New All Whites coach Anthony Hudson was forced into the biggest decision of his career when he was headhunted by New Zealand Football last month.
Stay in Bahrain and fulfil his two-year contract to lead their national team at the Gulf Cup in November and Asian Cup in January - a project he had been working towards for two years - or jump ship and sign a four-year deal to try to get New Zealand to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Hudson treated the decision as if he was preparing for a match - he studied the tape. Day after day he obsessed over All Whites games on DVD, evaluating the standard of players he knew little about and assessing New Zealand's chances of success on the international stage. He put countless calls through to Queen's Park Rangers coach Harry Redknapp and a smattering of other English Premier League coaches, bouncing around ideas and asking for advice and, finally, after two weeks he resigned.
The 33-year-old US-born Englishman was yesterday unveiled as New Zealand's "Chosen One". New Zealand Football CEO Andy Martin said it was Hudson's hunger, ambition, organisation and attention to detail which separated him from the 108 other applicants for the role, a process which took nine months.
It's a brave move for New Zealand Football to appoint someone so inexperienced - not just at international level, but also in coaching in general. However Hudson, who coached Bahrain to four wins, five draws and three losses, is unashamedly ambitious. "A big pull of why I've come here is to go to the World Cup. And not just go to the World Cup, but go further than we've ever gone," Hudson said. "I want to come here and make history and I want the players to make history."
