EXETER, England — Steve Perryman is as London as you can get — born in London, grew up in London, played soccer in London (Tottenham Hotspur). But now, he lives in Exeter in the southwest of England and dreams of Japan.

"I want to go back because of the respect of the fans, the media and especially the players," he said.

The respect is mutual. Perryman originally came over here to assist his friend and former Spurs teammate Ossie Ardiles at Shimizu S-Pulse in 1996. The third main coach (after manager and assistant manager) for S-Pulse at the time was Takeshi Oki, now No. 2 to Japan national team manager Takeshi Okada.