SINGAPORE — Hougang United have officially appointed Philippe Aw as their head coach for the 2017 S.League season.

The 39-year-old joins the Cheetahs from Home United, where he was working as the club’s Head of Youth Development and Performance Management for the past six months.

TODAY understands that Hougang have also signed former Home assistant coach Robin Chitrakar as their new Prime League head coach.

Aw was Home’s head coach for one-and-a-half years (December 2014 to July 2016). He led the Protectors to a sixth-placed finish in the 2015 season, and to the Singapore Cup final, where they lost to Albirex Niigata.

However, Aw was surprisingly redeployed to his youth development position midway through the 2016 campaign even though the club was lying fourth in the table then.

Home declined to give any reasons for the change but it coincided with the club’s poor run of form which saw them knocked out of the Singapore Cup and League Cup, and 16 points behind then-league leaders Albirex, who eventually won the championship.

Regarded as one of the Republic’s up-and-coming young coaches, Aw was chosen by the S.League to be the coach of the Singapore Selection side for the Sultan of Selangor Cup last May.

He led the team to a 4-3 penalty shootout win against Selangor FA to end the Singapore team’s three-year losing streak in the annual friendly.

In particular, Aw has earned a reputation for his focus on youth development, and willingness to give promising young players a chance in the first team.

And this philosophy is something that Aw, who won the S.League title with Home as a player in 1999, has promised to adopt in his tenure at Hougang, who currently have 10 players under the age of 25 on their roster.

“The long-term vision for the club and myself is to improve local football,” Aw explained to TODAY.

“The current Hougang squad is a relatively young team, so that tells you that the club is also focused on developing promising players for Singapore.

“So for me, if a player is good enough and has impressed in training, then we have to give him a chance (in the first team).

“This (mindset) is not going to change, so it’s possible that you’ll see some young, talented players feature for the team this season.”

In announcing Aw’s appointment on Facebook, Hougang United wrote: “Aw has always stayed true to his philosophy of rewarding his young charges first-team experience if they performed well in training; instilling in them a quick attack game play — a trait he will seek to do the same at Hougang United.”

Hougang finished fifth in the S.League last year as a late-season collapse saw them fail to qualify for the AFC Cup.

However, they have since strengthened significantly as they signed five new players for the upcoming season. This includes Singapore internationals Zulfahmi Arifin and Azhar Sairudin, Japanese centre-back Atsushi Shirota, midfielder Fabian Kwok, as well as up-and-coming striker Fareez Farhan.

Hougang have also retained the likes of Singapore midfielders M Anumanthan and Nazrul Nazari, striker Iqbal Hussain, and Japanese defender Fumiya Kogure from last season.

Aw believes the current Hougang squad has a good blend of players to challenge the top teams in the league, although he is under no illusions about his task of leading the club to glory. Hougang have yet to win any silverware in the S.League.

“Almost half of the Hougang team from last year was retained, and we’ve also brought in several good players who are experienced and have been playing in the S.League for a while,” said Aw.

“Of course, every club would like to be champions if they can, and for sure we’ll want to do well and challenge them for the title.

“However, we have to be realistic. We’re just embarking on this journey and we’ll be going up against other big clubs in a challenging league.

“But if we manage to stay injury-free, I think we should be able to have a good season.”