The transformation of Bengaluru FC by Ashley Westwood

From the northern regions of Manchester to the southern portion of the Indian peninsula – Ashley Westwood has come a long way to change the face of the Bengaluru Football Club (BFC).  The team may have failed to defend their I-league title this season, but their spirit led by Westwood bagged them the 2015 Federation Cup and also won the hearts of thousands of football fans.

In a country where cricket overshadows all other sports, it was always going to be a tough decision to be coaching a lesser known football team. However, riding around in his Royal Enfield, Westwood, who took over as the coach of BFC in July 2013 soon adjusted to life in the silicon valley of India.

Some say that he was single-handedly able to fill the 8,000 capacity stadium of BFC, with chants of “Westwood’s blue army” doing the rounds from the fans’ victory parade.

Born in Astley, Ashley lived in Saudi Arabia for a short while before coming back to England at the age of 15. Thereon, he found himself in the Manchester United academy as a defender and had a chance to sign a two-year contract. But being the 10^th choice defender and for fear of less game time, Westwood declined the contract and moved to Crewe Alexandra, where he played the first 100 team games in three seasons.

Ashley saw a flurry of changes as a player, which resulted in him playing for 12 different teams in a span of 15 years. His most prominent time as a player was gaining promotion for Bradford city into the top flight of English football, and in the later years, he carried out the dual player-coach role for Portsmouth in 2012.

His first full time coaching job as first team coach was with Blackpool back in November 2012. His first Indian connection came through Blackburn Rovers, owned by Indian poultry giant Venky’s, who infamously sacked him and the entire staff after only 67 days in office.

But this didn’t deter Ashley, who didn’t hesitate to say yes when the call came for Bengaluru FC. Armed with a subtle understanding of Asian football courtesy of short playing stints in Thailand and Vietnam, he soon found a lot of dust to unsettle on his managerial desk at Bangalore. With the task of managing it all – from the kitchen to the players’ showers, Westwood had his work cut out.

With just three months to go before their first game of the season Westwood introduced a complex football culture that was unheard of in the I-league. His commitment to his job was reflected from the fact that his wife did not move with him to India.

“When you’re sleeping at the training ground and working 24 hours a day you don’t have time to work on a marriage,” explains Ashley.

The club soon bought players that nobody wanted and groomed them into champions. The only marque signing was Sunil Chhetri, the Indian national team captain, which made a statement of the club’s intent.

Westwood introduced the same tests that are used in England and duplicated the Premier League’s fitness standards for the players. His inaugural match was a friendly with the Indian national team which saw BFC draw 1-1.

The club’s first competitive match against Mohun Bagan ended in a stalemate, followed by a 3-0 victory against Rangdajied United. By mid-season BFC was leading the points table and later won the title by beating FC Dempo 4–2 in Goa with a game in hand during the 2013-14 season.

The following season saw BFC work hard to defend their title only to stumble in the last game against eventual winners Mohun Bagan. BFC needed a win to clinch the top spot, but only managed a draw coming from an unbeaten run of 13 games. The club also participated in the 2015 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off, 2014 Durand Cup and Federation Cup – where they were crowned champions after defeating Dempo 2-1 in the final.

So what transformed this club to achieve such great heights? Hard work of course, but the great managerial skills of the Englishman need to be credited for they are hard to come by in a country driven by notorious bureaucracy.

“All the players live together in an apartment block. They take the bus to the stadium for training in the morning. They eat breakfast together and then start training. Some days, they don’t leave the club until four o’clock. Then they go home, reload and it’s back to work the next day,” states Westwood, who is the first to walk in and out of the training grounds.

The success of the club has been influential in exponentially increasing the fan base. From no supporters to sold out stadium crowd, that’s where the true success of BFC has been.

“I just want to keep working hard here. If that leads somewhere else, fine. I’m not picking up newspapers. If you can be successful in India, I believe you can do it anywhere in the world,” has been Westwood’s mantra.

The former defender was named coach of the year at the end of the season by the Football Players Association of India. Westwood attributes his success to tactical flexibility and top-level physical conditioning. After working for 12-14 hours a day he has seen much success for BFC with two titles in two years. Owing to BFC’s laurels many of the players are joining the bandwagon along with Captain Sunil Chhetri to represent their homeland.

The club, despite being backed by the JWS conglomerate, didn’t have a big budget, as the popular myth goes. Ashley always bought players who wanted to join the club to better themselves and not for the money. He has negotiated hard for players and insists that they are not a Manchester City type of football club.

The 38-year-old has a lot more to do in India with BFC and believes that his coaching career is a new lease of life to him; a second chance to not make the mistakes he made as a player.

It’s always tough for a foreign coach to work in India, given the lifestyle and language adjustment that come with it. And while he’d like to manage in England in the future, he’s very much enjoying his ride in India at present.

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