By Abhishek Roy, IANS
New Delhi : Call it arrogance, daredevilry or foolhardiness, Subhas Bhowmick is not one to shy away from a challenge whatever be the consequences. For someone who earned his stripes both as a footballer and coach in Kolkata, he knows how to dribble his way out of danger.
Not many Kolkata footballers can think of leaving the maidan whatever the allurements. But Bhowmick chose to move out and travel to Goa in search of a fresh challenge.
When confronted with the task of lifting Goa’s Salgaocar Club from a morass, he jumped at it. It is a big ask because the former National Football League (NFL) champions are on the verge of being relegated from NFL’s reincarnation, the I-League. As the technical director of Salgaocar Club, he is now battling it out.
For someone who has guided East Bengal to the NFL title twice and also to the prestigious ASEAN Cup in 2003, Bhowmick feels re-energising the Goan club should not be all that difficult.
He told IANS that he is confident that Salgaocar will improve consistently in the next couple of years.
“It is a major task for me to take Salgaocar to a respectable position in the I-League. I have never developed cold feet facing challenges. I am grateful to Shivanand Salgaocar (club president) for showing faith in me.”
For all his soccer credentials, Bhowmick seems to go out of his way to court controversy. His many enemies in Kolkata call him arrogant and much worse. When an officer of the central excise department, he faced a criminal charge and lost his job. Football rehabilitated him, when he got the job of coaching Mohammedan Sporting.
Bhowmick saved Mohammedan Sporting from NFL relegation in the first year, but could not repeat his feat, and hostile club officials sacked him.
“I am not one who lives in the past. It is a new place and new beginning for me. That’s what I can say now. The environment is conducive for football in Goa and that is the reason why the game is thriving here,” said Bhowmick.
But his club have just five points after the 11th round of the I-League and are languishing in the last spot in the 10-team tournament. Bhowmick’s job will be to sort out the team’s technical problems and help coach Savio Medeira.
“I have seen the team in just one match. And I can’t change the team overnight. I still believe that Medeira is a good coach and we can turn things around. I have seen the league table very closely and I feel that if we can win a couple of games the complexion of the team will change,” said Bhowmick.
But, Bhowmick pointed out: “We are midway in the I-league and if we try to do something different we will end up making matters worse. I have to just fine tune things to make sure that we end the league in a respectable position.”
He has identified two major problems in the team – “the lack of tall players and a prolific goal scorer. The guys are not well built and that is the reason they are having problems in tackling in the air.”
Bhowmick knows he cannot buy Salgaocar a goal scorer at this stage in the league. “We have to find ways to score goals with the existing talent. I think they should be able to do it with minor changes in strategy.”
Asked about the showing of the two top Kolkata teams in the current I-league, Bhowmick confesses his disappointment with the performance of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, but says it does not indicate the decline of Kolkata football.
“I refuse to think so, only ignoramuses who do not understand football make such an assessment. In the 10 NFL editions before I-league, Kolkata teams have won six. What does that prove?”