Amal Dutta

Calcutta: The winds of change are blowing across the Maidan. After East Bengal, it’s now Mohun Bagan’s turn to name a new coach, though their respective perspective is entirely different.

As the new dispensation at the Mohun Bagan club decided to cut short Amal Dutta’s hegemony over the team by appointing a goalkeeper coach and physical instructor, the veteran coach made his stand clear that he didn’t wish to have too much of support staff around him.

The expected came about on Tuesday when Dutta expressing his inability to cope with the system thrust upon him by the club and came Jahar Das in his place.

Das will take charge as the chief coach from Wednesday, and will hold the post till the end of the National Football League (NFL). He is an AFC ‘A’ grade license holder, has played for both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, and is the head coach of Mohun Bagan-SAIL Academy in Durgapur. He has also served the green-and-maroon outfit as assistant coach in 1991.

Meanwhile, Pratap Ghosh has been named as the goalkeeper coach till the NFL as well. Bhupinder Singh Rawat will replace Das as the head coach of the academy.

East Bengal named Bikash Panji the coach for the Durand Cup after Subhas Bhowmick, who is now in jail on charges of taking bribe, decided to relinquish the post till he proved his innocence.

In his letter to the club secretary, Anjan Mitra, on Tuesday, Dutta said that he was unwilling to accept the club executive committee’s decision of appointing a goalkeeper coach and physical instructor. Dutta also did not turn up for the team’s practice on Tuesday. “Since he has shown his inability to accept the decision of the club’s apex body, we are accepting his missive as the resignation letter,” Mitra pointed out.

Dutta took the charge after Subrata Bhattacharya was sacked from the post at a time when Mohun Bagan were staring at relegation from the NFL last season.

He not only helped the team tide over the crisis, but began the new season with a bang, guiding Mohun Bagan to the CFL Premier Division title. However, troubles for Dutta started with Bagan’s first-round exit from the Federation Cup and failures to cross the group stage of the IFA Shield.

When asked whether some more time should have been given to the ousted coach, Mitra said: “I was in favour of keeping him? but if someone is not willing to stay with us, then we are helpless.”

Meanwhile, Das credited his predecessor for creating a good team. He said: “I feel that this is one of the glorious moments of my life. Coaching Mohun Bagan will always be a tough job, but I have been the assistant coach of the club in the past. This will be like an added responsibility for me. It will also be a challenge for me to see Mohun Bagan back on the winning tracks.

“I don’t think that appointment of a goalkeeper coach and physical instructor can create any problem for a coach. In fact, it will help me, because they are going to work under me and assist me.”