As a die hard Mohun Bagani it pains me immensely to see the I-League title snatched away from us by BFC. But let me be honest.......yes BFC desrved the title. It is not their fault that their strongest rival kept losing points after a very strong start. Injury problems...BFC also have had, but they kept on pressing & won crucial matches. Mohun Bagan had one spell of 2 weeks between 26th March to 9th. April where they lost the grip. This sort of things do happen in a league & there is no shame in losing the crown to an opponent who overcame the problems which we could not. As far as Refereeing is concerned..... there will always be some eye brows being raised every where. Genuine human errors are always acceptable & overall Refereeing this year I think has been pretty ok considering Indian Referees' standard except that idiot Santosh Kumar. Let us not drag AIFF here. It is an end less argument whether AIFF backed BFC or not...with 100 points in favour & 100 against. That does not take us any where. Let us applaud BFC for winning the I-League with a round to spare. As a die hard Mohun Bagani, I expect our team to come back strongly & make a mark for the rest of the season (BFC match in I-League, AFC cup & Federation Cup).
Yeah, we basically thrown away the league. One cannot lose three crucial games in a row and hope to win a tight league. MB behaved unprofessionally during that phase. Missing a penalty in 94', conceding a goal in last 30 seconds, coach suspended, assistant coach suspended, Norde coming injured: you name it, we have it.
The real problems of MB were not having a balanced team, and a sponsor. The first problem may be taken care of in the coming season, but what about the second one?
I sympathise with Westwood. I think he is the only coach in the world whose salary is slashed after he wins the league.I don't blame the club as well: why should they pay full salary for half the duration?
This news says a lot about the state of Indian football. Clubs shutting, scores of footballers unemployed, salaries being reduced.
@Deb_Ban Agree with you totally, we threw it away... there are many ifs & buts...but let the team management & players eliminate them from mind & focus on the remaining matches. This team is capable of much more than finishing No.2 / 3 in I-League. About Sponsors....so much is being heard, but a Club like Mohun Bagan can not be without Sponsor for the 2nd year running. As they say without divorce.. one can't remarry.....so that formal divorce with UB needs to be executed first.
two key reasons why BFC would still win over MB even in a prolonged league
A.) Non over reliance on foriegners. BFC is a lot more balanced and more importantly intertwined with Foriegner + Indians playing to the system rather than the players. While for MB if you take out sony+katsumi you only have ability of a top 4-5 side. Cornell glen + Sabrosa are no where good enough to be top championship side. Plus the system of pumping ball upfront and letting midfielders run at you is better at BFC than with MB.
B.) More trust and responsibilities on Indians to deliver in BFC than in MB.
C.) Young players got better in BFC and were given more opportunities than in MB thereby lifting morale overall. While sides like MB, EB who were expected to churn out youngsters were given a token 15-20 mins on pitch. Happy to see a side like BFC winning the title by building a side apt for the current and future india. Enuf pointers for the other clubs to not follow star culture but build up your players from development sides.
Just to make a point here, there were plenty of matches, where Abinash Ruidas played full 90 mins or more than half the matches and same with Samad Ali Mallick. Ruidas even picked up one or two MoMs. Why is this charade against Kolkata teams playing U22 players only for 15 mins?
Anyways, this rule is stupid. This is the top league of the country, if someone is good enough they would play irrespective of their age. Also if this rule is so helpful, then enforce two changes, firstly, mandatory to keep one U22 player throughout the duration of the match in the playin XI Secondly, implement the same rule in ISL as that too occupies half the calendar. If AIFFcant do this, they are a bunch of cunts who dont know where their asses are.
@Deb_Ban It's very frustating to see Ashley Westwood may part ways with Bengaluru FC because of wage cuts. He understands Indian football. He could have taken Bengaluru FC to a good finish in the next edition of AFC Champions League. Bengaluru FC should break Dempo's record of winning I league thrice.
