Football - Morrison appointed Seychelles coach
ANDREW Charles ‘Andy’ Morrison is Seychelles’ new football national team coach. He was introduced to the media yesterday afternoon before officially putting pen on paper for a two-year contract.
Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) chairman Suketu Patel endorsed Morrison yesterday and said that he will work under the local body’s technical director Ulric Mathiot and the technical team. Morrison’s decision has come to put a stop to almost eight months of uncertainty about whether Seychelles would have a permanent foreign coach.
He succeeds Swedish Richard Holmlünd who resigned in December last year – four months into his two-year contract.
Morrison, 40, held his first news conference yesterday and unveiled how he will train his players to earn success.
“I’m not here to change everything. There’s a good set-up. The facilities are good and there’s a good pool of players. I now have to enhance their ability and inspire them to wanting to achieve something,” said Morrison, who has played at the highest level with teams like Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League.
Remembered by Manchester City fans as one of their best-ever captains, Morrison will officially take up his duties in six weeks after flying back to his homeland – Scotland – together with Seychellois fiancée Laura Berlouis and their child yesterday.
He said he came here on holiday and went to see some matches and it happened that he met Mr Patel with whom he had talks which have resulted in him becoming the country’s national coach with the aim of making Seychelles a strong football nation.
Before accepting the Seychelles job, former professional central defender Morrison said he had been working with young players who have gone on to become professional players with Arsenal, Inter Milan and Chelsea.
He said that he “feels to be more successful as a coach than as a player” as injuries cut short his career.
“I’ve not come here to live on my reputation as a player. I’m here to live on my reputation as a good coach who can produce results.
“What I do as a coach is relieve the pressure from the players and taking it myself. It leaves the players free to express themselves, play good football and get good results,” he said.
He described Seychelles’ football as a “little laid back” and added that his “intention is to up the tempo.”
“Football is played at a fast pace all over the world and if Seychelles is to compete with the rest of the world, it has to lift the tempo a little bit. I will also encourage the players to learn more in order to produce more,” noted Morrison.
Asked about guiding the national team, whom he hasn’t yet seen in action, to winning a first gold medal at next year’s Indian Ocean Island Games here, Morrison replied: “That’s what I’m going to try to do.”
“I won’t make any promises as I first have to change the mentality of the players. It’s not meant to be easy. It’s going to be a hard task,” he added.
Morrison, who missed out, through injury, on being called to the Scottish national team under manager Craig Brown for a crucial Euro 2000 qualifying match against England, noted that he has inherited 23 players who are already part of the national side and with whom he will start working.
“Whether they are my best 23 players I’m not sure yet. I’ve inherited them and I’ll use them as a benchmark. But I will also scout for new players by watching other games in order to produce the best Seychelles team,” he said.
Talking about discipline – an issue raised by almost all former foreign coaches who have worked here –Morrison said that “no team is successful without discipline.”
“ We will implement discipline all through the ranks, from under-12 right through to the highest level. We hope that through hard training and good discipline Seychellois players will become stars in their own land in the future,” he concluded.
Although he did not reveal coach Morrison’s salary, SFF boss Patel said that both parties agreed on a sum they are happy with.
“We can only hire coaches at a certain price. We cannot afford to pay monthly salaries of €8,000,” explained the SFF boss.
G. G.
Source: NATION 9-14-10