Bhaichung Bhutia lashes out at NorthEast United’s overseas recruits
India’s former football star Bhaichung Bhutia has expressed his disappointment on the failure of NorthEast United FC’s foreign players stating it as their biggest setback this season in ISL. Calling ATK’s season a ‘disaster’, Bhutia empathized with their pre-season injuries that caused the downfall.
NorthEast United FC endured yet another fruitless season in the Indian Super League this season as they could manage just three wins from 17 matches, sitting at the rock bottom of the table with 11 points from 17 games. And India’s football torchbearer Bhutia, who hails from Sikkim’s Tinkitam, has blamed NEFC’s failure on their foreign recruits.
NEFC brought in experienced Portuguese centre-half Jose Goncalves, Martin Diaz from Uruguay, Sambinha from Guinea-Bissau, and Marcinho and Danilo from Brazil among the big names. But, apart from Marcinho, who has scored four goals in 15 games, none of the big names stood up when needed. NEFC conceded a whopping 26 goals this season so far while scoring only 12 goals.
"…it’s post-mortem time for teams who missed out. It’s frustrating as you may draw a lot of flak but when you fall short, something surely went wrong. NEUFC were disappointing and the biggest setback was the non-performance of their foreign recruits. It’s hard to name one who stood out for them," wrote Bhutia in his column for TOI.
Another huge upset in the ISL this season has been the form of defending champions ATK. Sitting just above NEFC in the table with 13 points, the two-time champions have got it completely wrong this time with a new set of staffs and players. And Bhutia termed their campaign a ‘disaster’ highlighting their injuries as a huge cause for it.
"The less said the better for defending champions ATK as they were a sheer disaster. The most consistent team in the history of ISL were severely hit by the string of pre-season injuries," added Bhutia.
Bhutia also revealed that he expected Kerala Blasters to go all the way this season following their strong potential right at the start of the season, but they mellowed down with every passing week.
"The Blasters, to me, were the best team when it kicked-off. But initially were too much defensive. Under David