Thank heavens 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung's aim was bad, otherwise Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen would have had egg all over his face. But there was no need for a disgruntled lawmaker as far as the Hong Kong Football Association was concerned, with the body emerging with plenty of the proverbial yolk all over their visages this week.
This was due to Brian Eastick turning down the multimillion-dollar offer to become the coach of Hong Kong. The Englishman, head coach of national youth teams in England for the past six years, was the first choice of local football officials for the top job. He came, he saw ... and turned Hong Kong down.
So what do we do now? Settle for second best? That's what the HKFA will have to do as it looks at all the other options presented to it by a headhunter.
The need was to have a person in charge of the senior squad as soon as possible. As it is, the team have been rudderless for almost a year, ever since former South China coach Kim Pan-gon left the hot seat. A new Hong Kong coach and a chief executive to head the HKFA were the twin components of the government's Project Phoenix - the comprehensive plan to revive the game in Hong Kong.
One part of that plan has already gone awry. To be fair to the HKFA, some of the blame has to be borne by Eastick himself. A highly placed source in the HKFA revealed that in an email he had received from Eastick, the Englishman had said 'staying put is the best option for my career at the moment'.
Why didn't Eastick realise before coming to Hong Kong for a look that, at 60, it was better to stay in his current job which is to bring on the next generation of players for England? Why did he waste his, and everyone else's, time by flying business class to Hong Kong for a familiarisation trip if he knew that his career is at a stage where 'staying put is the best option'?
Cynics might say Eastick was frightened off after having had his first-hand look. During his brief stay, Eastick, who was England Under-20 team manager at this summer's World Cup in Colombia and assistant to Stuart Pearce with the Under-21s, watched Hong Kong's Senior Shield first-round match between TSW Pegasus and Kitchee and also had a brief coaching session with First Division club Sapling, comprising mainly Hong Kong Under-21s.
