SEA Games Glory: Another Botched Attempt?

Coach Sundram is N9-bound

Just a short entry on the thoughts after the news broke out yesterday morning that Lions XII coach V Sundramoorthy is set to join Malaysian club Negri Sembilan in November.

While I am not going to discuss the impact on the ongoing Lions XII's Malaysia Cup campaign, as I think I don't qualify for that. Instead, I would like to share my thoughts on the effect for the upcoming SEA Games in Burma in coming December.

It was widely acknowledged that “The Dazzler” was supposed to spearhead the national U23 team in their quest for that elusive regional glory, thus with the confirmation of the 47-year-old's new venture across the Causeway in weeks to come, it had definitely caused quite a disruption for the SEA Games preparation.

"As I have said on several occasions, I am deeply appreciative of the support and assistance rendered to me by my management and colleagues at FAS." said coach Sundram in a press release issued by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) weeks ago, following news reports that speculated his next career move with approaches from some Malaysian teams once his current contract as the Lions XII coach is going to expire in months to come.

Despite the very effort to calm things down with the issuing of this release that also detailed FAS's appreciation of the works done by the former Singapore striker and was in the midst of discussion on his contract renewal, things turned futile with the confirmation of coach Sundram's departure.

"Like any professional coach, I would need to consider all key factors before making a decision on my future." added coach Sundram in the same release which more or less concluded he weighted his options before coming to the decision to join the "Nine States".

Harimau Muda coach Ong Kim Swee

At the present, it may seems that coach Sundram is likely to complete the Malaysia Cup obligations before stepping down, although the bigger question would be who is to take over the helm as the Cubs' coach in such a short space of time when other countries in the region are already in the groove of their final tuning process?

With the upcoming Merdeka Tournament in September at Kuantan that is meant to be a platform to gauge the Cubs' strength against the likes of the impressive Harimau Muda side coached by Ong Kim Swee, the sudden impending departure of coach Sundram would see it meaningless for him to lead the team to Pahang.

At this moment, there is no immediate respond from FAS on these matters and yet again, are we going to another botched attempt to unfold before the start?