Former India football captain Bhaichung Bhutia believes that the Blue Tigers’s new coach Khalid Jamil will have to develop consistency in terms of results, if he is to have a successful tenure, starting with the Asian Cup qualification match against Singapore on October 9.
India find themselves at the bottom of Group C in the Asian Cup qualifiers following a goalless draw against Bangladesh (March 25) and a 0-1 loss to Hong Kong (June 10).
However, those matches were played under the tutelage of Manolo Marquez, who was subsequently relieved of duty on July 2. His replacement — Jamil — has begun with much aplomb, finishing third in the recent CAFA Nations Cup. However, Bhutia feels that Jamil’s teams tend to oscillate between being very good or being really underwhelming.
Khalid Jamil
“It’s going to be tough [to qualify for the Asian Cup] this time. But with Khalid [Jamil], you never know. He is known to have results that you don’t expect. With him [Jamil] there are always big surprises [wins], but big disappointments as well. We saw that in the CAFA Nations Cup as well. He won the first game [vs Tajikistan 2-1] against a strong team, but then against Afghanistan we saw a bad performance [goalless draw]. He’ll have to bring in consistency [to succeed],” Bhutia told mid-day from the sidelines of the trophy unveiling ceremony for the second season of the Sports For Life (SFL) Football League — a six-month long grassroots football league to be held across Mumbai and Pune (beginning from October 5) and is open for teams with players between the age of five to 18.
With respect to India’s result at the CAFA Nations Cup itself, the 48-year-old striker, who played 84 matches for the Blue Tigers, was left largely unamused.
“In Khalid’s first tournament, he has done well, but our main aim should be to qualify for the Asian Cup and FIFA World Cup. We’ve played and done well in other tournaments like CAFA Nations Cup, Nehru Cup, Merdeka Cup, and SAFF Championship for 50 years now. These tournaments are for developing players, we can try out new faces, but our main target should at least be to qualify for the Asian Cup regularly. If we don’t do well in the big tournaments then these results at other tournaments don’t matter as much,” added Bhutia, affectionately dubbed as the Sikkimese Sniper during his prime for his consistent scoring ability.
