Soccer: Adshead back to sell a dream

John Adshead

John Adshead has turned his back on a lucrative coaching role in the Middle East and will to return to New Zealand and an all-encompassing, high-profile role as football manager at the Football Kingz.

Club chief executive Guy Hedderwick confirmed the appointment yesterday.

"He is pure quality," said Hedderwick. "His record speaks for itself. Everything he touches turns to gold."

The fans will hope that remains so.

The Kingz, who are also set for a name change, have hardly set the Australian League alight.

Unless Adshead recruits both his playing and off-field staff cannily, the team could again be left struggling in the lower reaches in the new-look Hyundai A-League. That obviously does not figure in Adshead's thinking.

"This job is the ultimate challenge in New Zealand football," he said from his home in Oman yesterday. "We are only going to get one crack. The Football Kingz have one go at it. I'm only going to get one go. It is important the Kingz are competitive.

"Australia are light years ahead of New Zealand but we have to see the Kingz as a definite career path. We have to paint a realistic picture and assure the players we can make them better. We are going out to sell a dream."

Asked whether he would be a manager at arm's length, Adshead made it very clear he saw his role very much as a "tracksuit coach".

He places great importance in finding the right assistant. Adshead, 62, said he was prepared to look at the field, adding there were two fantastic coaches in Oman.

Asked whether he would appoint someone to take the role Kevin Fallon undertook with him in the successful 1982 World Cup campaign, Adshead said: "Kevin Fallon was unique," adding, "I'm not going to do this alone. It is going to be a big team working in one direction.

"I need the assistant on board fairly quickly. Four eyes are better than two and we need to be looking at the players in the New Zealand Football Championship first off and then take it from there."

Adshead did say, however, he was happy with the players signed so far.

Already on the Kingz books are internationals Danny Hay and Noah Hickey.

Hedderwick yesterday also confirmed that former Perth Glory goalkeeper Danny Milosevic and defender Darren Beazley, who has played at Walsall, Watford and Wolves, had signed for the 2005-06 season.

It will be Adshead's first stint with club football since 1999 when he stepped in at state league side Floreta Athena in Perth while taking a break after suffering a heart attack.

He took them from the bottom of the league to the top four play-offs and into their cup final.

He returned to Auckland briefly before, in January 2000, taking a coaching role with the Oman Football Federation. There he worked with the youth and junior teams, taking all teams he coached to the Asian finals and one, their under-17 side, to the world championship in Trinidad and Tobago.

Adshead admitted he, his wife Pauline and 12-year-old son Blair had not thought too much about returning to New Zealand at this time.

"We have a house in Mt Maunganui and had not really thought about coming back to Auckland.

"But from the time I spoke to [Kingz benefactor] Brian Katzen as far back as January I have thought about it. Now it has happened I'm delighted to have gone the full circle."

Speaking from London, Kingz chairman Anthony Lee said the club felt Adshead was the right person for the job especially given his success in the Middle East.

"We are very, very confident he can do the job," said Lee.

"We looked not so much at what he did 22 years ago but more at what he has done recently.

"We are keen to develop relationships in England especially with premier and first division clubs."

Adshead said he hoped to be back in New Zealand next month.

John Adshead

Born: Fleetwood, Lancs, England on March 27, 1942.

Arrived in NZ: January 1976.

Coached: Manurewa, Mt Roskill, Mt Wellington, All Whites.

Overseas: Perth 1998-1999; Oman from January 2000