Hudson’s success in NZ

England came up short at Euro 2016 but the country will still have a coach at next year’s Confederations Cup.

Anthony Hudson has guided New Zealand to the 2017 tournament in Russia having won the Nations Cup in Oceania. Adam Bate caught up with Hudson to find out how he is harnessing the culture of the All Blacks with one eye on the 2018 World Cup…

England’s familiar lament upon being eliminated from a major tournament usually includes the old line about the failure to produce enough coaches. But here’s the irony: this is a country that overlooks the ones they already have.

For while England need not concern themselves with the Confederations Cup in Russia next year, there will be an English coach waiting for Portugal, Chile and the rest in 2017. Anthony Hudson is set to become the first Briton to take charge of a team at the tournament.

New Zealand suffered a shock defeat to New Caledonia under Hudson’s predecessor Ricki Herbert four years ago, but the 35-year-old managed to guide the All Whites to Nations Cup victory in June to secure their spot in Russia.

It’s just the latest experience for the Londoner, son of former Chelsea and England player Alan Hudson, in a career that’s already taken him to Holland, America and the national team job of Bahrain. It also more than makes up for the digs about England’s latest struggles.

“You get people being clever,” Hudson tells Sky Sports. “Every time England do badly they laugh at you. In fact, what you’ll see is that there’ll be a load of Portuguese coaches in the Middle East soon. They just follow who is winning. It definitely has a knock-on effect. 

“But I’m enjoying it in New Zealand. I’ve been here two years and it’s been tough in a way because we haven’t played a lot of games and it’s difficult to get people together. But we’ve got this tournament to look forward to now and that’s massive. It’s all opening up now.”

Some of the challenges faced are predictable ones. The 30-hour round flight to play against Oman means tackling jet lag. Trips to see English-based stars such as West Ham’s Winston Reid and Leeds striker Chris Wood take Hudson even further from his Auckland home. 

But other problems have been more unusual. Hudson took the proactive step of taking charge of the Under-23 side for Olympic qualifying with a view to spending more time with the young players and instituting a defined style across all age groups.

On the field, it was a success with the team winning all of their games. But Deklan Wynne was …

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