India might well be focussing their football attention on the FIFA U17 World Cup that is currently taking place, but the Head Coaches of various ISL sides are currently talking up their respective clubs’ chances of success in the 2017/18 campaign.
Sergio Lobera Rodriguez has taken over as Head Coach of FC Goa, following in the footsteps of the legendary Zico. Rodriguez was on the backroom team at FC Barcelona during the late Tito Vilanova’s tenure and is already talking up the club’s chances of success this season.
“I want everyone to remember the moment we lift the ISL trophy this year”.
That’s a pretty bold statement from the Spaniard, who went on to say;
“It is important that when we win, we win in style”.
So no pressure on the FC Goa players there then.
Serbian Ranko Popovic is in the hot-seat at FC Pune City and has stated that;
“I like to play football to win the game”
It is that kind of attitude that is likely to endear him to the fans of Pune for sure.
He does have a plan on how to achieve this however;
“Always score on more goal than your opposition”.
You can feel the Pune fans reassured already.
Popovic was honest though when it came to talking about his previous knowledge of the ISL before he saw the contract being waved under his nose;
“I can’t say I knew about ISL”.
That’s fair enough.
Indian Super league debutants Jamshedpur FC have turned to former Crystal Palace and, briefly, Manchester City manager Steve Coppell to lead them into their first season.
Coppell was in no way briefed to stick to the company line when saying;
“In a very short span of time Tatas have turned dreams into reality and the JRD stadium has been renovated in no time to host its maiden Indian Super League (ISL) matches. The team was formed after the Jamshedpur FC came into existence and with 15 Indian and 7 foreign players we have a formidable team with a mix of talent and skill”
Tata, the huge steel company, own Jamshedpur just in case you were wondering.
Coppell, assisted by former Crazy Gang leader Wally Downes, will be heading to Thailand for their preseason campaign.
With just over a month until the league kicks off, the TV executives have decided to get the league as front of mind as possible and, in their wisdom, decided this was the TV advert to achieve that.
I’ll let you decide whether it was money well spent or not…
