Mohun Bagan's leaky boat
In the last 25 years, exactly 38 times Mohun Bagan has changed their coach. This season, Santosh Kashyap is their latest addition to their new list of coaches who also may not last long as their head coach if the club doesn’t win anything big.
Last year in November, I dropped in at the club tent at Maidan. One of the ‘coaches’ (please allow me to protect his identity), took me inside the club lawn while some TV channels waited outside for some sound bytes. The evergreen masseur of Bagan team, Gobindo, roamed around to enquire if any player needs his help to tone up their muscle after a strenuous workout. Barreto had just completed his brunch. Rahim Nabi smiled and waved at me.
“Aminda, kemon acho? (how are you),” Nabi enquired. I returned a courtesy smile and asked him if everything was going good with him in his first season at Bagan.
The Pandua-born striker-turned-midfielder-turned defender wanted to tell me a lot more about the team but then it wasn’t the best of place for us to gossip about the club.
But, it was the ‘coach’ who explained me in his 4×4 room why Bagan wouldn’t win any major trophy. He was correct. Bagan had struggled to win any major title last season which prompted the club management to axe Subrata Bhattacharya.
In fact, Bhattacharya’s weird ideas were believed to be the main reason behind Bagan’s inability to cope with the demand of the fans and officials. As the technical director, he had three more coaches – Prasanta Banerjee, Hemanta Dora and Bernard Oparanozie (manager).
Babluda (Subrata is known in football parlance) was busy chatting with an official while the former India captain Banerjee was discussing a point or two with another former player and assistant coach Satyajit Chatterjee.
The walled photo frames of Bagan’s yesteryear achievements seemed to me as a huge mismatch with the current affairs in the club. I’m talking about Bagan in 2011 but the club seemed to me sleeping in the past.
The ‘coach’ discussed at length the reasons behind Bagan’s fall from grace. Bhattacharya would show scant respect to his subordinates (though by any coaching yardstick Banerjee and Bernard would pip Babluda).
When Moroccan Karim Bencharifa was asked to quit in 2010-11, Bagan’s ageing president Tutu Bose suggested that the club must consider their ‘home grown’ Bablu. Thus, began the Bablu era. He was a complete failure and even burnt the bridges with his own staff and created differences with some players. The TD became a butt of ridicule whenever he popped up his new ‘game plan’.
The green and maroon once epitomised tradition, fair play, dignity, virtues. But, today they are missing. It can be recalled that in the 1970s, few footballers refused to take part in a tournament. But former secretary Dhiren Dey declared that Bagan would field its groundsmen. That was the spirit and values the club stood for. That spirit seems to have vanished now.
In the winding streets of North Kolkata, there existed a lovely bungalow owned by the Mitra family. That bungalow was known as Mohun Bagan Villa. It was in that bungalow where the roots of the greatest club in India grew.
In 1889, Mohun Bagan club was formed. This particular street is now renamed as Mohun Bagan Lane. And it is a stone’s throw away from my ancestral place at Narkeldanga in central Calcutta. A bare 6-7 kms from my place that I easily take an evening stroll.
I’m sure, the walk can become a pleasant one, if someone saves Bagan’s leaky boat.