New blood required

You could hear a pin drop since Lee Tae-Hoon returned from the SEA Games debacle

It's been nearly two weeks since Cambodia's national football coach, Lee Tae-Hoon returned from Jakarta with an ignominious SEA Games record of played 4, lost 4, scored 2, conceded 16, points zero. And that's after the national coaching set-up had publicly stated their key focus this year was squarely on achieving success in the SEA Games, over and above any potential success in the World Cup qualifying rounds or any other competition for that matter. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out did it. But anyone with the slightest awareness of football in the region could've forecast what took place. All of our rivals bust a gut to do well in the SEA Games. They raise their level of performance and intensity. So a blind monkey could've predicted we'd get thumped and we did. The fact is that neither the full national team or the U-23s that played in Indonesia are in any better shape than when the ex-South Korean women's team assistant coach took over 15 months ago. Anyone could've achieved what he's managed, getting knocked out of every competition at the first hurdle. And yet the Federation have remained silent as a mouse since the SEA Games debacle. Not a peep from the people who gave him the job and who pledged their faith in him. They even renewed that commitment with a new twelve month contract a while back and yet we continue to lose ground to every other country in Southeast Asia whilst Lee is at the helm. Cambodia needs new blood, someone with the experience, motivational skills and coaching nous to pick us up by the scruff of the neck, give us a good shaking and take us into a new era. Keeping the current incumbent in his post is not the answer. We now have just under a year before we face our next big international test, qualifying for the AFF Suzuki Cup next October. If the Federation bite the bullet and accept the inevitable sooner rather than later, that will give a new man a fair crack of the whip in terms of moulding the team into what he wants. If we continue as we are, we are doomed to continue to lose touch with our nearest rivals, however much effort our players put into it. We need a new man in charge now.