Has Peter Reid, the Thailand national soccer team coach, left to join English Premier League outfit Stoke City as an assistant? Or is Reid still managing Thailand? Or is he doing both?
BBC Sport had this item yesterday, written as if Reid officially joined Stoke City last month, which may well be the case:
Stoke City’s Mark O’Connor believes the experience of his colleagues, Peter Reid and Gerry Francis, can help him improve as a first-team coach.
Francis have been coaching at Stoke since October, while Reid joined the Potters as assistant manager in August.
Meanwhile, the president of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), Worawi Makudi, has told the Bangkok Post (see below) that Reid will continue at Stoke City for two more weeks. But it’s unclear whether Reid will resume coaching Thailand full-time after that.
For context, previous posts on the matter are here (Aug. 31) and here (Aug. 28).
The Bangkok Post‘s soccer expert, Tor Chittinand, has this piece in today’s paper:
“Worawi Makudi, president of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), met Peter Reid in Manchester to discuss whether he wanted to remain as Thailand’s national team coach.
English Premier League chairman Sir David Richards was also there and Worawi said Reid wanted to continue as Thailand’s coach.
The meeting was called after it was apparent that Reid was working at Stoke as assistant to club manager Tony Pulis.
I thought the matter was over but the saga is far from at an end.
Worawi said after returning from England yesterday that Reid had asked for permission to help Pulis for another two weeks.
Regardless of whether the former Sunderland coach comes back or not, he has lost several friends and made a number of enemies in Thailand.
A strange affair indeed.
UPDATE: The Nation is reporting that the FAT have fired Reid. Story — though the wording is unclear — is here.