On 29th June, in a press conference held in Mohun Bagan club, Santosh Kashyap was announced to be the new Chief coach of Mohun Bagan football team for the season 2012-13. The other members of the technical staff includes Bernard Oparanozie (Assistant coach), Hemanta Dora (Goalkeeping coach), Jonathan Corner (Physiotherapist cum Rehab Specialist).
It was also announced that a physical trainer will also be appointed soon. Mohun Bagan squad will commence practice from 11th July at the Mohun Bagan ground.
After a below par season, Mohun Bagan officials have decided to replace Prasanta Banerjee (Coach) and Subrata Bhattacharya (Technical Director) with former Air India coach Santosh Kashyap.
Santosh Kashyap is known for his skills with youth teams and has promoted many youth players. He has been coaching Air India for two seasons. In 2010-11, he was appointed as Air India coach when the team was fighting relegation, steered the team away from relegation, however, in 2011-12, his team surprised everyone when it came 9th in I League.
His team depended on lots young Indian players. It is from his Air India team, players like Manandeep Singh, Colin Abranches, Royston D’Souza, Ramandeep Singh, Prakash Thorat and Sandesh Gadkari came into limelight.
In past he has coached Mahindra United Under-19 team which won the Super Division title in the Mumbai Football League. He was also associated with the state team while being the coach of the Maharashtra U-19 and sub-junior under-15 teams. He also coached Maharashtra Santosh Trophy team.
Santosh Kashyap said that he is ready to take up the challenge of coaching a high profile team like Mohun Bagan. He said in teams like Air India saving relegation is like winning the I league, but Mohun Bagan is a trophy oriented club and the target is to win all the trophies. He also said that he is confident of his training and skills and is looking forward for this challenge. Regarding the team, he said, “Mr. Debasish Dutta has consulted with me and I gave few suggestions and accordingly those players have been included in the team.”
Santosh Kashyap said that he does not like to stick to a particular strategy. He said, “Last year also you must have noticed that I have changed strategy in many matches. I started with 4-4-2, but then team played few matches in 5-3-2 and 3-5-2 also. It all depends on the situation and strength of the opponents.”
Regarding Mohun Bagan not winning trophies, he said,
This can happen in football. Yesterday you have seen the mighty Germany lost to Italy which was a huge upset. Definitely I will try my best to help McDowell Mohun Bagan win trophies this year.
About handling Odafa and Tolgay, he said, “Both of them are mature players and they know their job. This is a team game and I will focus on team building. I don’t think I will have any problem handling both of them. I will also give chance to talented youngsters.”
Santosh Kashyap’s message towards Mohun Bagan fans was, “Give us support and we will try our best to play good football and also win trophies this year and I hope that this will be a great season for the club.”
Regarding Subrata Bhattacharya and Prashanta Banerjee, Mr. Mitra said that it was the decision taken by our committee and the reason for that will not be made public. He said, “However, the doors are not closed for anybody in Mohun Bagan.”
