No turning back on Azkals’ Suzuki, Asian Cup buildup

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Azkals team manager Dan Palami assured there won’t be any disruption in the Pinoy booters’ buildup for the 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup and 2019 Asian Cup following the withdrawal of former English captain Terry Butcher as head coach.

According to Palami, the training program has already been set with Irish coach Scott Cooper, who was part of Butcher’s original team as senior football adviser, handling the buildup. He also bared that former Azkals coach Aris Caslib is coming in to help with the preparations.

“We’re looking forward to our preparations as envisioned, including all the camps and invitation to players that will be participating in the camps,” Palami said when he guested on the “12 Minutes With” podcast of Paolo del Rosario.

The Azkals are slated to fly to Bahrain for training and friendlies next month to gear up for the November to December Suzuki Cup.

He said management is not really in a hurry to name a replacement for Butcher.

“We’re looking for options, of course, but we’re not much in a hurry because we want to implement the style that Scott Cooper did for (Thai League powerhouse) Buriram and his other Southeast Asian teams because it suits well with the players we have here in Phl and how we want to approach the games in Suzuki Cup and Asian Cup,” he said.

“We’re in consensus with our opinion that we give time to Scott to blend with the team and we’ve actually included as part of our shortlist Aris Caslib, who has just gotten his pro license diploma and he’s familiar with players here, certainly works well with Scott when it comes to preparations,” he added.