Newly-appointed Bangladesh goalkeeping coach Dean Kenneth May has travelled with the national team to Cambodia, ahead of their Fifa international friendly Saturday. Appointed on a short-term contract, May spoke to the media regarding his immediate plans with the national side and the U-23 team, who will contest the AFC Championship Qualifiers later this month. Here are the excerpts:
What will be your target with the Bangladesh and U-23 squad for the Fifa international friendly against Cambodia and the AFC qualifiers respectively?
The target is match related training for the Cambodia friendly. We only have three days.
What will be the focus of your training during this short period, especially during the 10-day camp in Qatar?
For the camp in Qatar, we’ll work on integration of different training methods so that the players have a good understanding of the work we are doing. I’ll also need to prepare the training for the goalkeepers according to [Jamie] Day’s philosophy.
Day hopeful forwards will deliver against Cambodia https://t.co/gnHwyEiWOq#Bangladesh will play an international friendly against #Cambodia on Saturday, March 9 and for that, they will fly on Wednesday
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) March 5, 2019
You came to Bangladesh before as a goalkeeping coach education tutor to conduct AFC courses. How many times have you been to Bangladesh and did that play a role in accepting this short-term contract?
I’ve been to Bangladesh twice and I have some friends there. Especially, I am good friends with the technical and strategic director, Paul [Thomas] Smalley. So, yes, that did play a role in taking up this contract.
What is the exact duration of the contract?
The duration of the contract is from March 5-27.
Is there a chance of contract extension or signing of a permanent contract following the AFC qualifiers?
Nothing can be said about that right now. It depends on the BFF authority first. Besides I have to have to think about other things while making a long-term commitment. I have my family in Australia and whether the contract will be compatible with that is a question for the future. So, no definite decision, regardless it is positive or negative, can be made at the moment.