Stephen Constantine has Some 'Unfinished Business' in India

Ok, let me start off by saying that I do not like the Delhi heat. When you've spent your entire childhood enjoying the cool sea breeze of Mumbai, the furnace like weather can be quite a dampener. Even more so, when you have to get up at the crack of dawn in this god awful weather to go on a shoot.

Last Thursday though was different. After 16 years in the profession and having covered cricket, football and hockey events all over the world, the idea of an outdoor shoot in Delhi's summer doesn't excite me that much. But it's not every day that you get to meet the Indian Football team in the Capital. The dry heat is definitely not conducive for football practice. (Indian Football Team Undergoes Team-Building Exercises at Army Centre)

After a marathon two hour practice session, I finally got down to interviewing Stephen Constantine, the new coach of the Indian Football Team. I had last met the Englishman in his first stint as national team coach in 2002 just after the team returned from winning the LG Cup in Vietnam. I was a young 26-year-old back then so meeting players like Baichung Bhutia and Abhishek Yadav was clearly a great moment for me.

My initial impression of the Englishman was a good one, although our introduction is one I will never forget. Me, the lifelong Manchester United fan taking out my prized possession, my Manchester United wallet to give him my visiting card, Constantine giving a dirty look to say put that rubbish wallet away as he was an Arsenal fan. After a cup of tea at what was the Ambassador Hotel back then at Sujan Singh Park, he finally allowed himself to smile.

He came across as a serious coach, keen on getting the best out of what Indian football had to offer. We kept in regular touch over the next three years while he was in charge and even after he left I kept a track of where he was.

Back then in 2002, India were 127th in the World, today the team is ranked 141st. In terms of ranking not much had change, so why come back?

"I gave 3 years of my life here. I have a very strong connection with a lot of people here. And I feel I can make a difference. So, when I was approached by the AIFF, it was for me an opportunity to come back and may be finish what I started." Constantine told me.

In a few days from now India will begin the major part of their campaign of trying to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia when they take on Oman in Bangalore.

Having made light work of Nepal in a double-legged tie in March, the Men in Blue now face the daunting task of trying to navigate past Oman, Guam, Turkmenistan and the highest ranked Asian Team in the World, Iran. Clearly Constantine has his work cut out.

"My first goal was to beat Nepal and qualify for these Asian Cup qualifiers. It will be 8 years since we have participated in these games. So, it was very important to win these games. I would like to see us in the top 100 within the next 2 years. I have set myself and the team quite a few targets, some of them I am speaking about and some of them I won't."

In my view India's chances of finishing top of Group D are zero. So our best hope is to try and finish 2nd at best which will give us a great chance of qualifying for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the UAE.

Having lived through some of Indian football's best times in the last decade with victories in the Nehru Cup and AFC Challenge Cup one would have thought that Indian football was on the upswing. But that's not true.

Forget about Asia, we are now no longer the power house even in the sub-continent. But sometimes an outsider can give you a different perspective on thing. This is what Constantine told me, "Look I think Indian Football has taken some very big steps forward in some regards and in other regards it has stayed the same. I mean we need to understand that it's not just about playing football that is going to affect our rankings, our standings in the game. You know we need to think about sports medicine, sports science, goalkeeping coaches. You know we have some teams that do not have goalkeeping coaches. We have a lot of teams that have a basic physiotherapist, which in this age is not enough. Teams are now using GPS and monitoring players on and off the pitch and we need to start doing that. There are some teams that are doing this, but it needs to be everybody."

Subrata Paul during the training session.

© PTI

One of Constantine's views that really hasn't changed in the last decade is fewer competitions for India's footballers, but more matches.

He told me, "Look it's not about the competitions. It's about the number of games and the quality of games. Our highest league at the moment is the I League, as a recognized league. The ISL has come as an add on if you like. It's a two month season. I would like to see it for three to four months. So, the I-league is 4-5 months long and the ISL is 4-5 months. So, you have a regular season in comparison to the European side where the boys are playing 30-38 games. So, those high level quality games is where you're going to get your National team from. So, that needs to be uniform. At the moment, we are going to start the ISL from October 3rd, which is great. It will finish in December. I would have liked to have seen it start sooner so that our boys get competitive games before the FIFA calendar dates which are always going to be September, October, November. So, you would want players playing in a league from say August, September you get your qualifiers and the leagues are in full swing at those times. So, hopefully in the near future, we will have a season where it reflects the FIFA calendar. So, our players can begin the qualifiers in good condition. Whereas at the moment, because there are no games, it is difficult."

