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BAHRAIN’S impressive young coach Anthony Hudson is on a further quest to improve his footballing knowledge in South America as the world of football prepares for the FIFA World Cup jamboree.
The 32-year-old son of Chelsea’s former legendary midfielder Alan is currently in Argentina learning the tricks of the trade from some of the country’s top clubs and coaches.
He firmly believes Argentina can reach the final of this summer’s FIFA World Cup tournament staged in neighbouring Brazil.
“It’s a study visit,” he told GulfWeekly exclusively. “I’m taking in River Plate, Boca Juniors and Marcelo Bielsa. It’s an education.”
Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera, nicknamed ‘Loco Bielsa’ or in English ‘Madman Bielsa’, has managed football clubs and also the national teams of Argentina and Chile. In Chile, he achieved cult status due to the improved results of the national team under his leadership.
His personality and gestures have captured the attention of the media and unleashed a series of minor controversies both in the area of sports and politics.
Only last week, French giants Olympique de Marseille’s president Vincent Labrune announced that Bielsa had agreed a two-year contract and will start after the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He will be the club’s first Argentine coach.
Club Atlético River Plate, based in the Nuñez neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, are the most successful football team in Argentina, having won the Primera División a record 35 times, and arch-rivals Club Atlético Boca Juniors, based in the La Boca neighbourhood of the capital city, have notched more than 50 official titles to date, including its most recent championship.
It’s not the first time Hudson, who lives in Amwaj, has travelled far and wide to seek tips and advice from legendary clubs and football’s coaching greats.
As earlier reported in GulfWeekly, Hudson has even made a trip to Spain to sharpen his footballing knowledge with a session with The Special One, Jose Mourinho, during the Chelsea coach’s spell with Real Madrid.
Bielsa is known for watching and collecting numerous football videos to the point of obsession. He edits and analyses each video for each individual player. He also utilises statistical software and other technological tools to prepare for games.
Bielsa, on occasions, checks pitch measurements by pacing them out before deciding on a particular formation.
Athletic Bilbao’s striker Fernando Llorente said in an interview: “At first he seems tough and he may even annoy you with his persistence and don’t-take-no-for-an-answer resilience, but in the end he is a genius.”
Hudson is known to play similar games and the modern-day tactician has thrown in a few surprises himself.
He was promoted to coach the kingdom’s senior side after motivating Bahrain to victory in the fifth Huawei GCC Under-23 Championship by showing them his ‘home movie’ featuring an edited clip from The Gladiator movie at half-time during the competition.
His pre-match team talk was graphic with a clear cinematic message to play ‘with strength and with honour’. He also merged highlights from past games displaying tactical and defensive teamwork as well as some archived goals from former Bahrain stars with the Hollywood hit.
Hudson told GulfWeekly that the clip inspired the team to show a winning mentality and the Gladiator snip in particular motivated the players to take to the pitch showing the same ‘never-say-die’ spirit as actor Russell Crowe displayed in the gladiator arena.
“You can forget about language barrier problems!” the British coach said. “This was an ideal visual way of getting across the message that winning breeds winning!”
Hudson hopes to help bring Bahrain glory in the Asian Cup Finals in 2015 in Australia and returns to the kingdom on Sunday.
In the meantime, all footballing eyes will be focused on the World Cup Finals in Brazil which kick off on June 12 and run to July 13.
Hudson is backing the home side Brazil to win 3-2 in a thrilling final against Argentina and told GulfWeekly football fanatics to watch out for Chile who he says will be the ‘surprise team and will make it to the World Cup semi-finals’.