Why wud a coach of Ashley's calibre stay in a 162nd ranked country - pay cut or not.
What wud he gain being associated with Indian football? He has seen it all and knows very well that the Indian football graph will only go southward, unless ofcourse he was eyeing the NT's coach's hat.There was a speculation once that Steven wud get the axe and Ashley wud replace him; but the tongue lashing Ashley knows very well, he wud be put under a tight leash by Sunanda-Kushal duo; alternately these two also know that this guy wud be even more dominant than Steven and wud be a pain in their ass. So thats ruled out.
Hence its better for him to pursue his career elsewhere - especially his stakes are high winning 2 outta 3 leagues and therefore can have a better negotiating power now(am not too sure,even if he wasn't being offered a pay cut, he wud have stayed back). Frankly that intensity in him was missing this year, despite the results in his favour.
Comments
As far as Refereeing is concerned..... there will always be some eye brows being raised every where. Genuine human errors are always acceptable & overall Refereeing this year I think has been pretty ok considering Indian Referees' standard except that idiot Santosh Kumar.
Let us not drag AIFF here. It is an end less argument whether AIFF backed BFC or not...with 100 points in favour & 100 against. That does not take us any where.
Let us applaud BFC for winning the I-League with a round to spare.
As a die hard Mohun Bagani, I expect our team to come back strongly & make a mark for the rest of the season (BFC match in I-League, AFC cup & Federation Cup).
The real problems of MB were not having a balanced team, and a sponsor. The first problem may be taken care of in the coming season, but what about the second one?
This news says a lot about the state of Indian football. Clubs shutting, scores of footballers unemployed, salaries being reduced.
About Sponsors....so much is being heard, but a Club like Mohun Bagan can not be without Sponsor for the 2nd year running. As they say without divorce.. one can't remarry.....so that formal divorce with UB needs to be executed first.
A.) Non over reliance on foriegners. BFC is a lot more balanced and more importantly intertwined with Foriegner + Indians playing to the system rather than the players. While for MB if you take out sony+katsumi you only have ability of a top 4-5 side. Cornell glen + Sabrosa are no where good enough to be top championship side. Plus the system of pumping ball upfront and letting midfielders run at you is better at BFC than with MB.
B.) More trust and responsibilities on Indians to deliver in BFC than in MB.
C.) Young players got better in BFC and were given more opportunities than in MB thereby lifting morale overall. While sides like MB, EB who were expected to churn out youngsters were given a token 15-20 mins on pitch.
Happy to see a side like BFC winning the title by building a side apt for the current and future india.
Enuf pointers for the other clubs to not follow star culture but build up your players from development sides.
Anyways, this rule is stupid. This is the top league of the country, if someone is good enough they would play irrespective of their age. Also if this rule is so helpful, then enforce two changes, firstly, mandatory to keep one U22 player throughout the duration of the match in the playin XI Secondly, implement the same rule in ISL as that too occupies half the calendar. If AIFFcant do this, they are a bunch of cunts who dont know where their asses are.
You will never have this rule in a top league..
BUT this is India and we are 162 in the world...
So the need for this rule is obvious...but coaches need to be educated better or forced into developing.
What wud he gain being associated with Indian football? He has seen it all and knows very well that the Indian football graph will only go southward, unless ofcourse he was eyeing the NT's coach's hat.There was a speculation once that Steven wud get the axe and Ashley wud replace him; but the tongue lashing Ashley knows very well, he wud be put under a tight leash by Sunanda-Kushal duo; alternately these two also know that this guy wud be even more dominant than Steven and wud be a pain in their ass. So thats ruled out.
Hence its better for him to pursue his career elsewhere - especially his stakes are high winning 2 outta 3 leagues and therefore can have a better negotiating power now(am not too sure,even if he wasn't being offered a pay cut, he wud have stayed back). Frankly that intensity in him was missing this year, despite the results in his favour.