Extension for Constantine only first step for India in delivering promising show in 2019 Asian Cup

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Bengaluru, February 7: A national team that's unbeaten in 13 games and a coach who guided that team to their highest FIFA ranking in over 21 years. There's no reason for anyone to think twice about extending the tenure of this coach. But this is India and Stephen Constantine's role as head coach was in jeopardy until the All India Football Federation's technical committee decided to hand the Englishman an extension until the 2019 Asian Cup.

But why was the extension in doubt in the first place?

An unconfirmed rift between the players and coach almost cost Constantine his job. About five senior players are said to have complained to the AIFF general secretary Kushal Das that Constantine is not good tactician to help the team win against higher-ranked opponents.

But the AIFF technical committee, in extending Constantine's contract, drove the message that no player is bigger than the team. The other demand, a salary hike, an increase from the $20,000 per month he draws from the AIFF, also appears to have been met.

Right move?

In a year from now, India will play the 2019 Asian Cup in the UAE. The five senior players in the squad may have their doubts about Constantine, but he's currently India's best bet.

You saw what happened with India in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in October 2017. Nicolai Adam, who had been developing the talent for the U-17 World Cup since February 2015, was asked to leave in January, 2017, barely nine months before the World Cup. A Portuguese coach Luis Norton de Matos was hired, but there's only so much that a manager can do in nine months. India lost all the three games in the World Cup and their performance was anything but abysmal.

The same applies to the seniors too. Getting a new coach 11 months before the Asian Cup would have been disastrous. The team will be assemble only after the Indian Super League (ISL), to play the last of their Asian Cup qualifiers against Kyrgyzstan. Having already qualified to the main draw with two games to spare, India's performance in the rest of the games can't be analysed with a magnifying glass.

Had new coach been appointed, he would not have had enough time to assess the players are there are hardly any competitive matches between now and the 2019 Asian Cup in January .

With Constantine, the record is clear - 13 games unbeaten, surge to 96 in the rankings and picking themselves up from the poor World Cup qualifying campaign to make the Asian Cup main draw.

More importantly, since March, 2015, - the beginning of Constantine's second stint with the Indian national team - about 36 players have made their senior team debuts.

What next?

Constantine always wanted more games for the national team. Since the 2-2 draw with Myanmar in the Asian Cup qualifiers November, 2017, the national team has not played any match. Their next tie is on March 27 after the ISL concludes on March 17. This means Constantine will once again get roughly 10 days (the national team players from the clubs who don't make the ISL knockouts will assemble earlier) to conduct his camp.

Time and again Constantine has requested more time with the national team for training camps. "I'm not making excuses but we had just four days to prepare for the game where as Oman have been at it for two weeks and they even had a friendly game," Constantine had said in Bengaluru after India's 1-2 loss to Oman in a World Cup qualifier in June 2015. "I'm disappointed that we lost but I'm happy with the way the team showed spirit."

But he has to remember that every national coach gets only about 10-15 days with his players before a FIFA international fixture date.

As for AIFF, they have a huge gap to fill after the March 27 game. The Super Cup, featuring the top teams from ISL and the I-League, will only go on for a month in April. The AIFF needs to figure out a way to keep the footballers occupied from April till the next season of the ISL - about five to six months.

"You've a season from November to March, then there're many months without football at the moment for the national team players," ISL debutants Jamshedpur FC's coach Steve Coppell had said. "I don't know now what'll fill those moments.

"To improve the Indian national team, you need your top players to play 30-plus games in a year, competitive games mind you. If that was the case, coach Stephen Constantine will be happy becasuse he knows his players are playing for a full year rather than 18-20 games in just four months."

The Champions Cup or a Tri-Nations Cup, which saw India competing with minnows like Mauritius and St Kitts & Nevis, will have to be reijigged to include better competitors.

According to Sportskeeda, the AIFF is looking at New Zealand and Armenia as likely opponents for the tournament, which will be held in September, 2018.

A few friendlies in between will also help the national team. And if they get to play bigger opponents before the 2019 Asian Cup, there's nothing like it.

As for the alleged rift, even if it deepens over the next year, the AIFF needs to remember what happened with Adam and the U-17 team and step in at the appropriate time to put each one at his place.