Hong Kong coach Ashley Westwood on taking risks to learn football management

With only three English managers due to kick off next season's Premier League – Eddie Howe, Graham Potter and Scott Parker – opportunities are tough to come by in this country. But they are available further afield if you are brave enough to take them.

As an Englishman who coached Afghanistan, no one can doubt Ashley Westwood’s courage or desire to work in football.

The former Sheffield Wednesday and Bradford City centre-back did that job for nearly a year before taking over as Hong Kong coach last August.

On Tuesday they host India in round three of Asian Cup qualifying, a group phase, after 0-0s all round on matchday one. It is their main focus after hosting Manchester United in a money-making friendly last week, and drawing 0-0 with Nepal in a warm-up game on Thursday.

Like England's Thomas Tuchel, Westwood cannot pretend this is "his" country, or the job he dreamed of as a child. Having stumbled into Asian football 12 years ago, the 48-year-old has no idea where it will take him, but is excited to find out.

He admits he only came to keep working, with his old Manchester United youth team-mate Michael Appleton planning a year out after the pair were sacked by Blackburn Rovers. It led to his first manager's job, at Bengaluru in 2013.

"Blackburn was owned by Indians and I think my name was in the Indian system a little bit," says Westwood, Appleton's assistant at Blackpool then Blackburn.

"I went with the intention of trying to do the best I can, trying to learn and see where it went while I was probably waiting for Michael Appleton to get a job is the truth.

"I didn't know much about India at all. I didn't know much about the Indian league.

"I won the league in the first year, which was never supposed to be the plan. Then you go into the AFC Cup, get out of the group and win the national cup (in 2014-15). By year three, I've won the league again and had a couple of coach of the year awards."

Next was Penang in Malaysia before returning to India with ATK, holding the fort between Teddy Sheringham’s sacking and the appointment of former Leeds United striker Robbie Keane. RoundGlass Punjab followed before the biggest jump of all, into international football in 2023.

And not just any job, either.

"I didn't think it was a brave decision because that's my character," he says of coaching of Afghanistan, then ranked 159 of FIFA's 210 affiliated countries.

"My brother must have rung about six times saying, 'What the hell are you doing?'

"He tried to stop me going, which was never going to happen, trying to explain all your insurance is invalid, there's no British embassy there and if something goes wrong, you're basically on your own.

"My actual quote to him was, 'Well, what's the worst that can happen? I get shot and I die and I'm not going to feel anything,' which is probably a bit kamikaze, but I suppose I just felt at that stage of my career it was a risk worth taking.

"My first game was after 72 hours, we played Qatar away and lost 8-1. Four days later we played Kuwait and we lost 4-0.

"Fast forward nine months, it was the reverse of those World Cup qualifiers. In between we played India home and away. We drew 0-0 in Saudi and beat India 2-1, the first time Afghanistan had ever beaten India in India.

"My last two games were Qatar in Saudi Arabia where we drew 0-0 and then Kuwait where if we had drawn, we would have qualified for the Asian Cup and the next round of the World Cup (qualifying), which they'd never been in. Kuwait scored in the 81st minute and we lost 1-0."

But it opened the door to Hong Kong in August.

"The normal excuse in Asia is we can't have a national team coach with no national team experience," he says. “That was the reason for Afghanistan.

"There was three things asked of me when I was applying. One was to lower the ranking, two was to qualify for the East Asia Cup, which we did – they don't always. The third was to qualify for the Asia Cup – that's not a regular fixture for them either.

"They were 159 in the world, the same position Afghanistan was when I took over. We’re 153 and now Afghanistan sit at 160.

"I'm trying to overtake that 150 mark.

"I believe Hong Kong are better than where they sat when I took over. There are good players, you can still demand the same professionalism.”

Westwood has the perspective of a playing career which started in Manchester United's academy, reached the Premier League with the Bantams, and ended in non-league with Kettering Town.

"You hear of ex-pros that have only ever played at Premier League level, they take over as managers and can't fathom why somebody can't pass from A to B,” he says.

"You look at the Conference and League Two, my players would be okay at that standard. Some could play higher. But you don't try to get them to do things they can't."

Just as Afghanistan led to Hong Kong, so Hong Kong could lead to other things.

"I am an ambitious football coach," he says. "I want to try and get to the top, whichever way that may be. Arsene Wenger went through Asia, look at Graham Potter going through Scandinavia.

"Being English, you have a passion to be at the top of the English game. The Premier League is the best league in world for sure. Who knows if that's realistic or not?

"All you can do is keep working hard, keep trying to get results and see where it may take you. But certainly, I'm not happy to sit in Asia enjoying myself. I'm just happy to try and get to the top of football now.

"The top of football for me could be the top of a Spanish or German league. It could be Japan, China or Korea. I don't want to sit still, I always want to move forward and you can only do that by being successful."

Learning in backwaters has given him important modern skills.

"In India all the states have different local languages," he points out. "Some don't even speak Hindi, their main national language. Most of the players can refer back to English but there would always be a percentage that don't understand. The ones that can understand English don't always understand northern English. You're thinking at least half of them can't understand me.

"It taught me to use presentations and visuals a lot more, which nowadays in English football with the analysts is normal.

"In those days, coaches were still writing on flipcharts. So it just made me communicate a different way – not always fast English – and break things down a little bit slower. It definitely helped my coaching.

"It also taught me about team meetings. You quickly realise there's a seven- to 10-minute window. Outside those 10 minutes, they start to leave the room, even if everyone can completely understand you.

"It made me present things differently and learn about software. It would definitely help me if I went back to England."

He learnt other skills too.

"Going into India in those days, you were going almost on your own, you've got a few local staff," he recalls. "You won't have a good enough sports scientist, physio or goalie coach to start with. It's only when you start winning you can start adding to it.

"Everybody in the Premier League has four or five analysts, sports scientists, someone that can prepare presentations.

"You've got the skillsets to do match analysis on your own, put presentations together if needs be, but also you've got the appreciation of when you do get good staff you can do it together and it can lessen your workload to concentrate on bigger stuff.

"In the Premier League you'd have to delegate. At the smaller clubs in Asia you get a bit more time where you can develop, but everything is about learning.

"Then at international level you've got 23, 25 players meeting up for an eight-day period so you need to think about different ways of optimising those days, of getting your message across."

So does he think more English coaches should try to work abroad?

"It depends how much you know you really want to coach," he replies. "In England, 92 league clubs, there's hundreds of hundreds of coaches. Sometimes you want to keep working and keep learning.

"It's tough to go at first, leaving friends and family behind.

"I signed for Man United at 10. I left school at 15 because I was an August birthday. After 21 years doing English football it's all you kind of know. Your friends and family, your network, everything's there.

"But it's not the be-all and end-all being in England. Sometimes you need to just gain experience.

"I just keep working hard, trying to get success. I've had many ups and downs in football, but normally when you're doing well, something else follows."