Calcutta: They say morning shows the day. East Bengal will be hoping this adage doesn’t hold true for them in the 2009-10 season.
Two humiliating losses in the season-opening IFA Shield, letting in seven goals (the club conceded four against Chirag United on Saturday)! The red and gold brigade hasn’t made the right start.
An early exit has shaken the club brass, who have called an emergent meeting and also summoned coach Subhas Bhowmick on Monday to explain the debacle. Even the senior players will be asked to “voice their opinion”.
Angry fans — luckily the bad weather did not allow too many of them to be present on Saturday — hurled the choicest expletives at the Alvito D’Cunhas and coach Subhas Bhowmick after the Saturday loss. There is a growing fear among them that things are going haywire.
And they might not be wrong. It’s not just the defence, which has yawning chasms. Fissures have reappeared even among the club officials. And the Shield capitulation has just fanned the flames.
Sources in the club told The Telegraph that one faction did not like the idea of signing Edmilson for the season. In fact, Bhowmick himself was averse but had no option since the Brazilian was close to a powerful lobby inside the club.
“Till Monday, Jan Berger and Sebastian Omar were supposed to play in the IFA Shield but then there was a change of plan. This has angered a section of the officials,” the source said.
The proponents of the Bhowmick school of how to run a team — the same men who were instrumental in getting the coach back to the club — might actually give Monday’s meeting a miss. “At this moment indications are that they may not turn up. But we are still hopeful of a reconciliation.”
Sources in the club said Bhowmick’s job is not on the line, as of now. And that’s because it is still early days and the club are giving him a long rope. “But we are not taking the IFA Shield as just an aberration.”
At the post-match conference Saturday, Bhowmick said he needed seven more days to plug the gaps in the back four and that he was not giving up hope on Lebanese central defender Rameez Dayuub, whom he wants in the club.
“I don’t know what’s happening with Rameez. First Fifa said he will be a free player after August 31 and now, suddenly, they have asked how can there be a transfer when the last date for signing a player has already passed. There was some miscommunication but it will be sorted out. You will see a new East Bengal in the Durand Cup”
Bhowmick, in fact, was given a free hand during the transfer season. So out went Sunil Chetri, Subrata Paul, Surkumar Singh, Jayanta Sen amongst others. Jayanta Saturday made East Bengal’s life miserable and said he had a point to prove. Who knows others also might have something to prove to this man, who is one of the most successful coaches in Indian club football. And that won’t be to any East Bengal fan’s liking.
A senior player said that the constant chopping and cropping after every season has taken its toll. “Look at Mohun Bagan or Churchill brothers. Their basic set up is same. Whereas here every year you see and new bunch coming and obviously they will take time to settle down.”
Factionalism has always been East Bengal’s bane. Unlike Mohun Bagan, where the club is run by two families and their word is final, factionalism in the red and gold brigade spills onto the dressing room. A former club coach said that the dressing room was so divided during his time that he found it difficult to name the first eleven for a match.
Bhowmick is known to rule with an iron hand but this IFA Shield humiliation will surely force him to yield some turf to his opponents inside the club. One more debacle and there will be a clamour for him to be given the boot. Last thing a club starved of success need at this moment.
