Q - Please can you introduce yourself
My name is Gian Chansrichawla. I am a Thai citizen born in Bangkok, with Indian descent. I am 16 years old and I am currently still a high school student, joining university next year.
Q - How long have you been following Thai football?
I would consider this to be my third season where I am fully invested in Thai football.
Q - And what first got you interested?
I was actually returning home from a trip to the UK, having visited Stamford Bridge and watched Chelsea take on Manchester United. I loved the atmosphere in the stadium, and remember thinking how lucky fans in Europe were to have football to watch right on their doorstep. At that moment I decided to follow Thai football. I opened up Google maps while waiting for my flight at Heathrow Airport and tried to find which Thai club was based closest to me. It was a toss up between Muangthong, Thai Port and Bangkok United at their old stadium. Ultimately, I found out that the Muangthong players were coming for a training session at my school, so I decided to stick with them.
Q - You've been lucky enough to enjoy work experience at Muang Thong Utd and the Nation. How did these opportunities come about?
One of the English teachers at my school was the official English language journalist for Muangthong United’s magazine, and Muangthong’s youth team were coming to play against our school team. The journalism class I was in was asked to send a representative, and since I had established myself as the “football writer,” I was invited to go. What I would consider as my actual internship and entrance into sports journalism were the two weeks I spent working at The Nation, covering Thai football.
Q - What did your work at the two places involve?
The Muangthong ‘internship’ was a one time thing, where I was asked to write three match reports on the game for three different sources. The one that I worked the hardest on and ended up going on the Muangthong United website and official magazine didn’t even have my name on it.
At The Nation I was asked to cover the Thai National Women’s team in the AFF Suzuki Cup in Myanmar. If I remember correctly, Thailand went on to win against Vietnam in a final after a penalty that crossed the line for Vietnam wasn’t given, and Thailand won amid much anger and chaos.
Q - What did you enjoy most about your experiences?
For the Nation, the best part of my job was interviewing Mario Gjurovski at Central World. I still have his signature on my wall.
Q - And was there anything you didn't like?
Not being able to speak or read Thai properly was the most difficult, because so many sources are exclusively in Thai and it is incredibly difficult to be an English journalist.
Q - Do you think Thai clubs and football news outlets should have more content in English on their websites/social media?
Absolutely. Thai clubs need to embrace the English language, and have more information readily available in English on their websites and media outlets. News agencies like goal.com and fourfourtwo need to cover Thai football in English more - currently most of it is only in Thai and it is incredibly annoying for people with limited Thai, and I assume it makes it almost impossible to follow for foreigners.
Q - Which football writers inspire you and why?
The football writers at The Guardian are always a joy to read, and I try to learn from them as much as I can. But I think the biggest inspiration for me was not a writer at all, but a coach that I played under at U12 level. When I returned a year ago, he offered me a ‘job’ to be his assistant coach. I remember a conversation with him when he asked me about my plans for the future and university, and whether I would go to a journalism school. I told him that I would pursue economics if it didn’t work out, and he told me never to think like that. He said that if I wanted to do something I loved, I should put all of my heart and soul into achieving it. That remains my biggest inspiration.
Q - What are your ambitions for the future?
I hope to one day be working for a multi-national news agency, where I can cover European football and Thai football, spreading awareness of the latter to the wider world. I want to have an active role in Thailand, promoting and developing football in the country. Making a living out of doing something that I love would be the best thing I could hope to achieve.
Q - What advice would you give to other aspiring writers?
Well, I am one myself, so I don’t think I'm qualified enough to give advice to others yet. If I had to, I would say that the main thing is to establish your own style and own voice, it’s what has worked for me so far.
Q - Who are your favourite Thai league players?
I think Sarach Yooyen for Muangthong United has to be number one in terms of Thai players. He works really hard and gets up and down the pitch, and is generally comfortable in every situation he finds himself in. I think Cleiton Silva is the best player I have ever seen play in the Thai League (no bias there), but I also have a lot of respect Mario Abrante, Tanaboon Kesarat and Go Suel-Ki.
Q - Who are your favourite Thai league coaches?
Mano Polking has to be number one. He is so energetic and charismatic on the touchline, it is a joy to watch. When Bangkok United visited the SCG last season I was sitting in the first row right behind the visiting bench and I got to see him first hand. It was brilliant. I hope that he goes on to coach in bigger leagues and becomes an ambassador for the Thai League in some ways.
