Are there any other coaches, other than Coach Ban, who you like and have learned from?
At first I was an assistant to Jorka (Slavisa Jokanovic). He is very good, he taught me many things. I learned a lot from Jorka.
You were the caretaker coach of Muangthong for a short time in 2018, and had responsibility of managing the first team for six games. What was it like to deal with the pressure of being in charge of one of Thailand’s biggest clubs, and are you happy with how you performed there?
I tried my best, I didn’t take on too much pressure, and I knew about the quality of the players because I had been at Muangthong for a long time. I tried my best and good results came. We were unlucky because [during] my time, we had many players injured. That was a big problem for Muangthong. In Coach Ban’s last game, we lost to Prachuap 6-1 because we had many problems with player injuries. When I took [charge] for six games, I tried my best.
In my first game I started a young player, Peem (Patcharapol Intanee). We had no choice, but he had good quality so I gave him his first game in the Thai League. In that first game he had a good performance.
Gian: Were you surprised when they asked you to step in as head coach? Did you have enough time to prepare?
All of the players were shocked when we lost to Prachuap, and in the press conference Totchtawan said he was [leaving] Muangthong. We were shocked. All the players and I didn’t know because we were on the bus already. But on the bus from Prachuap to Muangthong I had many phone calls, but still I didn’t know about the press conference.
Sarach (Yooyen) called me, and asked ‘what happened?’ He asked me to try and get Coach Ban to stay but it was too late already. Then in the morning the president called me and told me [to take charge for a few games].
Grant: I remember though, for those games, it was difficult for the players but they fought every game. They fought very hard. How did you achieve that, and how did you get them so motivated?
In the training, I try to put the motivation for the players because we have no choice. We have to wait until the club chooses a new coach to replace Totchtawan. The players knew the situation, so they tried their best. After we played [against] Ubon, we played at home and we won 2-1, I remember. Me and the players, we can talk like friends, which is why we had no [pressure].