SINGAPORE – Takayuki Nishigaya’s stint as Singapore national football coach was doomed from the start.

The 50-year-old Japanese was sacked by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) on Jan 29, but he should not be the only one held responsible for the Lions’ largely poor run of results over the past two years.

In December 2021, his predecessor Tatsuma Yoshida quit the post less than 11 months into his second two-year contract, but it took the FAS four months to appoint a replacement.

Budget was a concern, but there were still candidates who had international experience and pedigree.

One of them was Stephen Constantine, who took India to the 2019 Asian Cup and the top 100 in the Fifa rankings, and after being snubbed by Singapore, led Pakistan to the second round of World Cup qualifiers for the first time.

While it seemed like the Englishman had the CV to deliver, the FAS passed up on the opportunity – though there was no guarantee he would have succeeded here.

But what it failed to do was to give the national team every chance of succeeding.

The Asian Cup qualifiers in June 2022 were one example, with a kind draw and a single round-robin tournament presenting the Lions with a great opportunity to qualify for the continental showpiece for the first time. With just one international football window in March 2022 to prepare, it was baffling that the FAS took such a long time to appoint Nishigaya on April 25, 2022.

It would not be until May 26 that year that he held his first training session, giving him little to no time to understand and bond with the players before they set off. They had just one friendly against Kuwait on June 1, 2022 before the Asian Cup qualifiers in Kyrgyzstan a week later.

They led the hosts before losing 2-1, lost 1-0 to Tajikistan and beat Myanmar 6-2. Imagine what could have been if the team had more time to work with their new coach.

There are other questions to ponder.

Despite mediocre results at club level, Nishigaya was hired on the recommendation of the Japan Football Association.

Did the FAS seriously consider other options? Did it do its due diligence to check on Nishigaya’s personality, temperament and ability to communicate? Or did it simply trust that lightning would strike twice and he would, like Yoshida, work out?

Every good international coach needs a first break, and there are plenty of cases of coaches who succeed overseas despite not speaking the country’s native language.

Some, like former Vietnam coach Park Hang-seo, have a strong team of assistants and a skilled translator who can bring the coach’s ideas and messages across well. The Lions just did not have that.

The FAS and Nishigaya are not the only parties responsible for his failing. What can they do if some players feel it is a good idea to attend a New Year’s party a few days before a crucial Asean Football Federation (AFF) Championship clash in January 2023 against Malaysia, which they lost 4-1?

But the coach has to take some of the blame – sources say that he is an introvert who made little effort to bond with his backroom staff and players.

Ultimately, the lack of synergy showed in the lack of identity in games, even if his record of eight victories, five draws and eight defeats is actually superior to Yoshida’s 6-4-10 report card.

Nishigaya was effectively a dead man walking after the Causeway derby humiliation and the rumour mill was rife with talk of his termination when The Straits Times reported that the search for a replacement had begun before the second round of World Cup qualifiers last November.

Albirex Niigata coach Kazuaki Yoshinaga and former Warriors boss Alex Weaver were in the running but did not get the job despite having won the Singapore Premier League title and their experience working in local football.

Former assistant coach of the Japan national team and their Olympic side, Tsutomu Ogura, is believed to have agreed terms with the FAS and was recently in town for medical tests.

The local fraternity is hoping that the FAS, its management and the team will learn from this failure, as a coach on his own can only do so much.

An effective communicator with the ability to inspire the team to play above themselves and a proven track record are ideal qualities, but the Lions must also play ball.

The next national coach must be given resources to build his backroom, organise quality training camps and friendly matches to build camaraderie and boost playing levels, as well as time for his philosophy to take root.

Clear targets and timelines must also be set. Forget the World Cup – the AFF Championship semi-finals will be a good start and qualification for the 2027 Asian Cup must be the main goal.

The FAS rarely sacks its foreign coaches and its decisiveness this time round, believing that “an early transition to a fresh successor would re-energise the team” must be matched by the right decisions moving forward.

Otherwise, we could be stuck in Groundhog Day and having this same discussion in two years’ time.