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Paul McNamara

At least the more reactionary Hong Kong supporters waited one match before turning their guns on Ashley Westwood.
Roberto Losada did not get that long.
“Welcome Chino,” read the local football association’s social media post on Friday, confirming the coronation of their new head coach, who is universally known by his nickname.
“Not welcome” was among the kindest of a rush of negative replies, which comfortably outnumbered those wishing Losada well.
“Chino out” typed multiple posters, introducing Losada, metaphorically at least, to the modern phenomenon of fans booing a coach in, rather than booing him out.


The crux of the dissenters’ argument was that the Football Association of Hong Kong, China (HKFA) had taken the easy option in plumping for a perceived “company man” over installing a potentially disruptive outsider from among more than 300 candidates.
“Were all the other applicants amateurs?” asked one disgruntled supporter.
Eric Fok Kai-shan and Charles Cheung Yim-yau, chairman and general secretary respectively of the HKFA, did not escape censure, with one angry fan telling the pair to “step down immediately”.
Losada, who came to Hong Kong from his native Spain in 2010, originally to play for Kitchee, spent 4½ largely successful years as Eastern head coach before being installed as interim city team boss last December.
Still, some fans in the city have evidently not forgiven him for the dying days of his Eastern reign.
Injury hit and ransacked by wealthier rivals one time too many, the district club’s AFC Champions League Two campaign was an unmitigated sporting disaster.
They lost all six matches, going down 7-0 and 5-0 in games four and five before finishing – criminally, in the eyes of some critics – with a 9-0 loss against Nam Dinh in Vietnam.
“Appointing a coach who shamed Hong Kong football among Asian teams – what a joke,” wrote one Losada naysayer.
“Nine goals and can be the head coach of the Hong Kong team … so motivational,” added another.
Losada is a three-time Hong Kong manager of the year. He led Eastern to two FA Cups and one Senior Shield, and he had a playing career in Spain that is the envy of any of his city squad.
Eastern were dreadful on that infamous 9-0 night and could have lost by more, but it happens.
In the first of his 1,439 matches as a manager, Harry Redknapp’s Bournemouth lost 9-0 to Lincoln City.
Steve Coppell’s Crystal Palace shipped nine without reply to Liverpool in September 1989, then seven months later beat the Merseysiders 4-3 in one of the great FA Cup semi-finals.
More recently, Ralph Hassenhuttl’s Southampton were embarrassed 9-0 at home by Leicester City in October 2019, then just 2½ months later won 2-1 away against the same opponents.
Poised for his second match as permanent head coach in Cambodia on Tuesday, it was no wonder Losada acknowledged that having to play Mongolia hours after his unveiling was “not ideal”.
That fixture represented the proverbial hiding to nothing. Lose against the world No 187 team on the day he had been appointed, and the 49-year-old would have been eviscerated. Had he won 5-0? “Well, so he should have.”
Win 2-0, the outcome of what Losada himself acknowledged was an error-strewn performance?
“Can’t win by more than two, Hong Kong football returns to the ice age,” wrote one social media commentator, among a succession of disapproving verdicts.
A local journalist asked Losada whether recording Hong Kong’s narrowest victory from five meetings with Mongolia would have created a bad impression among supporters. That was splitting hairs.
Westwood, who nobody could fairly deny was a very good coach, beat Mongolia 3-0.
His relationship with fans was sufficiently volatile – from the moment he responded to the condemnation that followed him losing his first game 1-0 in Liechtenstein by accusing them of “knowing nothing about football” – that Westwood was never going to survive a fatal Asian Cup qualifying defeat by Singapore last year.

The Englishman’s demanding, divisive nature ruffled feathers in the HKFA’s corridors of power, while his predecessor, Jorn Andersen, publicly took his employers to task on multiple occasions.
Losada, who provided a measured answer to his post-Mongolia inquisitor, is unquestionably a more diplomatic soul.
The easy choice, then? Probably, but that by no means makes him the wrong choice.
Losada boasts an encyclopedic knowledge of Hong Kong football, valuable for a period of significant transition.
He is a very good coach, and he has strong relationships with players and clubs.
Moreover, his appointment allows local league coaches to believe they can one day land the city’s top football job.
Supporters pay their money for tickets and are emotionally invested to an admirable degree. They are entitled to their opinions and it would be a boring world where everybody shared the same views.
“Hong Kong football is finished,” said one in the hours after Losada’s appointment.
With more than a year to mould a young, technically bright team in his image before Hong Kong begin their 2030 World Cup qualifying campaign, Losada could legitimately counter that something new and exciting is only just beginning.


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The Football Association of Hong Kong, China

Hong Kong coach Roberto Losada boasts an encyclopedic knowledge of local football, and has strong relationships with players and clubs. Photo: Facebook/HKFA

Hong Kong’s Sun Ming-Him attacking the Mongolian defence in their 2-0 win on Friday. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The dynamic Yue Tze-nam makes progress down Hong Kong’s right flank against Mongolia. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Yue Tze-nam tries to escape the clutches of Mongolia’s Amaraa Dulguun. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Yue Tze-nam challenges Bruno Fernandes during Hong Kong’s clash with Manchester United last year. Photo: Xinhua

China World Cup hopes pinned on referee Ma Ning, could ‘impartial’ official oversee final?

Ma Ning disallows an Al-Ittihad goal in an AFC Champions League Elite tie in April. Photo: Getty Images

Ma Ning, known as the “card master”, launched his own RedNote account just before the World Cup. Photo: Handout

Ma Ning awarded Qatar (red) three penalties against Jordan in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup final. Photo: Getty Images

Sport

Football

Many fans are opposed to appointment of 49-year-old as city team head coach, but sometimes the ‘easy decision’ is the best decision


Many fans are opposed to appointment of 49-year-old as city team head coach, but sometimes the ‘easy decision’ is the best decision.


Roberto Losada

Ashley Westwood

Eric Fok Kai-shan

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Opinion

‘Hong Kong football is finished’? Not if Roberto Losada is given a fair chance

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Many fans are opposed to appointment of 49-year-old as city team head coach, but sometimes the ‘easy decision’ is the best decision

Many fans are opposed to appointment of 49-year-old as city team head coach, but sometimes the ‘easy decision’ is the best decision