AHMEDABAD: IT is perhaps their final chance to salvage a season that seems something out of coach John Gregory’s worst nightmares. Yes, the Super Cup still represents a chance for Chennaiyin FC to win some silverware, but with nothing at stake, the tournament will be little more than one more thing to get over with before they head home, for a lot of people. That showed last year when ISL teams fielded makeshift teams and took the earliest opportunities they had to crash out.
A win against Colombo FC in their AFC Cup Qualifying Playoff second leg at the Transstadia here on Wednesday will lend a semblance of respectability to a season that has seen Chennaiyin finish rock-bottom of the Indian Super League table with nine points from 18 games. It is a damning indictment of how they’ve been playing, that if they win on Wednesday, it will be their third win in the last six months.
Failure, however, to finish off what was initially thought of as a rather straightforward task will be an embarrassment for the club. This was supposed to be the landmark year for the Indian Super League and the champions participating in the continental competition was supposed to lend legitimacy to the tournament. However, the team crashing out at the first hurdle would have the opposite effect. Colombo FC may not be the pushovers that they were expected to be, but they are no giants either. Never have they got past this stage — the only other time they played in the competition, Mohun Bagan dumped them out effortlessly.
Gregory though has a more personal stake in this. Even though Chennaiyin are yet to make an official announcement, the Englishman has said on multiple occasions, how he was going to leave at the end of the season. On Tuesday, he spoke of how even progress in the AFC Cup was unlikely to change his mind.
There was even a throwaway line about how he wished he had left the season before, as a champion, instead of now as the manager. It is indeed a sad end for a manager who brought some warmth to the role after the cold and abrasive Marco Matterazi.
But on Wednesday, he will have a chance to induce some sweetness into a sour year. “I don’t want to go away thinking about the season that I have had,” he said. “The return that I’ve had from the team has been poor. The lack of goals has been poor. Confidence is not exactly flowing with us. We have had a disappointing season. I prefer to be leaving the club in a better frame of mind.”
Gregory though denied that his impending departure would have no effect on how the players play on Wednesday. “Players are used to changes. It has had no effect on the dressing room. Everybody wants to get some success in the two cup competitions that we have left.”