Going into his biggest challenge as a coach, Carles Cuadrat drew on Barcelona, Bengaluru FC and Hyderabad FC to highlight the importance of what he is unlikely to get at East Bengal: time. The club starts from a poor position which meant he wouldn’t sell dreams but his team would be difficult to beat, he said.
It was also apt that Cuadrat would refer to Barcelona-Espanyol and not the ‘Clasico’ when inevitable questions about the Kolkata derby popped up. The chasm between the teams evident by then, it was at their crosstown rivals that Barcelona won the last La Liga. The first of the Kolkata derbies is on April 12.
“I understand why fans are anxious,” said Cuadrat, 54, at his first media interaction here on Saturday after signing as coach, one day before East Bengal open in the 132nd Durand Cup against a Bangladesh Army Football Team. Their archrivals have morphed from Mohun Bagan to ATK Mohun Bagan and are now Mohun Bagan Super Giant but East Bengal have been second best in the last eight derbies.
They will try to be competitive in “round after round” but Mohun Bagan Super Giant are starting the race from “pole position” and are trying to win the AFC Cup while East Bengal were “ninth” in the last iteration of the Indian Super League (ISL), said Cuadrat. If only for emphasis, sometimes the obvious need to be stated.
No clubs were named but replying to another question, the Spaniard pointed out that there are teams in ISL that “have an extra budget and we can do nothing about it. But I am happy with the team we have built, one that has champions in different positions and will be big on fighting spirit.”
Being near the bottom of the ISL standings – finishing ninth twice have been the best East Bengal have managed in three seasons of taking part – and their lack of trophies has “led to a lot of negativity among fans.” It is my work and the work of the players to try and put an end to that, said Cuadrat.
Through what will be a “new project, one with only one or two players from last season starting tomorrow.” Including striker Cleiton Silva, who scored 12 goals in ISL 2022-23, the same as Golden Boot winner Diego Maurico, East Bengal have nine from last term in the 26-player roster for the Durand Cup.
Rebuilding projects at Hyderabad FC and Bengaluru FC, where Cuadrat joined in 2016 as Albert Roca’s assistant, didn’t succeed overnight. With Sandesh Jhingan, Amrinder Singh, Mandar Rao Dessai and “wonderful foreigners”, Bengaluru FC finished fourth in the I-League in 2016-17 and Hyderabad FC did not win the ISL in Manolo Marquez’s first season, he said.
“And I come from a culture where Barcelona didn’t win La Liga in 14 years (1959-60 to 1973-74), for 10 years (from 1974-75 to 1984-85).” Cuadrat spent 12 years as a player with Barca’s youth teams and was their fitness coach from 1998 to 2005.
“(At East Bengal) We are trying to create something with new players, trying to change the dynamics of the club. Based on the experience of my colleagues in ISL, it takes two to three years to succeed,” he said.
Cuadrat will get two years, as part of his deal with East Bengal. In that time as head coach at Bengaluru FC, he had won ISL in 2018-19 and taken them to the play-offs. That team was used to winning, playing the final of the AFC Cup in 2016, and it took four to five years to build, he said. “I think this is my biggest challenge as a coach because here we start from a very, very poor position. But like at Bengaluru FC, I would like to be part of the process.”
Bengaluru lost prolific Venezuelan scorer Miku in 2019 but Gurpreet Singh Sandhu had 11 clean sheets the next season. “So, we may have lost in one area of the pitch but we gained in other areas. My job as coach is to make the best team with the people we have,” said Cuadrat. The coach said he was happy to have played a “little part” in contributing to players who have served the national team.
Even though East Bengal have written to All India Football Federation (AIFF) stating they would not release players for an India under-23 training camp scheduled to start next week, Cuadrat didn’t sound defiant ahead of a season where club and country commitments would clash. “I respect all decisions taken for the national team as I have worked with one (El Salvador as assistant coach). We will work together. Winners find solutions, loser excuses,” he said.