Agree. The reason why Dempo, Pune, and Bengaluru FC have had failures in the AFC Champions League qualifiers was because Rakesh Masih was not on their teams. Masih's presence would have inspired the football gods and Bengaluru FC would defeat Guangzhou Evergrande 3-2, a hat-trick from Masih which leaves even Chhetri speechless.
@Manju one day a Mohammedan Sporting fan came crying to him and begged him to take them back to i-league this incident touch Rakesh Lionel Masihs heart he now plays for them and doesn't even ask for salary as ATK pays him enough He is there only player rest are school kids he almost got them to i-league this season but next season he will do that
As @ ArsenalFan700 has pointed out , KBFC had plenty of time to get their house in order , they just failed to do so , for some reasons :
KBFC was the brainchild of the football crazy Kunal Agarwal ( Bhoruka Ltd) , who initially convinced the Jindals to launch a new team in Pune in 2013 . He introduced his school mate Mandar Tamhane (Deccan Rovers from Pune District FA ) to the Jindals and they later opted for Bangalore because of Praful Patels insistence.
After Kunal Agarwal was sidelined at BFC by a few in the senior Management because of his reckless passion ,he decided to quit his role as a Director and show them he could re-crate the same in Pune. He teamed up with his mate Amit Kalyani ( Bharat Forge) ,and decided to start KBFC
Emboldened by the success of BFC , Kunal Agarwal and Mandar Tamhane ( who had now given himself the glorified title of Chief Technical Officer :-? CTO ) decided they would copy paste the same formula and tweak a few things and make KBFC just as successful.
They used the same agents that brought Ashley Westwood , John Johnson & Curtis Osano to India . This agent Phil Ercolano ( formerly of Kentaro) teamed up with Pune based agent Jehan Kothari ( had no players on his books ! :-$ ) and they formed Cassius Sports ( http://cassiussports.com ) and became the " Club Agents " . As Club Agents , they created a moat so that regular agents in the Indian Market like Libero Sports, Get Pro and Football Edge etc had no direct access into the Club, everything had to go thru Jehan Kothari at Cassius , meanwhile Phil Ercolano would handle all the foreign imports.
Thus Cassius cleaned up on 10% on 10 foreign imports : Stuart Watkiss( Head Coach) , Bobby Hassel ( player-coach) , Lindsey Davis ( S & C Coach) , Ian Farmery ( physio) , Zoran Lemijic (GK Coach) , Kris Bright ( Marquee ) , Remould Boco (CM) and Omar Jarun ( after fuckin up on the Aussie defender Trent Mcclanahan) , they also brought in Barry Knowles ( head of Youth Development) . Most were overvalued by Cassius , and not paid the market rate, given most were struggling for jobs in the UK !
The copy / paste of BFC was so exact that they also went for an Ex-Shillong Lajong Head coach ( Stanley Rozario) as their Assistant, expecting similar knowledge of talented Youth from the NorthEast.
Stuart Watkiss arrived early and along with Stanley Rozario and the think tank ( Kunal & Mandar) started to make a short list of players they could get , i.e. players who were free agents or available on loan after ISL. With Stanley Rozario being the former National team Asst under Bob Houghton , he was familiar with a lot of the star players of that era, but as he had been away from the I-League for almost 4 years , his knowledge of current talent was very poor.
Watkiss watched all the ISL games and felt he could build a team around a strong defence led by Gouramangi, Nabi , Wadoo etc.
In this regard they went the exact opposite of BFC ! Instead of going after young players with tremendous potential or proven I-League players who had a point to prove to former Clubs : they opted for Former stars who were more content on getting a "pension" to stay fit and play in between ISL seasons.
Most of these guys would've struggled for a Club had KBFC not signed them.
Once again these guys were signed via Cassius for over & above the market price ! There is no need to pay what they paid for the likes of Nabi , when no other Club would have offered been 2/3rds of that amount.
Their achilles heal also turned out to be the U23 spot.
With no youth program to pick from , they decided to poach/sign players from neighbours DSK Shivajians ( as did BFC in 2013-14) , in came N. James Singh the left back, and Bikramjit Singh ( CB former Pailan Arrows) , and a few others through their "trails" , like Saba Saleel , and Shahinlal Meloly etc.
This was a stupid move in hindsight , as most teams used it as an opportunity to test out their squads and also get some much needed match practice.
They could've also figured out their U23 issue and then addressed this while the Transfer Window was open.
As the rest of the season unfolded , it was clear that they had made massive mistakes in their recruitment , and Watkiss admitted that Gouramangi had been a huge let down , and with Trent Mcclanahan having visa issues , they had to opt for paying him off and signing Omar Jarun .
Kris Bright was always a target man and not a prolific scorer , so pinning hopes on Subhas Singh was making the same naive mistake that Peter Reid and co. did at Mumbai City FC
The coaching too wasn't the best from all insider accounts. The coach himself questioned his players fitness , which seemed strange given he had brought in a Fitness coach from the UK. They also had a terrible injury record, possibly the worst in the League. This was blamed on ISL by the staff and management , and towards the end of the season , they decided the whole Club needed a revamp.
Out will go most of the foreign players & in will come some I-League tested foreign players . they tried to sign Cornell Glenn & had an offer letter signed by Katsumi Yusa.
Once again incompetent management messed up the Yusa deal , and he chose to stay at Bagan.
Watkiss wants less dependence on ISL players , but with almost all the top players playing ISL this year , he has little choice ;
go and scout the best upcoming players ( ask us at IFN) train them till I-League starts and make use of the " no relegation " clause.
Given the people in charge have had a wake up call, and it isn't as easy as copy /paste BFC model, it will be interesting to see if they come up with a clear plan ahead.
or think that they can just do enough like neighbours Pune FC ?
PFC are dying a slow death after their early in roads , KBFC might need euthanasia by AIFF !
I really don't want KBFC to die, I really hope they clean up this mess. It will only discourage others from coming forward and putting money in. @gaffertape Where do you stand on this? Do you think KBFC failing is a good thing or bad?
Simple reason ...PUNE is not a footballing city and can't sustain them...
No ground , no fans ,
If DSK Shivajians qualify through the 2nd Division ... then they will have a Natural and Artificial ( side by side) training pitches , top class facilities, and ability to build a stadium in the DSK Sports City.
Wait, so this was a fuck up by the actual team management but what about the front office? What are they doing in terms of marketing and managing the team? Any plans for youth development?
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He is there only player rest are school kids he almost got them to i-league this season but next season he will do that