Alexandre Guimaraes : ISL is not a tournament anymore, it is a proper league now

In the space of just two months and three days, head coach Alexandre Guimarães completely changed the fortunes of Mumbai City FC. A club which was associated with inconsistency and a leaky defence was transformed into one which finished on top of the table and kept a staggering nine clean sheets. If the Costa Rican can pull off such a feat in a little more than 60 days, then this year's Hero Indian Super League — which is exactly two months longer than the earliar seasons — will give him and other head coaches time to impart their ideas on their squads in a more effective manner.

"One of the main reasons for me agreeing to come back is the extension of the league. The biggest advantage of this is for the players, who need time to recover and a longer season means better performances," the Portuguese said.

"I remember seeing the fixture lists from previous seasons and there was a point where Chennaiyin played three games in six days. That was too much to ask for from players. As for training drills, I won't do anything different compared to England, where Championship clubs play 46 games in 38 weeks along with (midweek) cup games as well. But a longer league gives coaches and players enough to know each other," the 63-year-old said.

Iain Hume, who has been synonymous with the Hero ISL, said that he would have come back for another season irrespective of the duration, but stated a 4-month long duration meant that "earlier the ISL was a tournament, now it is a league."

"More teams and a longer league mean that the league will become more and more established," says Hume.

Serbian Ranko Popovic, who takes over from Antonio Habas at FC Pune City said that he was impressed with how receptive the Indian players have been so far to his methods, but said that shorter leagues mean "too much vacation time."

Pune's winger Kean Lewis said that it was a big plus point for players' welfare to be employed for a longer period of time.  All the head coaches who spoke at the Hero ISL's Media Day today in Mumbai were categorical about the number of ideas they wanted to implement on their teams — and that all these ideas needed time to be executed. 

With the duration of the league lasting for double the time of its previous editions, this will be the season that coaches and players will cherish in terms of learning and executing their skills on the pitch.