Sean adjusts to life in Zim

the beginning of the season.
The Green Machine job had given him his first experience with Africa, having spent most of his lifetime in Europe and a short stint in America.
Despite living thousands of kilometres away from home and without his family, Connor is fast adapting into the Zimbabwean way of life.
But he prefers to keep a low profile and concentrate on his assignment. “Naturally Zimbabwe has good people who are very hospitable,” he says.
“One of the things I have liked most since coming to Zimbabwe is that the CAPS United owners Twine Phiri and Farai Jere welcomed me well.
“I also learnt that the club’s supporters and other people I have met elsewhere are very friendly.
“It’s a beautiful country with a beautiful climate and hopefully in few years to come I would have done something to put myself in the history books of Zimbabwean football.” Connor has not had the kind of a good start he, or the multitudes of the club’s fans, would have wanted in his new job. But he insists he will not allow himself to be buried under the huge load of expectation.
In his spare time Connor usually douses himself in reading.
“I enjoy reading lots of business books, management books, history books and just relaxing in my spare time.
“But the bigger part of my time is taken by football because I want to be the best manager I can be,” he says.
As a schoolboy, Connor ventured into other disciplines with distinction. He could easily have become a sprinter had he decided to nurture his talent on the tracks.
“I was very quick on the track as a young boy and was up for the All-Ireland Under-17 Championships.
“At one time I was offered an athletics and football scholarship to study at a university in the United States but I turned it down because I wanted to play professional football.
“If I had taken it up my life would probably have been very different, but I have no regrets because I wouldn’t have been where I am today.”
Connor’s family live in Ireland, and he had a warm Easter holiday after his wife and son, Noah, paid him a visit during the long weekend.
He misses them, especially his son Noah (5).
“He also likes football. He has more than 20 replica football shirts and (Lionel) Messi is his hero.
“I remember one evening I took him to a football match when he was still three years old.
“He followed the match with great interest and suddenly fell asleep when Messi was substituted,” says Connor.
Before coming to Zimbabwe, Connor had also been offered other jobs in Nigeria and Swaziland but with the advice of his agents, Joe Mohwindra and Denford Mutashu, he decided to come here.
This is his first time in Africa and already he admits he has been charmed.
“Like anyone else, I had different perceptions about African football at first — that it was disorganised with difficult refereeing. But honestly I came here with an open mind.
“But there are obvious differences between African and European football. The game here is much slower and the players in Europe are bigger.
“As coaches we have to work on the diet and the lifestyles of the players to try and improve them as professional footballers,” he says.
He believes that to achieve success a club should take seriously the welfare of its players.
“Player welfare is everything because without the players there is nothing. Whatever problems they face the coach or manager should hear them first and try to help in the best possible manner that leave the player in the right frame of mind.
“Players should be at the centre of football. Everything should revolve around them. They must be treated as professionals and with that in mind, professional performances are demanded from them.”
Connor also believes he will lead the Green Machine to the Promised Land.
“I came here with great ambitions,” he says. “Some of them are long-term, some medium and short-term.
“I would want to shape CAPS United’s football for up to the next 10 years. The club should feel my influence even after I am gone.
“People shouldn’t underestimate my ambition. They shouldn’t underestimate the sacrifice I made to get here.
“Everything I do has a reason.
“Sometimes you have to go through a lot of pain because of the long-term goals but I promise to continue working hard so that by the end of the season CAPS United will finish in a better position than in any of the last seven years.”
Connor played professional football in the early 1990’s in Ireland and England as a left winger and also at leftback.
However his career, which spanned for only about six years, was cut short following a car crash that left him with a broken chest bone, a damaged left leg and some broken ribs.
He cut his teeth into the coaching field with the United States First Division side Cincinnati Hawks under John McGinlay. In 2004 he was appointed manager at Sligo Rovers and won the Irish First Division the next year in his first senior managerial job.
“I have been coaching since the age of 28 and I became a full-time manager at 35.
“For the record I was the first coach in the Irish Eircom (now Airtricity) League to obtain the Euro Pro-Licence in 2006. I have been upgrading it every six months.
“My CV was good until last year at Galway. There were lots of factors at play. The team was not motivated because there was no funding for the club.
“The players were not being paid and I, myself, wasn’t paid for about three to four months.
“The situation wasn’t good for football. So I came here to reinvigorate my career in a different football environment.
“I try to work as hard as I can. I am devoted to football and I spend most of my time thinking how to make this club (CAPS United) tick.”
He has a soft spot for Barcelona’s football philosophy.