Inside the ISL draft with Mumbai City FC CEO Indranil Das Blah
"If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse."
Truer words couldn’t have been spoken. And for people involved in Sunday's ISL draft, where the fortunes of all 10 teams would be sealed as they look to form the core of their teams - the Indian players. For them, there can’t be an excuse.
"With the balance of the league shifting towards having more Indians, you can't get away by procuring better foreigners," states Indranil Das Blah, the CEO of the Mumbai City FC. "This is as big as it gets. These men who will be drafted on Sunday will form the heartbeat of our team in the days to come."
There is actually no denying the fact that the ISL, in its expanded form, is going to be the centre piece of the Indian footballing scene from the upcoming season. The purists might still value the I-League over what they might claim as the "latest circus in town".
However, heading into its fourth season (a bigger one than ever before) after having garnered the recognition of the Asian Football Confederation, ISL has made one thing clear: It is here to stay.
And it swings off its latest season with the ISL draft on Sunday. The fortunes of more than 199 footballers and 10 teams will be at stake as this one is going to be special.
The cornerstone event
"We haven't left any stone unturned. I would rather say we can't," states Mumbai City's CEO Indranil Das Blah. "This year's draft is going to be important. It's going to shape the futures of many a people for some years to come. It can be the difference between having a job and not in the days to come (he chuckles)."
Indranil has been through it all when it comes to experiencing all sorts in the three years of the ISL. The team from the 'city that never sleeps' found the going a tad too hard in their first two seasons.
But then it all clicked - under the watchful eyes of Alexandre Guimarães and with Diego Forlan in their ranks, Mumbai finished the league stage at the top of the table. Whilst they were knocked out in the semis, their campaign was a resounding success - playing some of the finest football.
And Das Blah’s statement on appointing Guimaraes again for the upcoming season - "Why fix something that's not broken?" - shows that the man has full confidence in the manager from Costa Rica.
But all that won't count for anything. The team has kept faith in Amrinder Singh and Sehnaj Singh as the retained stars. However, he knows that they need to have a good draft to fully compete at the highest level and build the core of a team which has seen two of its best players taken away as Bengaluru FC (viz. Sunil Chhetri and Udanta Singh) enters the fray this season.
And with the draft two days away, we gain an insider's view into what goes on in the days leading up to the draft.
A contentious draft?
To begin with, the draft was something an overwhelming majority of the players didn't want. They rather wanted to have a say as to where they would want to end up and negotiate the salaries.
But Indranil and Mumbai City FC were clear as to what and why they wanted this draft.
"From Mumbai City's point of view, we have always favoured the draft because with two new teams entering the fold and one being born just for the ISL; we felt it won't be at all fair to them.
"And another thing was to regulate costs. We needed to know how much we needed to spend on players and if we had a free market we might have had a bit of a problem.
Also read: ISL 2017 Auction/Draft: Complete list of players in the draft, PDF download
"You have to remember that with the ISL and I-League going on at the same time, the market would have been a hugely inflated one. For a lot of players who played well in the previous seasons, they might not have ended up with the desired contracts as many might have had to spend a lot to retain the stars."
Leading up to the draft
"If you don't start early you are in big trouble. We had already staffed our ranks by April in anticipation for the new season.
"We have a strong technical team who have firm roots in Indian football and in anticipation of the list coming out of the players eligible for the draft I can tell you we already had detailed reports on more than 150 players and within few days of the list coming out, we had found out about the strengths and weaknesses of all 200 players.
"We profile each and everyone in detail and even do background checks on most of them. It's crucial we don't miss out on any detail.
"The technical team that includes the technical director and the analyst is who we rely on to give us these pieces of information. And that team then goes out and gives that list to the coach in the format that the coach wants it in.
"So it's not random information. The coach has given us a template and we follow that. The coach then sits with the technical team. Our coach has been in the city for quite some time now and they then identify which players they want to bring in.
"And thus we have a joint meeting regarding the players that we want, the positions we want players in and the budget that is there with us. Then, we have a clear picture as to what we want."
So what kind of mentality do Mumbai City go in with leading to the draft? Do they take the best player available or do they pick someone who makes sense position wise? That is something Indranil is not ready to divulge. Yet!