One of the biggest things to hit Indian Football in the last 12 months has indeed been the Indian Super League or ISL and unlike some, Constantine is clearly a big fan of the franchise based league.

"Where else in the World will our players be able to train with Mikel Silvestre, Elano and Nicolas Anelka? They would not get this opportunity anywhere. So, the ISL has done 2 things, It has brought a lot of good professionals. Ok there are some bad ones that we saw last year but we can regulate this. It has given Indian players an opportunity to train and play with these kind of players and that in itself a development. Now if you can streamline this, to coincide with the I-League, where by again you come in and you have 36-38 quality games on quality surfaces with good training facilities. Somethings we don't have, good medical, good physiotherapy and obviously good sports science. Put all those things together and now you have a chance to do something."

But ISL apart, a lot more needs to be done to change Indian Football. Now for instance Englishman Bob Houghton, one of Stephen's predecessors as Coach and the man who led Swedish side Malmo to the European Cup final against Brain Clough's Nottingham Forrest in 1979 had India playing the English style of long ball. Dutchman Wim Koevermans, on the other hand won a European Championship Medal with Holland in 1988 under Rinus Michels, the man who gave the world 'Total Football' tried to get India to play a passing game.

Stephen Constantine during India's practice session. (Image credit: AIFF)

But modern football is now all about possession. Just look at FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and off-late even Manchester United who dominate games with almost 70% to 80% possession.

Constantine echoed that sentiment, saying, "Yes, possession is the key. If you have the ball, the other team cannot score. But look you play to your strengths. We are not going to play Brazil, we are not going to play like the Dutch and we are not going to play like the English. We are going to play Indian. Our style, what suits us. What kind of football can we play. It's not good for me to say that I want to play like Barcelona. We do not have the players to play like Barcelona. So, we got to play what we have."

"I don't particularly like long ball but I understand why some coaches play the long ball", he continued, "because if you do not have the players who can play those small passes and you make mistakes, you are going to pay. And in the last few years, we have paid dearly for trying to play. So, we will play a game that suits us. We would try to be competitive in every game. But again you go back to the foundation. Where is the foundation for these players? Means 13-14, it's too late. Foundation begins at 6,7,8. That is where players learn the game of football, they love the game of football and it goes up and up and up and then you have a foundation. So, we are trying to teach the players at 13,14,15 the basics. It doesn't work. And in the end you say OK why don't we qualify?"

"What have we done in the last 10 years to give ourselves a chance to qualify", he showed his concern, "we still don't have huge leagues, we still do not have a development process other that what the AIFF has set up. And that is not the responsibility of the Federation, it should be of the clubs. You look at the biggest teams in the World, they are spending crores of rupees on their academies and we are not doing anything. So, where are we going to find the players? So, this is the issue. This is why we try to set up the scouting process. Abhishek Yadav will direct that. We have started, we would try to find players for under 17s also and for the under 19s and under 21s and it's an ongoing process."

Coming back to the practice session I must admit, apart from Sunil Chhetri, Robin Singh and Subrata Paul, I failed to recognize any of the other players which I must say is quite disgraceful on my part. But it also tells you just how the face of Indian Football had changed in the last decade.

Back then Baichung Bhutia was the undisputed star of Indian Football while Sunil Chhetri was making his senior team debut. Now the 30-year-old Delhi lad is the team's senior statesman while the remainder of the 26-man squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Oman and Guam are all under 30.

Constantine told me, "Honestly when I go to watch the games, I don't care who they are, where they come from, how old they are. If they have Indian passport, they do what I need them to do, we put them in the squad. I do not look that they are new or young. I look at who is good enough. The last time I was here, I had built a team that went from 2002 to 2010. So, we are trying to build a team here. It's difficult because we have the qualifiers in the way and there is not much room for error. Yes, it is a fairly young side. It will take some time for them to be how I want them to be but they are working very hard."

By then we had been chatting for almost 30 minutes and I could see the AIFF's Media Officer hurrying me up as the team had to leave the stadium for their hotel. As we walked out of the stadium together, Constantine was mobbed by a few youngsters for autographs and selfies. Clearly it's all smiles now as far as Indian Football is concerned.