Pune, ATK big gainers after top players shift base this season
MUMBAI: The fifth edition of the Indian Super League (ISL) -- the longest yet -- is just around the corner. A new season signals new beginning -- a clean slate for all the teams, fresh challenges and an opportunity for players and managers to prove themselves.
But most importantly, a new season calls for changes to the team composition and so, the arrival of new faces.
While most teams spent the latter half of the transfer window bringing in foreign recruits, the first was all about getting the best that the league had to offer.
ISL’s all-time top-scorer Iain Hume, who had already moved four times the league’s four seasons, completed another move, this time to last year’s semi-finalists FC Pune City from Kerala Blasters.
Already equipped with one of the most potent strike partnerships in the league – Uruguayan Emiliano Alfaro and Brazilian Marcelinho – who have scored 17 goals together, the addition of Hume will only add to their firepower.
Canadian forward Hume though, has been ruled out of action for the first two months having failed to recover from an injury picked last season.
Just like Hume, manager Steve Coppell has also been on the move since he first took charge of Kerala Blasters for the 2016 season. In his first year, he led Kerala Blasters to the final where they went down to ATK in penalty shootout.
The following season (2017/18 campaign) the Englishman took over the reins of new entrants Jamshedpur FC and guided them to a modest fifth-place finish in the club’s first season. This year, Coppell will be seen at the helm of two-time champions ATK.
“I have never been a butterfly moving from flower to flower. I had wanted to stay with Kerala but that was a decision not in my hands. With Jamshedpur, I had really thought it would be my last club in India and I had told them that. But then as I was getting bored playing golf back home, I got a call from ATK. I don’t think much about the future beyond the next game,” Coppell said.
Coppell’s arrival to ATK caps one of, if not the most, successful transfer periods for the club.
ATK have signed up defender John Johnson from Bengaluru FC. The English centre-back has been a mainstay in Bengaluru’s successful runs in I-League (winners in 2013/14 and 2015/16) and ISL (runners-up last term).
ATK have also managed to attract Delhi Dynamos star Nigerian forward Kalu Uche, who scored 13 goals from 15 games last season. But most notably, Coppell has secured the services of one of league’s most valuable players from last season, Manuel Lanzarote.
Known fondly as Lanza in the domestic circuit, the Spanish forward scored 13 goals and provided six assists at FC Goa last season. In fact, Lanza himself wanted a move away from Goa because of personal problems with coach Sergio Lobera.
“In February, I tell (told) the club (that) I will not continue and declined the contract I had signed for one more year. The reason was a personal problem with the coach and I didn’t want to work with him,” Lanza had posted on Instagram.
While ATK enjoyed one of the most fruitful transfer windows in terms of loading up talent, other clubs have made some notable signings too.
Mumbai City FC, who are likely to stick to their ‘building from the back approach’ under new manager Jorge Costa, brought in two of the most prized attacking defenders in the country. Subashish Bose, who recently captained the India U-23 team at the SAFF Cup, and Souvik Chakrabarti were signed up after fairly successful outings with Bengaluru FC and Jamshedpur FC respectively.
Kerala Blasters FC signed up India’s first choice centre-back Anas Edathodika from Jamshedpur FC. Edathodika’s arrival to solidify the central defensive area with Sandesh Jhingan will see Kerala boast of India’s firstchoice and best defensive duo.