KOCHI: Vociferious fans creating an intimidating atmopshere at the imposing Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi for the home matches of Kerala Blasters FC has long been a key selling point for the Indian Super League overseas. And various coaches and players have expressed a fair share of interest to be in a position to soak it all in from the Blasters dugout. It was no different with Mikael Stahre.
“I have never seen anything like it before,” Stahre had told TNIE in an interview early in the season.
But the Swede had huge ‘asan’ shoes to fill, that of the hugely popular Ivan Vukumanovic. Under the Serbian, the Blasters qualified for three successive playoffs, including a runners-up finish in his maiden season. The club also recorded its highest points and goals tally in a single season, in 2022, under him. And the fans were the team’s proverbial 12th man.
Twelve matches into the new season, though, the Blasters have cut a sorry figure. Seven defeats, four of them at home, left the fans enraged. As if on cue, the Super League Kerala final in Kozhikode -- on November 10 -- was reported to have garnered a higher attendance than any of the Blasters’ home matches this year.
The shocking 2-3 loss away to Mohun Bagan on Saturday, after leading 2-1 till the 86th minute, has turned out to be the final straw. Amid backlash from fans following a disastrous sequence of six losses in seven games, the Blasters have sacked the head coach, along with assistant coaches Bjorn Wesstoem and Frederico Pereira Morais, with immediate effect.
Changing coach is not the solution: Manjappada
“The club sincerely thanks Mikael, Björn, and Frederico for their contributions throughout their time with Kerala Blasters FC. We wish them nothing but success in their future endeavours,” the Blasters management said in its official statement.
So what went wrong? The plain stats: the club registered only three wins, to sit 10th in the 13-team league with just 11 points and 19 goals to their credit, while conceding 24. A deeper look shows Blasters players feature in the top three in the number of goals scored, assists and chances created, but none in the top six in interceptions and touches.
“Our defence as a unit is not up to the level of an ISL team. Even after losing seven matches, the team couldn’t find a strategic solution,” says a fan, Sunil C K, who has been a regular at Blasters’ matches.
At the same time, the Blasters’ official fanclub, KBFC Manjappada, does not believe changing the coach is the solution.
“No world-class coach can perform well if there aren’t enough resources or players in the team. The management has to invest in those aspects first,” said a Manjappada representative.
After their loss against fierce rivals Bengaluru FC earlier this month, Manjappada had stated that they would refrain from buying tickets if the results continued to be poor. Well, running up a three-match losing streak was certainly not part of the script. The widely travelled Stahre, 49, was appointed as Blasters head coach in May this year on a two-year contract until 2026, but the string of defeats forced the management to show him the door, according to sources.
The arrival of Stahre — who had coaching stints with teams like AIK (Sweden), Panionios (Greece), IFK Göteborg (Sweden), Dalian Yifang (China), BK Häcken (Sweden), and San Jose Earthquakes (USA) – had raised high hopes for the huge Blasters fanbase. The results, sadly, belied the expectations.
The club has announced that the reserve team head coach, Tomasz Tchórz, and assistant coach, T G Purushothaman, will manage the first team until new appointments are announced.