KOLKATA: With East Bengal having handed technical director Subhas Bhowmick the rein of the team, the question doing the rounds is who is going to replace Khalid Jamil as the coach.

The club sources have indicated that apart from ATK assistant coach Bastab Roy, a few other familiar faces in Indian football have also been sounded out. Notable among them are Neroca FC coach Gift Raikhan and Santosh Kashyap , who took charge of Aizawl FC in the latter half of the I-League season.

"We have spoken to a few coaches. Our TD (Bhowmick) has also a few other names on his mind. We will select a coach in consultation with our TD," a senior club official said.

Meanwhile, a team of AFC inspectors on Saturday carried out various checks at the East Bengal club as part of the AFC club licensing criteria. Three India clubs - Bengaluru FC and Lajong FC being the other two - have been randomly selected by the game's continental governing body for licensing criteria checks.

In another development, Minerva FC have disputed East Bengal's claim of signing five of their players, saying that four of them are still contracted to the I-League champions.

Earlier this week, the red-and-golds officials had claimed that they had roped in five players - Senegalese midfielder Kasim Aidara, defensive duo Sukhdev Singh and Deepak Devrani, striker Bali Gagandeep and goalkeeper Rakshit Dagar - from Minerva Punjab.

However, Minerva owner Ranjit Bajaj, on Saturday, insisted that Kasim and three others are still contractually bound to his club until the end of the 2-018-19 season. "The club has released goalkeeper Dagar only," he added.

When asked about this, an East Bengal official said that the issue will be settled by the concerned the players with Minerva. "The reality is that these players have agreed to play for us and we have duly signed them. If there's any issue, it's the players' responsibility to get it resolved with their former club," an East Bengal official pointed out.

