Football writer Mark Carruthers speaks to Simon Grayson about managing in Nepal.
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00:00Simon, first up, I guess it's a move that maybe caught some by surprise, not the most
00:09expected move you would make in your career, but what was it that attracted you to football
00:14in Nepal and how did it come about?
00:16Well, basically, I'd been in India for 18 months and really enjoyed my time over there.
00:22It was completely at my comfort zone in terms of my coaching and managing skills, different
00:30environment, different culture, different types of football and I just felt it was a
00:35perfect opportunity to sort of test myself and also have a life experience of working
00:40in a different country and you can't get too much further away from home than going to
00:45India in the first place and it went really well.
00:48I got to three finals, 1-1, lost one on penalties and lost another late on in a game.
00:55And then since I've been back, I thought I'd had a few opportunities to go back to work,
00:58but not the ones that really sort of interested me, really.
01:01And I've been doing a lot of major work for Sky, Leeds, Leicester TV and lots of other outlets.
01:08And this just came about probably about three, four months ago, an agent rang me and said,
01:12would you fancy taking charge of a franchise team out in Nepal?
01:17And to be fair, it wasn't something that sort of straight away, it was like, well, I've
01:21been to India, I'm not sure on Nepal, but then he sort of, he sort of explained that
01:26it was, like I said, a franchise team.
01:28It was only going to be two months maximum, three weeks of that would be pre-season, five
01:33weeks of the game if you get all the way to the final.
01:35So I thought time-wise it worked not being away from home for so long, but also to get out
01:41to another part of the world and again, get out of my comfort zone of coaching abroad.
01:47And I knew I was going to be going into a different sort of environment, a country that is far less
01:52developed than India when I was out there.
01:54And that's why I took it, because I want to help sort of help players, but also people
02:02behind the scenes of what happens at football clubs.
02:05And I want to leave a sort of little bit of a legacy of what's required to keep improving
02:09all the time.
02:10So if I can, if I can improve any person out here, five, 10%, then I'll have, I'll be
02:17very pleased, but I want to be, I want to be improved in maybe 30, 40% and also I want
02:23to be winning a tournament because that's one of the major reasons why I'm here as well,
02:26to win another tournament.
02:27And in terms of Lackpur, you've taken over the reigning champions.
02:31Yeah, look, there's only the seven teams and that was sort of an attraction that the owners
02:37were very positive in wanting me to come out, looking, I'm not sort of blowing smoke up my own
02:44myself, but they've never had anybody of my expertise and profile in this league.
02:51It's only the third year, so they're a long, it's only the early years of the development of
02:55a Super League.
02:57But again, it was something that I just felt that it was good for them and it's going to be good.
03:02It was good for me.
03:03And it has been a, it's been a learning curve.
03:06It was, there's sort of a lot of things that have tested myself, but you've got to just,
03:11you've just got to embrace it because I'm not going to be changing everything overnight.
03:15But if I can keep, keep just doing bits here and there, there'll be certain things that other
03:22coaches, I suppose, if they were over here, they'd be absolutely going, going mad on situations,
03:27but you can't, you can't let that affect you.
03:29You're just going to make the best of whatever's available to you.
03:32Said the facilities are not great.
03:34The sort of infrastructure is not great.
03:37Probably the scheduling of the tournament is, is not ideal.
03:40You're playing like five, six games in three weeks, four weeks, three weeks, I think in the league.
03:46Even we played the other night, Thursday and Saturday.
03:50And so one day recovery.
03:52So when you get teams complaining about playing twice, three times a week, try playing twice in three days.
03:59But again, it's there to test me.
04:00And every day is a challenge for different reasons.
04:04You go with an idea of what session you're going to do.
04:06And then you have to dramatically quickly change it because of, again, the facilities not being great,
04:13that you can't maybe do put the session on that you wanted to do.
04:16So, yeah, it's just about adapting and learning myself as well.
04:20And also a big reason is a life experience of sampling a different country as well.
04:25In terms of your squad, I know the squad that won the playoffs last time was, had a lot of foreign players in terms of, you know, the word from Nepal, really.
04:36In terms of your squad now, how is that set up?
04:39Yeah, look, you're allowed six foreigners in your matchday 20 squad, five on the pitch at any time.
04:47And then basically the rest of the teams being more in an auction.
04:51So you've got your marquee players, category A, Bs and Cs.
04:55So I completely left that to my owners of their experience of knowing what they needed.
05:01There was a couple of foreign slots that I sort of maybe suggested to maybe bring a couple of lads from the UK, but that didn't quite happen.
05:09And, yeah, it was a learning curve as well that I had three national team players because the season started on the Saturday after the FIFA window finished.
05:21So I had three lads join us on the Wednesday night, two African, French African lads joined us on the Wednesday night.
05:28And we actually played on the Saturday.
05:30So I had five starting players who only joined me for two days session, which in an ideal world isn't great.
05:38But again, it's another part of your learning curve and your development as a coach and as a human being.
05:44In terms of the local players, what's the standard like?
05:47Have you sensed that? I mean, I've realised it's a short time, but have you sensed an improvement since you've been there?
05:52I think it's hard to sort of compare the current comparisons of the leagues over in England.
