The sleeping Giant? 

The Indian national football team slipped to 165^th spot in the latest FIFA ranking. This is the worst ever ranking for blue tigers. As usual media and a certain group of former players expressed their concern over it and criticizing the federation. But I think this is the right spot what we deserve. We are no more a “sleeping giant” as describe by Sepp Blatter, actually we are a dead giant. The media and the certain group of former players criticized Bob Houghton’s vision for Indian football and his long ball theory for all the time. Actually during Bob’s tenure we were moving towards a direction honestly to a positive direction. Let’s have a look what we had achieved with Bob and what went wrong.

When Bob came here the national team was a mess, simply a mess. We lost Asia Cup qualifier to Yemen and captain of the national team decided to hung up his boot. Yes I am talking about Bhaichung Bhutia the legend of Indian football. Any significant youth progress was also missing. There was everything but motivation. AIFF decided to kick out Syan Nymuddin and they appointed Bob Houghton as the national football team coach. His first activity was to call Bhaichung back to the national squad. Bhaichung always has been an inspiration for national football team and the football loving people of this cricket loving country.

The first match I have watched under Bob’s tenure was India vs Soudi Arabia at Salt Lake Stadium. India lost the game three goals to nil but the game was almost evenly contested. The midfield was constructed with Venkatesh the most gifted central midfielder I have ever seen in India and in form Mehrajuddin wadoo. Bhaichung was paired by Manjit Sing and it was discovered after the match that Manjit Sing was actually without any club for that season. India had significant ball possession and got two three scoring opportunity which was wasted by Manjit. In the 90^th minute Bhaichung got a ball inside the six yard box and hit the upright. Why I am giving so details of that particular match? Because after a long time it was looking like India is playing football. After the match Bob Houghton addressed the press that “You know you cannot defend your goal for the entire 90 minutes. You have to have the possession and need to attack”. I was amazed as whenever we played any heavy weight opponent we always tried to defend and defend. The first impression was amazing.

Shortly after that match India took part in a tournament in Canada and that time Cardiff city was having a pre season tour. Bob then approached Michael Chopra to play for India, may be the first official and significant approach to him however Michael Chopra was still had hope to represent England senior team and declined.

Then we won Nehru cup for the first time, people say it was not that prestigious Nehru cup once it used to be with teams like Argentina, Uruguay but the important thing was the confidence and motivation level of the boys. Bob Houghton was always vocal about the accommodation and training facilities provided by federation. Suddenly there was a change, players started to stay at five star hotels and federation started arranging training camps in Dubai, Portugal and Barcelona. Indian boys started having a feel of world level.

We lost the SAFF Cup final and won the SAFF games with a young team without any senior players. Bob slowly started injecting fresh blood into the national squad. Steven Dias, Arindam Bhatterjee, Rakesh Massi, Mohd Rafi, Rahim Nabi was ready with raw talent. He then advised federation to build a new team for young and talented players who are a regular for under21’ national team but unable to find their place to foreigner and experience players in club level. To give them much needed match practice federation launched their own club as a part of youth development programme initially named as AIFF XI.

Then came the biggest moment for Indian football, India won the AFC challenge cup and qualified for the Asia Cup after almost three decades. India was drawn to a tough group with mighty South Korea, Australia and Bahrain. India played with their heart and scored three goals which is a record in Aisa cup for Indian national team. But a portion of media and a part of crowd who became football lover almost overnight could not tolerate the result, don’t know what actually they expected a surprise win over Australia or Korea? Many people or reports say that the Asia cup was the last tournament for Bob Houghton as the national coach. It was AFC challenge cup qualifier which India won with a whole new squad with young and fresh faces actually was the last tournament for Bob as the national coach. Then he resigned and it was accepted by AIFF.

Now lets have a look what went wrong or what more we could have achieved with Bob. One thing I must say there was always same group of players represented the country during his tenure. He ignored top performers in I league several times. His logic was few people perform well in domestic league but they are not fit for international level. But under any circumstances Mehrahudiin wadoo cannot be selected by ignoring Mehtab Hussain or Gurpreet sing sandhu’s selection as third goalkeeper over Karanjit Sing is never justified.

His selection of opponents during training camps in Europe was another negative point as per me. India always played practice matches with third tier teams of Europe which as per Bob was a part of plan which was to gain confidence and to avoid heavy defeat by first class opponents which could demoralize Blue tigers. Agreed Bob, but we could have played with atleast similar opponents from Asia or Africa like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia or Gabon. We actually started playing with them when Asia cup was very near and our team was full with injuries. Those heavy defeats were actually created lot of buzz back in home and people lost hope and expectation. The selection of opponents could have been much much better.

Thirdly getting involved with media, referees and clubs was not a wise decision. Everyone started dislike Bob Houghton for many issues. Bob Houghton had that personality to make federation listen. But why should clubs will listen to you Bob when they don’t even listen to AFC or FIFA? There was an allegation of resist comments against Bob Houghton by FIFA referee Dinesh Nair. The incident was true or false was not important the important issue was a national coach should not get involved in this kind of situation particularly in this very sensitive country.

Today why I am talking so much about Bob Houghton when he is no more with our national team or there is no sign of re association? Because I am scared that we may have to wait for another 27-30 years to qualify for any top tier tournament. May be someone from Europe or America will come to coach our side. Then we will become old and will say “Who is he? Who are these people? Have you seen Bob and his boys? You are no match to them” like they say about Ciric Milovan.