Former Singapore international V.Sundramoorthy was recently appointed Singapore’s new national head coach on a one-year contract, making him the first local coach in 16 years to lead the Lions. The 50-year-old started his reign on a winning note on Friday (June 3) as Singapore beat hosts Myanmar 1-0 in the AYA Bank Cup at the YTC Stadium. TODAY’s Noah Tan (noahtanyw [at] mediacorp.com.sg) caught up with Sundram after training on Sunda (June 5) to find out what makes the ‘Dazzler’ tick as a coach.

Q: Describe how you felt on Friday when you handled your first game as national team coach?

A: It felt great, it’s always a proud moment when you’re representing your country. I’ll cherish that moment and it gives me the motivation to do my best with the team to get results. It was made even better that we managed to win the game.

Ever since I was young, I’d always wanted to be a national player, but it was only when I was taking my coaching licence that I first started dreaming about being the national coach of Singapore one day.

I never thought that I would have come this far, but that’s the pathway fate has brought me on and I’m happy I can do something for my country.

Q:How was the transition from being a player to a coach been for you?

A: I loved being a player because you take care of yourself, you play and entertain the fans. It’s a good profession, but there’s always a limited career span before you have to retire. After which, you need to move on in your career. For me, I chose to become a coach.

It’s a very difficult job. There are many challenges we face every day. There are a lot of factors that determine the outcome of the game and, for me on the sidelines, it’s sometimes frustrating because I can’t go out on the pitch to change the game myself.

But in training, we can work and do a lot of analysis outside the field, and provide as much information as we can to the boys to get the edge over our opponents.

Q: What type of coach do you describe yourself as?

A: A balanced one. When it’s time to work, I’m serious and work hard, but there must also be times when I’ll have to play the role of the motivator and also enjoy the light-hearted moments as well. We must have a balance in everything we do.

Q: Who has been the greatest influence in your coaching career so far?

A: It’s hard to pick one. I’ve been under a lot of coaches such as Jita Singh, who called me up to the national team, Hussein Aljunied and Seak Poh Leong and I’ve picked up a lot of things from them which I have used in my coaching journey.

But the most important thing I learnt from all of them is that we must firstly have good work ethics, and secondly, set a clear direction for your players and staff to follow.

Q: Off the pitch, who has been the greatest pillars of support for you?

A: There are so many people who have been supporting me wholeheartedly. My parents, my wife, my relatives and even close friends that I’ve known for ages. All of them have been very supportive of me throughout my career and they help to keep me motivated off the pitch as well.

Q: How has methods of coaching changed from your time as a player to now?

A: There are a lot of differences now. We have sports science, we have analysts and nutritionists. So a lot of things have changed from my playing days. We’re also moving towards a faster game with different rules. So I believe that during my generation as a player, we all carried ourselves well and did our jobs on the pitch, but now, we have to master matters both on and off the pitch.

Q: What has been the highlight of your coaching career so far?

A: It definitely has to be getting the job as the national team coach. This is the pinnacle for me, and I would say it ranks higher than even the time I won the Malaysian Super League (MSL) title in 2013 with the LionsXII. Having worked hard to finally get this post, my main focus now is obviously to inspire the team to get the right results.

Q: Conversely, what has been the lowest point of your coaching career?

A: I think that has to be when I was taking charge of Malaysian Premier League side Negeri Sembilan (in 2014).

We did not have enough time to prepare the boys properly for the season and we were unable to earn promotion back to the MSL.

The lesson I learnt from that experience is that coaches will need time to get their team ready - there must be a long-term plan rather than a short-term one in order to succeed.

Q: There are many aspects to coaching, and one of it is player development. Does seeing a player you’ve groomed become a star give you satisfaction?

A: When I was a youth coach, yes, I definitely enjoyed developing the players. But as the national coach, I cannot go out there and think so much about developing players. I have to go out there to win. It’s a results-oriented game.

Q: You’re regarded as one of Singapore’s best footballers ever. But would Sundram the coach have enjoyed training Sundram the player?

A: Obviously coaches would enjoy working with talented players to try and get the best out of them, so yes, I definitely would have liked to coach myself. But I would prefer to coach a Sundram that was minus the temperament, of course! *laughs*

AYA BANK CUP FINAL

Singapore will meet Vietnam in the final on Monday (June 6).

SUNDRAM’S COACHING CAREER:

1999-2003: Player-coach of now-defunct S.League club Jurong FC.

Led the club to two Singapore Cup runner-up finishes (1999 and 2002) and fifth spot, its highest position in the league, in 2001

2004-2007: Coach of National Football Academy Under-18 squad

2007-2010: Coach of Young Lions

The club’s best finish under Sundram was fifth in 2007

2012 -2013: Coach of the LionsXII

Led the LionsXII to second in the Malaysian Super League, and a semi-final spot in the Malaysia Cup in 2012.

The following year, the LionsXII won the MSL title, and reached the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Cup.

2014: Coach of Negeri Sembilan

The club finished sixth in the second-tier Malaysian Premier League and failed to get promoted to the MSL

2015-2016: Coach of Tampines Rovers

The club finished second in the S.League in 2015, and reached the quarter-finals of the Singapore Cup.

This season, Sundram led the Stags to the quarter-finals of the AFC Cup, before becoming national coach.

This makes Tampines the first local club to reach the last eight since 2008. Tampines are also currently second in the league.