I have not told Habas would be bad, just tossed his name and regarding BB15's skill and talent no one asks any question. Its his post retirement activities making people unhappy.
Personally I would rather have good coaches like Habbas and Bob (in a TD role) be more active in club football. That ways they would be grooming talent on a daily basis (if #AIFF ever gets around to having 1 extended league structure and 5-6 year long regional leagues) which would be more beneficial.
NT job is a part time job at best and SC though not a great coach is quiet adequate.
people now view houghton era only in the prism of the results he bought. but there were fans who were split as to whether he should continue or not.
his gameplay was ugly, extreme favourtism which pissed off most fans and there were serious charges of racism. add to the fact when he qualified to the AFC cup via challenge until then his results were very sketchy. I would argue the challenge cup was given specific to india as a backdoor into the big leagues, one which was hosted in india and heavily crititized by countries who missed out as they didnt qualify to appear in the challenge cup.
add to this houghton knew the importance of Asia cup qualification and played hardball and tantrums to get an hike and eventually run away. sacking him for me was the right decision then and now. hiring wim to change the way we play was for me a good gamble which didnt pay off and i still stick to the wim era.
we r only going a couple of steps backwards by reverting to the direct style of football to bring in results. unless he gets that 3rd spot its a poor start to the SC tenor.
Yeh and Wim didn't even open the backdoor for us. Have you seen SAFF cup with Wim, that is the ugliest football I have ever seen India playing.
This generation of football fans, blogs, forums, new age reporters all are result of Asia Cup qualification in 2011. I don't know how many Orkut forum members are still here but simply this footballing interest was ignited by Bob. We were going somewhere and had a direction then but now it is a complete mess.
I think the Wim era was a good decision with a wrong coach. AIFF should have stuck to that kind of plan, with a bit more emphasis on result oriented gameplay for senior team.
@DX is absolutely correct about Bob, his last few years were very frustrating. Did not use in form players, suffered defeats like 1-9, tactics not enjoyable, and it was his time when the whole Bhaichung and friends nexus started forming. Was clear in the NT selections. But Houghton, ultimately has been a good acquisition for India. I would say it was right time for him to go.
And here I disagree while I tend to agree with few part of your comments. Yes he didn't change his team since 2008 - 2011. And footballers group formed. But he did change his team and gave chance to young players just after Asia Cup, which India won. That people always ignore and forget.
But honestly seeing India play under Wim apart from Nehru Cup was really heart breaking, no formation no shape, people are running here and there without any combination, that was complete mess as per me. Everyone don't have to agree but that was not football we played in SAFF under Wim.
true. both r in the past. looking forward unless SC gets that 3rd spot there is no further NT engagement till 2018. we may choose to sack SC and get a guy who can work with the youth.
Question is though, were Rob Baan and Wim Koevermans the first choices? I remember a Spanish coach, Juan Manuel Lillo, actually coming for practices when Armando Colaco was in charge in 2011. Also, it was IMG-Reliance who were in charge of bringing in a new technical director and Lillo was the man they brought in first... hmmmm
Then, in October 2011, 2-3 months after the word of Lillo was exposed, the AIFF announced Rob Baan as technical director. And in June 2012, it was announced that Koevermans would take over as head coach, taking over from Savio Mederia.
And actually, I would say our misfortune happened AFTER Savio took over. India had a good start to their post-Asian Cup run. Ya, stories of Bob Houghton came out and Trousier as replacement were on the horizon but India did well to qualify for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup and a lot of new names came out of it from the newly created Indian Arrows. Bob then left but Dempo legend, Armando Colaco, took over and brought in players from a championship winning side and actually managed to defeat Qatar away from home and drew against the United Arab Emirates at home! We then had our tour of the Caribbean and the results were not terrible. Narrow loss to Guyana and a beating by Trinidad and Tobago... not terrible by any means. Then Savio took over and we did okay in a series against Malaysia before doing very well as hosts for the SAFF Cup in 2011 but that is where is falls.
We lost two friendlies. Oman we were killed 5-1 while Azerbaijan had us at 3-0! We then were knocked-out, 3 losses for 3, in the AFC Challenge Cup, against North Korea, the Philippines, and fucking Tajikistan! Wim was then brought in and things seemed okay. We barely defeated Syria, we beaten Maldives, drew Nepal, lost to Cameroon B, and then defeated them to win the Nehru Cup, a cup we host and honestly, did not prove anything but we ignored it due to "changing style of play". We then lost to Singapore 2-0 away but it was away and we are leaning still so it's okay! And our fall continues from there.
Honestly, Wim Koeverman's and Rob Baan's era was a MASSIVE FAILURE! We did not even get our first choice at the U23 level! And honestly, Lillo would have been interesting to see as TD... who knows what he could have done and it was IMG-Reliance who allowed him in but apparently AIFF who said no.
Comments
his gameplay was ugly, extreme favourtism which pissed off most fans and there were serious charges of racism.
add to the fact when he qualified to the AFC cup via challenge until then his results were very sketchy.
I would argue the challenge cup was given specific to india as a backdoor into the big leagues, one which was hosted in india and heavily crititized by countries who missed out as they didnt qualify to appear in the challenge cup.
add to this houghton knew the importance of Asia cup qualification and played hardball and tantrums to get an hike and eventually run away. sacking him for me was the right decision then and now.
hiring wim to change the way we play was for me a good gamble which didnt pay off and i still stick to the wim era.
we r only going a couple of steps backwards by reverting to the direct style of football to bring in results. unless he gets that 3rd spot its a poor start to the SC tenor.
This generation of football fans, blogs, forums, new age reporters all are result of Asia Cup qualification in 2011. I don't know how many Orkut forum members are still here but simply this footballing interest was ignited by Bob. We were going somewhere and had a direction then but now it is a complete mess.
Youth is the way forward.