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Bit of a quick update on something I noticed in January. I wanted so many foreign players but with our dimmed reputation it just honestly wasn’t to be. Not many people were interested in us. Maybe it’s because we are technically in the Second Division among other reasons like the fact that they are seriously good quality for this team as a whole. But we did get a few decent options incoming for the next season honestly. One was free and the other was money and set for next season. ...

The best start I could have had in the first half of the season even if we had uneasy times with the players who wanted to leave. And seeing the other 2 teams who were meant to be next to us floundering below the top 3 spots I was surprised. Al-Raed were floundering so badly they sacked their head coach(Given they were one of the jobs I was aiming for and didn’t bother hiring me you DESERVE it) ...

Got to say this league was a step up in terms of finance. And it showed. This was the transfer history so far. There are a few more incomings which aren’t accounted for so keep that in mind. Compared to barely a million back in India this was quite a huge leap. The main reason I needed to shell a lot of money is to offset the halving of foreign players. Given the fact you can only have 5 foreigners in the second division of Saudi now people having to leave because of me reducing those numbers in the registration and of course the obvious reason(The club’s relegation) the money from sales weren’t that high. It was painful to have so many people come and want to leave but I was given the money to gut this squad and that’s what I’m going to do. ...

I was watching more and more of the jobs around in the Middle East and from the clubs out there. And I narrowed it down to these ones which I did apply to: In the order they are displayed: Al-Fayha: Recently relegated in the Saudi Pro League. Best finances out of the lot. And gives us a similar journey to Aizawl from the second division to the Pro League. Al-Mesaimeer: Recently relegated from the Qatar’s top division. Another similar storyline really. Finances fairly strong too given it said Secure. Al-Wakrah: A team I was following for a while after the previous manager was under threat of the sack and after the playoff match was completed it became official that they got relegated and with that got rid of the manager Qatar SC: Out of nowhere this happened really. Probably the biggest reputation club to manage for to be honest when the previous manager resigned. Could have a lot of people swirling for this job but I applied nonetheless I did want to properly go in the Saudi Pro League but some of the jobs that were in danger but were still in the league decided to stick with their managers. And also Al-Jazira in the UAE decided to stick with their manager so that job opportunity closed out too. ...

The second half of the season was far from straightforward. To maintain the unbeaten record against the likes of Mumbai City and ATK Mohun Bagan was far from easy but we did. Let’s walk through the close games from the league first: We finished correctly when it mattered. Even if they couldn’t. Our shooting was shambolic but we still managed to get the winner. The winger we brought on loan from Mumbai City was an amazing godsend honestly. ...

A relatively smaller post after what happened. After seeing how we are doing, I want to aim for the ISL and the Super Cup and adding that to our mile bank along with the goal and win miles too will finally help us make the move into the Middle East. Given I would reach my Continental C License by the end of this season, I am aiming to not stay in India if I wind up winning both the ISL and the Super Cup because ultimately this is a journeyman save for a reason. So looking at the job security at the moment this is what I found: ...

Going to be a bit of a long post because a lot has gone down in the first half of the ISL. Every other team was put by the wayside because we were really good. First off I managed to appease the 2 Germans I brought in with a young foreign keeper(I honestly couldn’t find a good Indian keeper who would’ve worked) and finally a coach who wasn’t 2 stars who was interested and bringing him in officially solved the promise dilemma for Hausmann and Aigner. ...

Another 500 miles to the bank: Ticked off. We managed to win India’s biggest cup competition. The team gelled fantastically(despite our cup tied players we brought in and weren’t available) but the final was a freaking penalty shootout win after dominating the match really. I’m not going to dwell much on it because we did win in the end. Let’s walk you through the matches we played. In the group stage we got paired with Mumbai City FC again(Touted to be in the playoff race this season), Neroca(I realize the rivalry exists because Neroca is in Mizoram too) and the Indian Navy(These are just filler teams to show the other teams that are usually part of the Durand Cup). ...

The title is fairly apt for the bunch of transfers I made in a red haze after losing that badly to Kerala Blasters and right now I am stuck trying to fulfil a promise that I cannot seem to do and it will look like 2 players will leave in the next window. Let’s walk through the lineup I most probably will be fielding in the new season in the Indian Super League: ...

We finished up the I-League and Super Cup runs. We finished unbeaten with only one draw and in the Super Cup we had a much better run going all the way to the final before getting owned by Kerala Blasters in the final(As a Chennaiyin native that hurt so much to watch). But it was all around a much better cup run than last year. Let’s go through the matches that stood out to me: ...