Did ATK want Westwood as coach before Teddy?
Are Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) spending nearly $500,000 (Rs 3.22 crore approximately) this season on former England striker Teddy Sheringham because their proposal to appoint Ashley Westwood as coach was rejected by the Indian Super League (ISL)?
Two officials connected to the ISL have told Hindustan Times separately that the defending champions had asked whether they could get Westwood as coach for 2017-18. The sources said the league didn’t think Westwood fit the profile of an ISL coach and told ATK as much.
In the other category would be Antonio Lopez Habas, who won the first ISL and is now with FC Pune City, Miguel Angel Portugal, who has managed Real Madrid B and C teams, Racing Santander and Valladolid before joining Delhi Dynamos, Sergio Rodriguez, who before taking over at FC Goa was in Tito Villanova’s backroom staff at Barcelona, Kerala Blasters’ Rene Meulensteen who was with Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United and Chennaiyin FC’s John Gregory who has coached extensively in England.
In a third category would be Jamshedpur FC’s coach Steve Coppell, and Mumbai City FC’s Alexandre Guimaraes who have been successful players and experienced managers.
With Bengaluru FC being his first job and a short stint in Malaysia’s Penang the only other assignment, Westwood, according to the sources, didn’t fulfil the requirements. When in 2014, Bengaluru FC were contemplating joining the ISL, they too had proposed Westwood would stay as coach. The ISL had turned it down even then. A Bengaluru FC official confirmed this to Hindustan Times.
Through an e-mail on Friday evening, Hindustan Times asked ATK whether they had sought Westwood as coach and appointed Sheringham only after that wasn’t allowed. On Saturday afternoon ATK CEO Raghu Iyer was quoted as saying that “this is not true.”
Given how successful he was in three seasons at Bengaluru FC, Westwood was named ATK technical director earlier this month. Speaking on Sheringham’s appointment here on Saturday, ATK’s principal owner Sanjiv Goenka said: “Raghu and I met Teddy in London and that was when we decided to have him as the head coach. That was several weeks ago.” At nearly half-a-million dollars, Sheringham will be one of the highest paid coaches in the ISL.