pune

Updated: Dec 14, 2018 15:16 IST

City’s Indian Super League (ISL) outfit FC Pune City’s quest for appointing a new head coach appears to have taken yet another turn as the Maratha Stallions have not been allowed to name former Kerala Blasters interim manager Trevor Morgan as their number one until the end of the 2017/18 season.

The city outfit sacked Miguel Angel Portugal only three games into the campaign after the Spaniard failed to win a single point and watched his side being outclassed in every match he was at the helm. After taking over the reins from Ranko Popovic, the club’s most successful manager till date, many expected Portugal to pick up from where the Serb left off, but unfortunately for the club and its fans, it wasn’t meant to be.

However, since Portugal’s departure, assistant coach Pradhyum Reddy has been made the interim manager to look after the first-team affairs, and perhaps surprisingly, has managed to steady the ship to a certain extent. After being given the job with the team languishing at the foot of the table with zero points, Reddy has managed to change the mentality in the dressing room and the team now appears to be playing with a certain swagger about their game, akin to 2017’s showings under Popovic.

While Reddy has enjoyed a decent run of results (three wins, two draws, four losses) and has taken the team to a respectable seventh position on the table, the club are understood to follow the trend of their fellow ISL counterparts and appoint an international coach that has previous experience at bigger leagues outside the country.

In fact, until the last season, it would have been impossible to even consider Reddy as a permanent head coach as the ISL rules at the time stated: “All coaches must be of ‘international repute’ with ‘significant experience and track record’, or ‘high-profile international players’ looking to move to club management.”

However, with the change in rules and a trend started by Bengaluru FC when they appointed Carles Cuadrat, clubs are now eligible to hire head coaches regardless of their nationalities provided that the candidates have served as assistant managers for at least a season and have the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) A or Pro-Licence or its equivalent.

While this could have been the chance for the Stallions to make a bold statement and be the first ISL club in history to appoint an Indian manager, they’ve been linked to a host of names, with Trevor Morgan appearing to be atop their priority list. But, over the last 48 hours, sources close to Hindustan Times have come to the understanding that the league will not be giving the Pune outfit the green signal to complete the signing of the current Bhutan national team head coach.

HT asked the Indian Super League representatives about the alleged hindrance in the club’s signing of Morgan, to which they refused to make an official comment. The club, too, has remained tight-lipped on the matter and has not made a public statement about what their plans are going into the business end of the tournament.

Morgan’s presence in the stands during FC Pune City’s 2-0 win over FC Goa on Tuesday at the Balewadi Sports Complex could mean that the reported move could still be on the cards, but as of now, Reddy continues to take charge of the first team and is likely to stay put until the end of 2018.

At the helm, now

Pradhyum Reddy, FC Pune City’s assistant coach, is an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and United States Soccer Federation (USSF) ‘A’ licenced coach. After working in the UK and the US for a decade, he returned to India in 2009 and joined Shillong Lajong in the 2010 season and guided the team in its debut season by winning the I-League second division title to get promoted to the I-League.