"What I can say is that the coach already has in mind who he wants or what kind of player he wants. It's his call alone.
"He is the man responsible for the decisions and he knows what tools the team needs to succeed. So it is only natural for us to hand over the key to him.
"The management doesn't come into the picture for us in these regards unless there are budgets and costs are involved. But that is something the coach already has an idea about going into the draft.
"So, it's only some extraordinary circumstances that might lead to someone having to have a discussion with Mr Guimaraes. On that day. We are his left and right hands - what you will call facilitators."
A day with the CEO
With the ISL draft breathing down his neck, Das Blah makes sure that he does all the things to be up to date with everything that's happening. He ascertains that he is on top of his game in these few crucial days.
"I have quite a few meets throughout the day. I sit down with the technical team and check that the kind of information that is being passed on is what the coach wants.
"I have a meeting with the coach to understand what strategy the coach wants to adopt and what kind of players we want.
"And then there are the mocks. We try and simulate the draft and try and anticipate what kind of situations might arise in the draft. You really don't want to be caught with your pants down in these situations.
"There are bound to be debates and arguments in these kinds of situations. My work here is to be an advisor. And make sure that the coach gets what he wants within the parameters of our budget.
"So my work is that of one who takes care that the coach, the TD and analysts are on the same page."
Building the team and the lure of the ISL
The ISL draft, unlike any other major sporting draft like that of the NBA or the NFL, has two distinct differences.
Firstly, the salaries for the players in the ISL draft is already fixed before the player is drafted, unlike the North American professional leagues where the drafts are prevalent. Over there, the drafting position dictates the salary of the player in the initial years.
What does Das Blah think about that? It's something that he feels is necessary as the ISL shouldn’t yet be compared to the more established leagues.
"While the NBA and the NFL are very evolved leagues, I feel that the ISL is yet to get there. One of the primary reasons for the draft here is to see that the costs are kept in check and are not inflated - something that the NFL had fallen prey to a decade back when the teams had to negotiate salaries with the players even after drafting them.
"But it is not too much different from the NBA. I think we can all agree that the best players in the league have been marked as the ones to get the highest salaries. So there is nothing that will stop them from picking them."
And secondly, the roster will not be complete even after the drafts are concluded since the clubs then take care of recruiting foreign talents.
He seems to have a positive outlook on both.
"The balance between the foreign and Indian talent you want to recruit is a very fine one but one that has tilted towards the Indians I feel. We will have six Indians this time around rather than six foreigners.
"But it's a balance. You can't have a strong Indian contingent and a weak foreign contingent or the other way round. However, every team in the ISL feels that we have to have a very strong Indian core. Thus this draft will be critical.
"This also gives rise to strategies and you can see that the clubs have decided to retain goalkeepers so that they can have five foreigners who are outfield players. But at the end, getting a quality Indian contingent will be more important than any other season."
The lure of the ISL
Many within the ISL wanted the league to grow and become more than a "two-month carnival". From a top head coach like Steve Coppell to the marquee signing Florent Malouda - all have quipped that the league needs to have a larger impact.
Now as it moves to an expanded form, with the league set to go on for five months, it faces a new hurdle: The ability to spend on marquee players for such a long period of time and eventually having the lure for footballers around the world.
"In terms of the lure, I don't feel it's a huge problem for us," informs Indranil. "In the first year, there was an international draft so you didn't have a hand in getting to choose the players you want.
"In the second year, it was slightly difficult because the ISL was still a bit of an unknown quantity. But from the third year onwards, people started to realise that both the quality of football as well as the money was decent. And more importantly, it's a league on the rise. So I don't think there is a dearth of foreign players who want to play in the ISL.
"And even on a limited budget, I feel ISL clubs can these days attract very good quality."
The bottom line
It's a grand voyage into the unknown for many. It's a new league with new teams and new challenges. And with the expansion, it represents a bigger task to find the next gem that will surely be hidden amongst these draftees.
And owners and fans will be hoping that people like Indranil Das Blah can put their team in the best position to find the next Sandesh Jhingan or Anas Edathodika.
Only time will tell what the draft will gift us.