“I wanted to impact the game here in India” - Arthur Papas Interview Part One

Subhash Bhowmick guided Churchill Brothers to I-League success and Trevor Morgan has established East Bengal as one of the best club teams in South-East Asia but the one coach that has impressed the most in Indian football this season is undoubtedly Arthur Papas.

The young Australian was initially brought to India on technical director Rob Baan’s recommendation to be the head coach of the FIFA-AIFF regional academy in Navi Mumbai. But following Dutchman Raymond Libregts’ refusal to take charge of the India Under-22 team and Pailan Arrows, the responsibility was given to Papas and he has done wonders ever since.

Papas almost took India to the final rounds of the Under-22 Asian Cup but more importantly, got a young group of players to play an exciting brand of football against some of the stronger teams of the continent. The development of most of those youngsters continued at Arrows with the federation’s developmental side playing with a style that was nowhere to be seen last season when they managed just two wins and finished in the bottom two of the I-League.

“We had only 18 days to prepare (for the Under-22 Asian Cup qualifiers) so it was a huge challenge and that’s the reason I took it,” Papas stated in an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda.

Despite getting very little time to prepare, Papas got the best out of a group that he was working with the very first time. India had beaten Turkmenistan and Lebanon and also held mighty UAE. They lost narrowly to Iraq and going into the last game against hosts Oman, still had a great chance to qualify.

It wasn’t the perfect ending as Oman won thanks to four second half goals but the Indian team had won the hearts of everyone that had watched them in the qualifiers with their coach proving his credentials.

Papas got the best out of a group of youngsters

“At the youth level, the performance is not valued as much in India compared to Australia, there is too much focus on results and this is a main reason why as a country India then fail at senior level to develop top quality players. I didn’t realise how much of a challenge it was until my first training session. There was apprehension among the players which they didn’t admit at the start because for their whole development cycle, they had been so used to the 1-4-4-2 and a playing style which was defensive orientated, very direct and aimed at winning the second ball, whereas I introduced a 1-4-3-3 which stressed upon building up from the back, a possession based game and keeping the ball on the ground.

“In the end, we probably exceeded everyone’s expectations because not only we got results but played good football and scored a lot of goals. The whole tournament was talking about the performance of the Indian team. The last game was disappointing as we fell apart in the last 45 minutes but that happens to even the best and the perfect example of that was the way Barcelona were dismantled 7-0 over two legs,” Papas stated.

Often the problem with Indian teams of any age group is the inferiority complex in the dressing room when they are up against the stronger teams of Asia but looking back, Papas believes that wasn’t the case with his players.

“Maybe it’ a case of the (inferiority complex) past. I was quite comfortable with the players I had. I have coached in Asia in the past and looking at my group I felt we shouldn’t be underdogs. Lot of things went our way in that tournament and that doesn’t happen all the time but I have a saying I use with my teams, which is ‘the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get’. And when you get a positive result in the first game, there is immediately momentum for future games,” he commented.

Besides impressing neutrals both during the Asian Cup qualifiers and the I-League, Papas also takes great satisfaction from the fact that some members of that Under-22 side went on to play for the senior national team. Papas also refused to single out anyone from the group and stated that everyone had improved since the start of the season.

For Papas, everyone in his team improved

“Someone like Alwyn (George) never played for a national team before that and a few months after that tournament he became a senior international. So something like this was much more important for the long-term future of Indian football. I don’t think there is one player in my team who hasn’t improved since the start of the season and anyone coming from another club into our training environment would find it difficult because the intensity and speed is very high,” said the Arsenal fan.

Papas, who was born in Melbourne but is of Greek origin and is also a big fan of Panathinaikos, further revealed that doing well in the Under-22 tournament also enhanced his self-belief and gave him confidence for the I-League campaign with Pailan Arrows.

“You are never certain that a method you have used all along in your country would work in a new country. (The results) gave me a lot of confidence to continue implementing the same philosophy at the Arrows. I never made winning the priority and focused on the performance, however winning is the product of good performances in the long term picture.

“The league is stronger than it was three years ago and it will be even stronger next season because higher quality foreigners are coming in and the level of the Indian players is improving so it will be a challenge for Arrows to do what we did this year,” he opined.

More than a Coach

Besides the success stories on the pitch, Papas shares a special relationship with his players, who consider him to be more than just a coach.

“They found a coach who is willing to work really hard for them and help them reach their potential. I didn’t come here to just receive my paycheck and return to my country. I wanted to impact the game here in India. I wanted to impact the youngsters both on and off the field because many of them didn’t have the confidence to do the basic things. At the start they were even hesitant to ask questions.

“In return they have given me for most parts everything, they are young and do make mistakes but even that is a part of their development. They have mentioned on many occasions that in the past a lot of coaching in India has been about dictating to the players and not giving them any freedom to express themselves. But my way is to guide their decision-making process, along this path some are going to be right and some wrong but the key is to learn from them because the game is not about creating robots, it’s about humans expressing themselves within a team environment,” Papas explained.

Watch this space for part two of this exclusive interview.

All Photo Credits: AIFF Media