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BOB Houghton is a cool customer.

 Last weekend, at the final of the Philips FA Cup in Shanghai, when asked what he would do if his side won the World Cup, the English coach to the China national soccer team smiled.

 'I would make sure I won the two following games.'  Why?  'If you won the World Cup and then lost two consecutive games, whoever it was against, everybody would say 'sack him' . . . that's life.'  It's why he says he doesn't lose sleep over his job. Ask him what problems he has faced after 10 months in the job and the answer is in the same vein. He thinks for the briefest of moments and says 'None. Zero problems.'  Watch him in a packed press conference held in the bowels of the marvellous 80,000-seater Shanghai Stadium, a few hours before the final, and he really doesn't seem to feel the pressure.

 But you also realise that when he says he has no problems, he's lying.

 'Mr Houghton. Are Crystal Palace in the English Premier League?' asks a voice in the crowd.

 'No,' replies the Englishman, matter-of-factly. 'They are in the English First Division.'  The question wasn't as innocent as it sounded.

 'So, Mr Houghton,' asks the same voice, 'why do you not do something to make sure Hao Haidong plays in the Premier?'  Bob Houghton raises his hands defensively and laughs. 'I can't,' he says. 'It's not my job.'  Bob Houghton's job is to make sure China get to the World Cup finals in 2002.

 Hao, leading goal scorer in the Chinese league for the last two seasons, is one of Houghton's best players.

 But, a few hours before Houghton took his turn to face the cameras, Hao, in his own packed press conference, told the world he was on a flight in the morning.

 To London and to trials with Crystal Palace, the team who have already signed fellow Chinese internationals Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai.

 Understandably, many in the mainland sports press believe it is the football-savvy cockney coach who is the driving force behind this mainland exodus to suburban South London. The reality is different.

 'From the point of Hao Haidong, it's good' said Houghton.

 'He's one of the best players in Asia and he could do very well out there. I told Dave Bassett [manager of Nottingham Forest, the club where Houghton was coach until he took the China job in February this year] I thought he could score 15 goals a season in the Premier League.

 'He has said that he only wants to go for one year. That could work well for us, he could develop.'  It could also be the start of something very bad.

 Hao was a guest of honour at the FA Cup final. His team, league champions Dalian Wanda, had been knocked out of the Cup at the semi-final stage but electronic giant Philips, sponsor of the Chinese FA Cup, had declared him the best Cup player of the year - Hao is this year's Mr Philishave.

 But, when Hao met the press, the talk was not on his past exploits.

 'It's always been my dream to play outside and now I've been offered a chance,' he told the throng.

 'If I'm not good enough, I might be back in two days.'  He was joking and the throng laughed.

 Dalian Wanda have since said they have persuaded their prize asset to stay at the club but the reality is if he got the chance to show his stuff on the bigger European stage, the resulting ovation would be loud and long.

 The problem for Houghton is how many others will want to tread such similar lucrative boards?  'I reckon six or seven of our players could do well there [in England]. I hope they don't,' he says laughing even though it's a situation that might end up far from funny.

 For Houghton, it's so far, so good - nine friendlies, no defeats. Now come the real, competitive tests - the Asian Games, the Asian Cup, the Olympics and eventually the World Cup. It's not a time to start watching his best players drift to the other side of the world.

 Therefore the FIFA regulations concerning foreign players are quite clearly etched to his memory. For major tournaments they have to be back in China 14 days before, he says, for qualifiers seven days and for friendlies 48 hours before the game.

 The Asian Games start on November 30, which means the Palace players will be recalled on November 16.

 If China do well in the tournament, Fan (who Houghton reckons is easily the best player in the English First Division), Sun and possibly Hao will not be back in London until December 20. That's a lot of league football missed and recently Terry Venables, manager of Crystal Palace, told London journalists that he is reluctant to release his mainland stars.

 Houghton's having none of it.

 'Both Notts Forest and Blackburn Rovers were interested in Fan. When we told them the time conflicts between club and country they both said on that basis they couldn't pay for players who would be away for that long. Crystal Palace thought otherwise.

 'Honestly, we kept explaining it, left, right and centre and they wanted to buy them anyway. Now they must face those consequences.'  More than anything, Houghton is a realist. He cites the example of both South Africa and Australia - both sides who have many players in Europe who are now refusing to return for international games.

 'Australian Harry Kewell, who played 40 games at Leeds United last year, is developing but he's developing in England, not in Australia because he won't go back there.

 'At the moment we are just beginning to see what happens when Chinese players go and play in Europe.

 'As yet, we don't know the answers. We will see.'  So if Houghton does lose half his side to Europe, will he still be laughing? Still sleeping well at night? Of course he will be.

 'I will be fine until I lose two games on the trot,' he says in his distinctive cockney tones and his trade-mark wide smile.



Warding off player exodus vital to Houghton's China plan