Phil Brown’s managerial career hasn’t been anything short of a roller-coaster ride. He first learnt the ropes under Sam Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers, helping them find their way back into European football, before carving out a name for himself at Hull City and cementing his place in the club’s hall of fame - leading them to the top flight for the first time in history and helping them stay in the Premier League.
Brown lived off his wits. Right from singing Hull City’s chant in front of fans at the KC Stadium after their promotion to giving the hairdryer treatment to his players in public during that infamous 2008 Boxing Day incident when his side trailed by 0-4 at half-time against Manchester City, his career has witnessed many thrilling episodes.
Last year, he arrived in India with a huge reputation, perhaps, his first experience outside English football and has seen challenges pile up one after another. Taking charge midway of now-defunct FC Pune City during the 2018-’19 Indian Super League season, he guided the club from bottom to a reputable seventh-place finish.
Muddled in financial woes, the club shut down in the summer along with a change of ownership, resulting in the emergence of Hyderabad FC. Brown now has a task in his hands, the club languishing at the bottom in the current campaign.
He desires a return to England but not anytime soon. First, the former Derby County gaffer wants to prove his credentials in India and show he can still deliver trophies.
In a chat with Scroll.in, the Englishman spoke about learning under Big Sam, his ambition to revive football in Hyderabad and more.
How would you define your experience in India so far?
I would define coming to India as, unique. I’ve never assembled a diverse culture like this before. Not even the kind of football that has played in the ISL before. It is exciting. Lots of things going on in the game - controversies, talking points, arguments. I’m just waiting for it to settle down. It won’t and I can’t see it settling down.
From the day I arrived to now, everything has stayed the same. Its been absolutely crazy. So in terms of a cultural shock, I’d say it was massive. But I’m embracing every part of it. I’ve come here for an experience and I’m getting it 100%.
Are you satisfied with how things panned out for you at Hull City?
A lot of people outside my world would look at my career at Hull City and go, ‘You must regret this, you must regret that’. Not at all. I don’t say I made every decision in a calculated way but I certainly lived emotionally. All of the five years I spent were successful in my opinion.
I joined them a championship struggling team and I left as a Premier League manager after two years. And two years in the Premier League is a lot of money. But I’ve moved on to newer pastures where every challenge I’ve met head-on.
How big of an influence did Big Sam have on your coaching career?
A lot of people don’t like the way Big Sam played football. I disagree with that. Going back to our Bolton Wanderers days, and we had players like Jay-Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff, Ivan Campo, Fernando Hierro. I could go on and on but the inspiration for me was to try and have conversations with big players and get them to come to your club.
Allardyce sold the concept of Bolton Wanderers when it was an unknown commodity. It was a fantastic achievement. But I’ve got my own career now to look forward to now. The one thing that I’d say, Sam taught me and what will stay with me is to be true to yourself.
What’s your assessment of Indian football?
There are only 10 teams and I don’t think 18 games is enough. That’s one of the biggest changes I would see. Let’s play four times, home and away twice. Make it a 36-game season and then whoever finishes top wins. End the story.
When you play 18 games and top and then play in the semi-finals and final it makes it exciting, it makes money, enough TV viewing but you know, let’s get a chunk of 36 games so that you’ve got to eight-month season instead of having a five-six months season and five-six months off, where the players are not getting enough contact time. That’s what we need as coaches. I’m not saying I’m the best coach in the world but at least I can improve individuals if I get that contact time.
Also having a relegation system is a positive fear. It’s been in my life for 40 years. You don’t want to end up at the bottom because you’re going to get relegated. You don’t want to get into that situation so you do everything you possibly can to fight against that. And that positive fear results in positive action.
How big of a task was it for you at FC Pune City, where the players couldn’t fully concentrate on football due to payment issues?
That phase was really difficult, the first time I’ve ever faced such a situation as manager. When I arrived at Pune, we had six games left. To win five, draw two and lose one in the last eight was a great achievement by everybody.
But when it came to the second last game of the season, we were told that we weren’t going to get paid. I’ve never walked into a change room where I’m thinking I’ve got no control over this motivation and stuff. A coach knows when he walks into his change room without players motivated or not.
I started the year at Pune and did okay. I got a couple of job offers because of that but decided to stay with the president of the club. Then all of a sudden the franchise changed hands with new ownership. And that in itself is another relationship that I’ve had to forge. So all of these things. It is difficult, but not insurmountable.
What would you describe as your biggest challenge in India?
A new franchise. I have joined clubs but which have been around for nearly 100 years. Now we’re coming to a new city where I was told the history of Hyderabad and that it used to produce six-eight national team players in the 60s and 70s. So to come from that, sleep for 40 years and build a brand new franchise, that’s been the biggest challenge. I’m trying to get my head around that.
But if you’re going to create something, you have to understand the history. I’ve tried to do it and we’re trying to wake Hyderabad up again. Let’s produce another five-eight players for India. But that [passion] has to come from within.
From the 18 Indian players have got, I think we’ve got one-two of them who will be knocking at the door of the national team in the next two-three years. We are also running a reserve league.
So looking at the next five-six years of Hyderabad, you’re hoping and praying that we will get the recruitment right, that the franchise stays together and that something can be built. If I move on, I move on. It’s not a problem but you’ve started something and you’re hoping that owners, coaching staff players all buy into that. And if that can be the case, why not we can have five-six players again in the national team.
You are one of the few managers in the ISL who prefers to play more direct, an anomaly to style adopted by Spanish coaches. What made you believe that it was best suited for Indians?
I feel the best coaches, the best players find a way. It’s a slow process but you’ve got to be on the training ground with them every day and you need them to be educated. This is the way to do it. If the opposition is squeezing you, you got to hit it from the [halfway] line - maybe a 35-yard ball instead of a 5-10 yard pass where you play 200 passes before you into the other half.
There’s different ways of winning games of football. Of course, the Spanish style is very educational from everybody’s point of view. India, I think, will eventually find their own way. As far as I see, it will be technically-based, it will be pace-based and one with energy. The energy levels of the Indian players are phenomenal.
How can Indian football bridge the gap with the rest of the world?
India’s plans are big. The ISL and I-League, at some stage, have got to formulate a bigger division and get together instead of fighting with each other. I don’t know if that’s the case but at the moment it looks like an internal wrangle. I think [Stephen] Constantine had a plan. He stayed with a plan for four years and improved the [Fifa] rankings. Igor Stimac has the same challenges.
If you’ve got all these people working in the right direction, it will always come down to eventually support for the coach and the players he is picking.
I know from Adil Khan alone, how the Indian team is running and how he’s improving. If Adil at 30-31 can improve, then the 21 and 22-year-olds much should be looking at Adil and find out what he is getting better at. The big part of Adil is his mentality. He feels that he can finish his career in the next 3-4 years in the national team, playing centre-half despite playing centre-midfield in the ISL.
It can only show you that he’s got the right mentality and every young player must be looking at that.