When the 47th edition of the prestigious King's Cup tournament kicks off in Buri Ram on Wednesday, it could also mark the start of a much-needed reset for the Thai national squad.
All the indicators suggest that regional rivals, especially Vietnam, are fast catching up with the Thais, labelled as the kings of Southeast Asian football after capturing a handful of SEA Games and Suzuki Cup titles in the recent past.
This was quite evident at a couple of recent youth level Asian tournaments where Thailand were either beaten or outperformed by Vietnam in a convincing manner.
The King's Cup has always been an important event for both the War Elephants and the country's football-loving fans.
This year's tournament will take place at Thai League 1 defending champions Buriram United's home ground and it won't be the first time that King's Cup has been held outside the capital city. Phuket, Nakhon Ratchasima and Chiang May have hosted the event in the past.
The event, which saw its inaugural episode take place in Bangkok way back in 1968, has been won by Thailand on 15 occasions. South Korea are the second most successful country, claiming the title seven times.
This year's King's Cup will see Curacao, Vietnam and India join the hosts in Buri Ram.
The opening match of the Fifa-sanctioned tournament will see Curacao take on India followed by the clash between Thailand and arch-rivals Vietnam.
The winners of Wednesday's games will meet in the final on Sunday, with the losers coming face to face in the third-place play-off on the same day.
Under the tournament regulations, any match finishing in a stalemate after 90 minutes of regular play goes straight into a penalty shoot-out.
THE CONTESTANTS
On paper, Curacao should be the leading contenders for this year's title.
The team from the tiny Caribbean nation at No.82 in the world are the highest-ranked side in the tournament with only scant information available about their strengths and weaknesses.
They have fared quite well in the Concacaf region where they have enjoyed a regular presence among the top 10 countries. Vietnam are next on the Fifa list at No.98.
The progress made by the Southeast Asian nation through their long-term development programmes and incessant training methods has been impressive to say the least.
India, ranked No.101, are coming into the event on the back of a strong performance in the 2019 Asian Cup, which included a shock 4-1 victory over Thailand in the round robin stage.
Thailand, the lowest-ranked side in the event at No.114, traditionally perform well at the King's Cup, and they will be extra keen to make amends for their failed bid to retain the prestigious trophy for a third-time in a row last year, when they lost to a much-stronger Slovak side 3-2 in the final.
COACHING CONUNDRUM
The War Elephants have been at a crossroads since that drubbing at the hands of India which cost former coach Milan Rajevac his job just after one 2019 Asian Cup match in the United Arab Emirates in January, but the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) officials seem quite content to stay parked and bide their time.
Sirisak Yodyardthai has been serving as the caretaker coach ever since, delivering some satisfactory results in the process, while the FAT has been pretty consistent in reminding him that his presence in the Thai dugout is only temporary.
The FAT's efforts to find a full-time replacement for Rajevac have, so far, failed to lure any of the top candidates they had in mind for the job, and now they have the added headache of recruiting another qualified man to take over from national U23 team boss Alexandre Gama who reportedly will join SCG Muang Thong United.
While FAT officials have been reluctant to offer full-time employment to Sirisak, they were happy to pass on to him the task of handling the dilemma created by True Bangkok United playmaker Sanrawat Detchmitr -- banned recently for eight games for throwing a punch at a match referee during a Thai League 1 game.
Lucky for the 51-year-old coach that Sanrawat himself decided to pull out of the King's Cup squad.
WANTED: A SCORER
However, that is exactly where Sirisak's luck seems to run out, as he takes a squad, which is loaded with misfiring strikers, into the high-profile tournament this Wednesday.
Veteran Muang Thong strikers Teerasil Dangda and Adisak Kraisorn have both been drafted into the team despite pleas from their Thai League 1 club to leave them out.
Teerasil, who is set to make his 100th appearance for the War Elephants, has been having big trouble in finding the net, yielding only three goals in his 14 games for the Kirins this season.
Adisak has not been a regular starter for Muang Thong this season and has not fared any better as well, scoring only twice in eight top-flight games, so far.
However, what is bothering Sirisak even more is the alarming dip in young Buriram United striker Supachai Chaided's form of late.
Sirisak has even resorted to sending personal messages to the forward, egging him on to recover his form that made the 20-year-old a darling of the nation at the 2018 Asian Games and 2019 Asian Cup. Supachai has picked up only one goal in his eight outings for the Thunder Castle this season.
But the diehard War Elephants fans have their fingers crossed as Buriram's 16-year-old sensation Suphanat Muenta may see some action at the King's Cup and emerge as a hope for the future.
ACTION PLAN
It is mostly gloom and doom for Sirisak as J.League-based crafty playmaker Chanathip Songkrasin, who is once again having an impressive run for Consadole Sapporo, has also pulled out of the national team due to a muscle tear on his left leg.
Chanathip has recently been linked with a possible transfer to German club VfB Stuttgart, who have just dropped out of Bundesliga.
His presence in the team at the King's Cup -- along with two other J.League-based Thai stars Theerathon Bunmathan and Thitipan Puangchan and country's top-ranked goalkeeper Kawin Thamsatchanan who plays in Belgium -- could have been a big boost for the hosts, but it would have only served as a short-lived respite for the FAT anyway.
The FAT can't defer for too long a decision on Sirisak's future or the appointment of a full-time national team coach.
Prolonged uncertainty can breed pessimism, something that the War Elephants need to avoid at all costs with the 2022 World Cup qualifying battles looming in September this year.
It is also time for Thailand to say good bye to their ageing band of stars and start the process of rebuilding before they find themselves left too far behind in their rivals' wake.
