East Bengal: Review of the season till now

I always said on my blog last year, I am worried about the stage when Mr. Morgan will leave East Bengal, and this season proved me right. This is most complete squad of East Bengal, but not the right man in the start of season. For me personally, bringing Coach like Flapo was always a danger and it proved right. He got the expectation of East Bengal, who are expected to win every game there fan, and even more so spoilt by Mr. Morgan in last few years. He was never given the time to settle in the Indian football by media, He was always compare to Mr. Morgan, in which he failed but it was not his fault, it is fault of club. I will come to that point later.

Let me first say, The AFC cup performance of East Bengal was the highlight of the season. I think tactical genius of flapo won the Quarterfinal for us, but in semi we were outplayed by the superior club. But I was satisfied by the performance of the team. I hope this year they can get in AFC cup, because now the player is better equipped to play away from home as they are now used to it. I hope they can get better this season.

Getting rid of Flapo was not the smart move, but appointing him at first place was the wrong more for me. If you have seen in last few years, Morgan has developed him team by choosing player for his team, but flapo was never given that chance. I think that led to his downfall. He might be great coach, sometime it doesn’t work out as we want. East Bengal has to be patient with their next coach, because it will take time to get used to team and player. That is why I think it was smart move to appoint Almando, he know Indian football better than anyone, he is just a great coach and also he has won I league, a missing piece from east Bengal jewel from few years. I hope he win it for east Bengal, win against Mohan Began has kicked start the season for east Bengal.

What impressed me about east Bengal in last few season has been how they have handled the transfer window, Inflow and outflow of player. They have maintain the core of squad same for last few years, and also the young player in squad are quite good. They will do better as the season will progress, but one player which impressed me most is Lalrindika Ralte, he has been star in East Bengal. The goal he has scored this season is class apart. I think he is just 21 year old; he is one of brightest start of India not for east Bengal. The core of east Bengal squad remain same, they have just made the squad better. I hope they don’t chop and change next season also.

I am east Bengal fan, but I hate when east Bengal chop and change too much in a season. But being Chelsea fc and EBFC you realize that loosing in that club, means end of word. So the expectation is to win every match.

The unbeaten run of East Bengal..

I am writing this thing and hoping I am not going to curse it. 

Last year East Bengal didn’t win I-league. They missed by a very thin margin in the end of the league, which prompt lot of speculation about the team coach and also the famous drama of striker. Well in the end the sense prevailed in the east Bengal management they let striker go and kept the coach. Traver Morgan, well yes that’s the name which have changed the way east Bengal have been doing there business in last few years. Here the management needs applaud, they have kept the belief in the team even they have missed the title in last few years. 

East Bengal has been unbeaten in last 31 matches. Believe it or not they still not lost the match this season and they have already played Dempo. It is not easy to maintain that kind of consistency in the Indian football circuit, where there is not fixed fixture schedule and every Kolkata club have to play in Kolkata league as well. When I looked at this team, it has been all together a very different from all the team which has been builds over the time in Kolkata. There are no star player, only star player there stiker is now in opposite direction of team.

This season, east Bengal has done simple things. They have replaced a prolific striker with two three good player. The best thing about this team right now is they are not dependent on any one. Last few seasons they have been dependent on mehtaab but now even without him team is winning. They are winning and in a ruthless manner. There defence is holding in a better way than any other team even after losing Nirmal chhetri. They have become a unit which is well behaved; they know how to perform their task.

The only concern I have about this team is, how they will play once they will be involved in AFC cup as well. They have done badly in last few AFC cup, but the thing is they have been regular over there and most of team is the same. I have feeling this year they will do better in AFC cup because of the squad dept they have. I know it is too early to predict, but I have a feeling this might be year of East Bengal to clean sweep the board of trophy.

