of course, you know, you have all rays of players.
02:01And when you watch, you know, the Hong Kong Premier League, you know, I'm picking from the best Hong Kong players and some of them aren't up to the standard as the best ones.
02:10So it does make you appreciate the whole level and obviously does make you feel that you don't expect too much of them and trying to get them to things that they can't do.
02:18Excellent. And in terms of the way you see your career at the moment, I mean, sometimes there's sort of a lazy temptation with coaches working abroad to ask if they want to come back, if their ambition is to manage back in this country.
02:34Is that the case with you or are you sort of enjoying life out in Asia?
02:39No, I, you know, I'm an ambitious football coach, simple as that.
02:43I want to try and get to the top, you know, whichever way that may be.
02:47I know Arsene Wenger went through Asia and different avenues.
02:50You look at Graham Potter going through Scandinavia.
02:53Now, obviously, being English, everybody, you know, you have an affiliation, you have a passion to be at the top of the, you know, the English game, which I'm sure 80, 90% of coaches are, you know, the Premier League is the best league in the world for sure.
03:07Who knows if that's realistic or not?
03:09You know, all you can do in football is keep working hard, keep trying to get results and see what it may take.
03:15There's many roads to the top.
03:18You know, you can go many different routes and you never quite know where you're going to end up.
03:22But certainly, you know, I'm not happy to sit in Asia and enjoy myself.
03:26I'm just happy to try and get to the top of football now.
03:29The top of football for me could be, you know, the top of a Spanish league or German league.
03:33Who knows? It could be anything.
03:34It could be the top of, you know, an Asian league in Japan, in China or Korea.
03:38Who knows that either?
03:40But, you know, what I do know is that, you know, I don't want to sit still.
03:43I always want to move forward and you can only do that by being successful.
03:46You know, I don't want to move forward and you can only do that by being successful.
03:51I don't want to move forward and you can only do that by being successful.
03:56I don't want to move forward and you can only do that by being successful.