I still love Kiatisuk, obviously, for the work that he did with the Thai National Team, and I feel he could be moving on to coach in better leagues. I think Pacheta at Ratchaburi deserves some credit for the style that his team play with and his commitment to giving younger players chances.
Q - And your favourite Thai league clubs?
Other than Muangthong United, I’ve been told that Ratchaburi is a club to look out for over the next few years. One of the writers at The Nation was working on a feature article on Ratchaburi’s development and new stadium during my time as in intern there, and he told me that the club is heading in a very positive direction. They seem to be very highly rated amongst journalists. Other than that, Bangkok United is another club I like to watch, mainly because their matches always seem to have the most goals and because of their coach, Mano Polking.
Q - What are your overall impressions of the league this season?
I think it has been incredibly unpredictable and exciting. People talk about the quality going down when compared to Gama’s Buriram or Jokanovic’s Muangthong, but I haven’t really noticed it. Even now coming into the end of the season anything could happen - expect the unexpected in the Thai League.
Q - Who do you think will win the title?
Buriram Utd because luck is perpetually on their side! On a more serious note, they actually gel together as a team better than Muangthong Utd do.
Q - In which areas do you think Thai domestic football needs to improve?
All of the problems that we often associate with Thai football - that being the lack of interest, the lack of quality, and so forth - are all borne from the fact that the talent pool for these clubs is far too small. There is a very small number of top level Thai players, and if a few clubs are able to monopolize that, there is very little that other clubs can do by only relying on the five foreign player slots. The Thai League needs to extend the talent pool in some way, either by expanding the number of foreign players per team or not counting other AFC players as foreign. This will allow clubs with superior scouting and coaching systems to rise to the top.
It’s not just enough to have money - you need to also have brains. Look at RB Leipzig and AS Monaco this season. I want to see that kind of innovative thinking in the Thai league. Under the current rules, however, just throwing money at things is the easiest way to win the league.
Q - If you could give Thai club owners/chairmen/chairwomen any advice, what would it be?
The main advice I would like to give is just to allow the head coach room to breathe. Don’t demand him to play a certain way, let him experiment with the team and find a style that he can coach. Bangkok United have done so well because Mano Polking has been given time and respect there.
Secondly, I would like to see some innovative scouting tactics be used to gain an advantage in the market. Every chairman/chairwoman in the Thai League, and maybe even in the world, should read the book ‘Soccernomics’ by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski.
Q - What are your impressions of all the breaks for international fixtures?
Milovan Rajevac should be given every chance to work with the Thai National team, because it would be great to announce ourselves in a big way in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the UAE. That being said, there has got to be a better way to do this than having such large breaks in the season. It’s easy for people to lose interest if the teams are going to take such long breaks. They should be scheduling long periods of time for the team to meet during the close season, and probably during some sort of mid-term break as well.
If there is a midterm break, it should be one long break as opposed to the way it’s being done currently. I would suggest that this break come around the time when the English Premier League starts so we can all keep ourselves sufficiently entertained. The Thai League should be playing as many games as possible during the European close season, so they don’t clash with the Premier League and can capitalize on an idle football fan-base.
Q - Where do you see the Thai league in five year’s time?
I hope to see good coaches across the league. I hope some of the current ones can last 5 years, but I strongly doubt that is even possible. By that time I hope that the landscape of the league has changed, and we have some new faces competing at the top of the table.
Hopefully there will be more Thai players in foreign countries, and the televised games will have optional English commentary and English half-time analysis.
I know many people might disagree with this, but I hope some mega-rich owners like Red Bull or the City Football Group come and establish a new club in Thailand - it would really help grow the brand of the league and they would bring plenty of football know-how.
Most importantly, I would love to see more people turning up at the gates and realizing that there is brilliant football to watch right on their doorstep.
Q - Is there anything else you'd like to add?
While I guess I can consider myself as a fan of Muangthong Utd, above all I am a Thailand fan, and I want what is best for Thailand. I hope that fans from all over the league can enjoy rivalries during the season while they last, but unite and do their part in helping the Thai national team. I have never truly felt like a Thai until I began to support the Thai National Team. I want to thank all Thai football fans for welcoming me and truly making me feel Thai, as opposed to being an Indian with a Thai passport. I love this country and I want to see us at a World Cup one day.
I also would like to thank Dale, Nigel (Thai League Football Podcast) and everyone else who has given me a chance to write and express myself.
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