Ashley Westwood

After his title-winning successes in India, the Englishman was appointed manager of Malaysian top-flight side Penang this week. He speaks to Andy Mitten as he recounts arguments with Sir Alex Ferguson and playing in England’s top five divisions.

“I’ve just signed a two-year deal to manage Penang in the Malaysian Premier League. I had offers from around Europe and Asia but chose what I thought was the best for me after three years in India. I’d taken Bengaluru to two Indian league titles in three years and wanted to move on. Malaysia is a stronger league, with a more established football culture than India, where it is still building. Some Malaysian clubs average crowds of 20,000 and clubs have youth and under 23 sides. The league starts in January.

I’m from the outskirts of Salford originally and was a childhood Manchester City fan who went to games at Maine Road. I joined United as a schoolboy and progressed through the youth teams winning the 1995 FA Youth Cup alongside Phil Neville.

I was very strong willed as a kid and made some poor decisions, probably because I didn’t get the right guidance. My parents had separated and I needed a father figure.

I did a two-year apprenticeship at United and signed a one-year professional contract. Michael Appleton and I were the only ones from our year to get professional contracts and I was soon in the reserves, yet I was the tenth choice defender for one of the best teams in the world.

I played lots of reserve games and was making progress. Sir Alex Ferguson asked to see me and told me that I was doing well. He said he wanted to offer me a new two year deal. I was on £210 a week. The new deal was £275. I replied: “I can’t be doing that well if the increase is only £65.”

Ferguson was doing things the right way, but I was telling him that I needed to buy a car to get to training. I told him that I needed a £5,000 signing on fee to buy a car. He laughed and said, ‘Get in my team and I’ll look after you’. I replied: ‘How am I going to get in your team? When there’s a flu epidemic?’

My mentality was ‘I’ll go somewhere else and teach him.’ I didn’t have an agent, just a demon in the back of my head. A demon telling me the wrong information.

“I’ll leave!” I told Fergie.

“There’s the door,” he said.

“Can I go for free?” I replied.

“No chance,” he said. “You’re a Man Utd reserve team player. It’s £75,000.”

“Well, is that not going to make it hard for me?”

“Yes, of course it is! Who’s going to pay that for you?”

That made me want to prove him wrong.

Crewe were interested in me. They were happy to buy me for £75,000. I went back to see Ferguson. He already knew about Crewe’s interest. He knew everything. I still thought that he’d agree to a signing on fee and I’d stay at United, but because I was pig-headed I didn’t ask him. So I left the room again. Crewe then told me that United wanted £500,00 for me. A tribunal was needed to sort out my transfer.

Looking back, even though I was tenth choice defender I was still ahead of Wes Brown. But I hate ‘what ifs’. There are loads of people in football pinning the blame for not making it on someone else. Wes had a great career at United and I went to Crewe.

Looking back, I probably needed the modern day Alex Ferguson to say: ‘Come on, son, trust me’. But he was a tougher man then and he was right to be tough.

Years later, when I was a manager myself, I went to Sir Alex for advice about a problem I had with a player. I texted him on the off chance. He called me back from a cab in New York. He told me to explain honestly to the player why I was leaving him out. I did that and the player understood. It helped that I told him the advice had come from Sir Alex.

I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Sir Alex, but I still had a good career in football. I played

500 games in England’s top five leagues with Crewe, Bradford City, Sheffield Wednesday, Northampton Town and Chester City. Some of those latter games were when I went back to Crewe and I played alongside my namesake, now at Aston Villa, leading to chants of “two Ashley Westwoods”. In my first stint at Crewe I played at Wembley in my first season and we won promotion. With Bradford, we stayed up on the final day of the season by beating Liverpool.

Sheffield Wednesday were probably the biggest club that I played for. I’d love to see them back in the Premier League. I also got promotion while on loan with Swindon Town.

I played until I was 35 and won promotion from League 2, League 1 and the Championship. Several of the players who stayed at United didn’t stay in football for so long.

Then I became assistant manager to my friend Michael Appleton at Portsmouth, Blackpool and Blackburn Rovers, where, among other duties, I’d watch 400 matches per year on a screen as part of my video analysis preparation. I’ve never been afraid of hard work.

After leaving Blackburn in 2013, an agent asked me if I was interested in management. In India. It was a shock at first but then I studied the offer. It was to manage Bengaluru FC. I won the league in two my three seasons there and the cup in the others. I also did my coaching badges and I’m about to complete my UEFA pro-licence with the English FA.

I’m a fighter and a grafter and I get there in a tough industry. There’s so much competition in football and then in coaching with so few jobs. So many people want to be coaches that if you get a chance you have to do things the right way.

As a player, you can be hot-headed and sent off and then be back a few weeks later. As a coach you’re dead and buried if you’re ill disciplined.

I work with good people and I work really, really hard.

I don’t miss England. I miss the football network, the chatter, the grapevine, driving to loads of games and speaking to people at different clubs.

But you have to remind yourself that you’re on a mission to get back to the Premier League as a manager. I can do that; I’m still young.

I don’t want to become another failed English coach abroad. They’re ten a penny; men who don’t put the work in and then make it harder for other English coaches to get a gig.

I love football, though. I’ve had some of the greatest moments of my life in football, the best laughs too. I was standing close to Stuart McCall when, drunk, he fell off a car while celebrating promotion with Bradford City in front of thousands of fans. He fell, smashed his face and yet still managed to keep hold of his can of beer.

Dean Saunders is the funniest man I’ve known in football. He can do impressions of Ron Atkinson, Frank Clark, Paul McGrath, Bobby Gould. He has mad stories and you never knew whether he was being serious or not. He once told me that he had a heron which kept stealing fish from his back garden.

I told him that I also had a small pond and that a plastic decoy heron worked. He said he’d tried that but had no luck with it.

“Well, could you not cover the pond with a net?” I asked.

“I don’t think the yacht club would be happy with that,” he replied. He’d set me up for the fall. He also said he’d been burgled, but the robbers had run out of petrol making their getaway down his drive.

Dressing rooms need characters and I’ll encourage them in Penang, a beautiful island off the Malaysian coast. I’ve got an English assistant, Darren Read. He has a good knowledge of football in Asia, he knows the culture and he’s used to living in the region. He has worked at some of the biggest clubs. He came highly recommended by my old assistant, Matt Holland.

The league starts at the end of January. I’ve spent the last two months commentating on the Indian Super League most days and I’ll move to Malaysia when the league is finished.

I just hope I get the time and support that I think I deserve. I’ve worked hard as a coach and been successful and I don’t want to jeopardise what I’ve done. I’m really looking forward to this challenge.”

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