P.S.: Only team I fear is Mohan Bagan as they will play with heart in the darby. J

East Bengal football club in Financial Crisis

Among all of Indian football club, I have been following east Bengal from my school days. It hurt me when I heard news claiming that East Bengal might not take part in AFC cup due to financial crisis they are facing. They are still in talk with UB group whose owner is Mr. Vijay Malia to get them bail out, ironically who himself need bail out for his airlines.

What is wrong with Kolkata football in general, why they are not able to cope up with new system of football, an organized way to go?

Recently I praised East Bengal for maintaining much of their core squad for almost three year with coach also. In Kolkata any coach who survive more than three year, you know he is doing something good. So from where this financial crisis came from. Let go to various point which is haunting East Bengal right now.

UB Half ownership: I have never fan of UB group half ownership of East Bengal and Half of Mohan Bagan. They are financing both of the best club in India in term of history and in term of Fan base. There are virtually holding both clubs in term of finance and also in term of growth. I know it is little bit immature to say but I think East Bengal should find a suitable buyer which can back them and buy their share from UB group. Let them have Mohan Bagan and enjoy, but at least we will find some new partner as well.

Branding: This is the team which is remotely overlooked by India football team. If you see the stats of facebook then you will find out east Bengal has more fans than Newcastle United and few other. I have not find any of update from east Bengal to get there player engaged in media activity, promotion activity and also there is no update form them until match is ended. For east Bengal they should get there branding bang on right so they can attract more sponsor in club.

Club functioning: This is one thing which I will never understand about Kolkata club. How they work, what are their motivation behind any decision about the club. I think they need to be little bit more transparent in the way they work to get club in right place.

East Bengal has a potential of being one of the giant of the asia but if these kind of functioning are run in Kolkata football club, then there would be a day when east Bengal might see a day like Mohammadan sporting. 

P.S.: Let’s hope that East Bengal participate in AFC cup and might get bail out this time.

The Rise of East Bengal in Virtual World

Well I was amazed when I read this piece of news somewhere. I did little bit research to find the truth behind it.

East Bengal's official Facebook page has more than 4 lakh likes. That's a staggering statistic considering the poor turnouts in even their home matches of the I-League. Only three in Asia had more in the list of the top 100 clubs as released by futebolfinance.com last April.

All three - Persib Bandung (2 million+), Sriwijaya FC (6.4 lakh+), Persija Jakarta (3.9 lakh+) - are from Indonesia. East Bengal's page had more than 3.5 lakh back then. On Thursday, the number had swelled over 4.70 lakh.

East Bengal's page is handled by the company that bankrolls the football team. "Facebook has great potential to reach out to fans and attract new ones. That is why we regularly update our page and try to make it as interactive as possible," said a representative of the team that handles the page. Other pages related to Indian football also have sizeable membership. Twitter too has accounts of Indian clubs and others dedicated to domestic football. The numbers here are smaller possibly because Indians still use Twitter less.

How it started

Following domestic football through social media started in 2007 on Orkut when a community named 'Indian football fans' was formed to discuss everything and anything related to the sport in India.

Membership kept increasing and that laid the foundation for more such communities. As Indians shifted from Orkut to Facebook, the platform for following Indian football also changed but the passion only increased. Archrivals Mohun Bagan (14000 + likes) and some older clubs haven't gone the East Bengal way but newbies such as Pune FC (30000+), Shillong Lajong (10000+) and United Sikkim (3000+) are using social media very seriously.

The I-League and other domestic tournaments continue to struggle to get fans to the stadiums. On the social media, the opposite is true.

Now Some facts of social science:
Most liked clubs:
Barcelona 33 Million+
Real Madrid 29 Million+
Man Utd 26 Million+
Those beaten by East Bengal:
Newcastle Utd 293 Lakh+
Atletico Madrid 2.7 Lakh+
East Bengal Fan likes 4.70 (As on July 9th 2012)….

P.S.: Now I am one of the proud fan of east Bengal. We need to create more online fan and also get them involved in the facebook as well.