Thai football prepares to choose a lesser-known person as head coach

After unexpectedly firing coach Masatada Ishii (Japan) on October 21, the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) is getting closer to appointing Anthony Hudson, a lesser-known English coach, to take over the national team.

Coach Hudson did not have an outstanding career - Photo: FAT

This development is causing much debate in Thai public opinion, as the successor has a rather obscure record compared to the position and expectations of Thai football.

According to the Bangkok Post , “leading candidates to replace Ishii include Anthony Hudson, who is currently the technical director of FAT”.

Meanwhile, Khaosod also confirmed that Hudson is on the shortlist for the head coach position, quoting an inside source as saying that “it is not ruled out that FAT will choose someone in-house to ensure the continuity of the reconstruction project”.

ThaiRath newspaper confirmed that “Anthony Hudson is one of the three most promising candidates” and emphasized that he has worked closely with the Thai youth team system since being appointed as Technical Director in June this year.

Although there has been no official announcement, Thai sports sites unanimously believe that the possibility of Hudson being selected is very high.

Many comments on social networks in this country even consider the appointment as "already decided", when FAT tends to choose short-term, cost-saving solutions instead of recruiting a new famous foreign coach.

Anthony Hudson's coaching record, however, is not impressive. Born in England in 1981, he is the son of former Chelsea player Alan Hudson, but his playing career was almost negligible.

Entering his coaching career quite early, Hudson started his career at Real Maryland Monarchs (USA) and then tried his hand at Newport County (England), but both failed.

During the 2011-2014 period, he led the Bahrain and Bahrain U23 teams, winning the Gulf Cup U23 championship - a rare and remarkable achievement in his career.

Hudson was then invited by New Zealand to coach the national team and join the team at the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia. However, New Zealand lost all three matches and was eliminated early.

From 2018 to 2020, he led Colorado Rapids in the MLS (USA) but was quickly fired due to a series of poor results.

The English strategist then moved to become assistant coach of the US team, then took over the interim position for the first few months of 2023 before leaving without leaving any mark. Western experts once assessed him as "a coach with modern strategic thinking, but the team under his leadership lacked identity and was ineffective in competition" (ESPN).

By mid-2025, Hudson suddenly appeared in Bangkok when he was appointed by FAT as Technical Director, in charge of youth football development strategy and consulting for national teams.

According to the Bangkok Post, he is considered to have a good vision and organizational ability, but lacks high-level combat experience. Therefore, the information that he could be promoted to head coach is causing division among Thai fans.

Some supporters believe that he understands the inside story of Thai football and has a modern development philosophy, while the majority are concerned that giving power to a coach who has never been successful will cause the team to decline further.

Compared to Thai national team coaches in the past decade such as Rajevac and Nishino, Mr. Hudson is less famous and has less experience than Mr. Ishii and Mano Polking.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bong-da-thai-lan-chuan-bi-chon-nguoi-kem-ten-tuoi-lam-hlv-truong-20251022112558915.htm