05:59You're starting 11 of all the teams that are decent enough because you've got your five foreigners who are probably coming in from decent players.
06:06Because your national team players are playing for quite a lot of the clubs as well.
06:11So you've probably got eight to ten players that are decent enough standard.
06:17And then it's maybe your backup players that you're lying off the bench at times.
06:21But again, I can see how my players are improving all the time.
06:28It's certainly been me learning very quickly about them, the league.
06:33There's a game on every night and our hotel is literally opposite the stadium.
06:37So I just go to other games every night.
06:40So I'm like football maxed out nearly already after five, six weeks of being here watching football every night.
06:47But again, I have to do it because it's part of learning about the league, learning about players.
06:52And I think my team's going to get stronger as we go on for all them reasons.
06:56And we've also had a...
06:58But we've had a good start.
06:59We've played five games, top of the league and won three and drawn two.
07:02So we're progressing and hopefully that'll continue.
07:05So in terms of the set-up now, you mentioned sort of the league phase.
07:09How many more games have you got left in your regular season in terms of the playoffs?
07:13When do they pass?
07:13Yeah, the teams, we've got one game left on Wednesday.
07:17Some of the teams have got two.
07:18So by Thursday night, the whole league will have finished.
07:23And then basically it's a bit like the Super League that the top two play each other
07:28and whoever wins that goes straight to the final.
07:32Then third and fourth play each other.
07:35Whoever wins that plays, whoever loses out the first one and two.
07:38So it's like another eliminator to play in the final.
07:42So all I'm seeing is the final is in the 26th of April and I'll probably be home in the UK
07:49about the 29th, 30th if everything goes to the plan.
07:52I'm not sure who or when we're going to be playing,
07:55but let's just hope that we get to the final, whichever way we do it.
08:00I mean, in terms of the future, your immediate focus is on the next sort of two weeks
08:04and what's happening with your side.
08:06But in terms of the future, are you keen to get back in the management elsewhere?
08:10Yeah, look, it was funny because there were some people in the stand the other week
08:15and they were Reading fans and they shouted down to me.
08:18They were over in Kathmandu and they shouted down to me.
08:21So I went over to talk to them and they actually had Lalit Poe shirts on
08:25underneath the Reading shirt, which was really nice.
08:28And one nice thing that they said was, he says, God, you've still got your passion and desire,
08:34whether it's in Nepal or the UK, that you're belting orders out, you're up and down on the touchline
08:39and as passionate as if you were managing leads or whoever in playoff finals, promotion, pushes, etc.
08:45Which is what I've always had.
08:48And it's nice that I still know that I've got that in myself.
08:51And that's why I still think I've got plenty to offer in football anywhere.
08:56But by going to India and over here, it makes you realise you don't have to just work in the AFL.
09:01Ideally, maybe closer to home might work in Europe if it wasn't in the UK
09:06because then I don't want to be away from home too much.
09:09But even since I've been out of here, I've had other offers to go to Southeast Asia clubs,
09:15different parts around Asia as well already from my time in India and here.
09:20So it's sort of, you make them contacts and it gives you options to do whatever you want to do going forward.
09:26But I still think I've got a lot of time and effort still to give to the game.
09:31I'm just short of nearly 800 games now and 40 years nearly playing and managing.
09:35So if I'd not got the passion and desire still to do it and the work ethic,
09:40then I'll be just concentrating on my major work and doing nothing.
09:44But I want to just keep doing things.
09:47But it has to be the right ones.
09:48The last few in the UK have not quite worked out with a few false promises.
09:54And I suppose you could say that about another club that I work to in the North East as well.
09:59When you look at, I mean, you are an experienced coach and manager.
10:03Do you feel as if the experience you've had out there has developed you even further?
10:08Do you feel as if you're a more, I guess, rounded coach now?
10:10One hundred percent.
10:12I said this in an interview I did the other day that I'm a far better coach manager than I was 10 years ago when I got my last promotion at Preston.
10:21And because of the experiences that I've had, yes, you're a good coach when things are going well with your promotions,
10:27but you learn far more about yourself and what you need to do through a little bit of adversity as well.
10:33So my tough time at Sunderland and being out in Asia coaching and other jobs that I've had has certainly made me a better coach and more experience compared to when I was winning the four promotions.
10:46So, yeah, if somebody employs me at any time in the UK or wherever, they're going to get, I think, they're getting a better all-round coach because you develop,
10:55you have to develop and you have to keep learning both with courses that you're doing by watching games, but on the grass as well.
11:02It's like even last summer I went to Newfoundland in Canada for three weeks with a friend.
11:08He had a couple of caps out there and I've never coached under 18s, 16s in my life.
11:14It's always been men, but I went to sort of educate myself of what you do with coaching younger players as well and another life experience.
11:23So that was sort of July that last year and might be again something that I do this summer if I've not gone back to work.
11:30So I'm always looking to keep work and the hunger and desire to keep showing what I'm doing.
11:35And the biggest thing is whether it's professional or not, it's like you always just want to keep improving the people that you're working with,
11:42whether it's foreign players, different countries or actually younger players.
11:46I just wanted to do things.