By IANS
Kolkata : An emergency working committee meeting of East Bengal club Wednesday appointed Monoranjan Bhattacharya as Subrata Bhattacharya’s successor as the team coach, to resurrect the team which is currently languishing in the ninth spot in the 10-team I-League football tournament.
The meeting, which was called to stem the rot in the club in the relegation zone, began at 5.30 pm and lasted over two hours before the formal announcement was made.
“Manoranjan Bhattacharya has been appointed coach for the rest of the I-League. We have six home games to turn our fortunes,” club secretary Kalyan Majumdar said.
Monoranjan Bhattacharya has been the coach of the red-gold earlier and took them to their first NFL title in 2000-01. The former defender has asked the officials for some time to get permission from his employers Bank of India before taking over the club reins. He will begin coaching from Friday.
Meanwhile, Subrata, who submitted his resignation for the second time in 14 days, told IANS: “I believe that the coach is as good as his team. If my team has failed, I have failed. There is no excuse.”
“There must be some reason why the team has not performed. There could be a lack of motivation and I feel I should take the moral responsibility,” he said.
Asked if incompetent foreign recruits led to the downfall, he said: “I did not recruit the foreigners. I feel next time they should be more conscious. I have got a lot of love from the supporters and fans. I wish them well.”
“Subrata Bhattacharya was mentally and physically drained after the team’s poor performance. He wished to discontinue, as he could not cope with the pressure. So we decided to release him,” Majumdar said.
On whether there were other names that came up for discussion, he said: “That is an internal matter.”
It has been learnt that among others Amal Dutta was a frontrunner, along with Biswajit Bhattacharya for the coach’s post.