COACH CONTROL: Morgan's second stint at East Bengal is about rejuvenating the club & sealing his legacy

IN THE FABLED Maidan of Kolkata, coaches are the most fickle elements at the age old football clubs that rely on so many constants.

There are clubs whose infrastructure has not improved for decades. Funding still comes the old way from membership fees, donations and money from the management's pockets. The fans, too, are very constant; making visits to the club a habit of their daily/weekly routines for years on end. But be it the big clubs like East Bengal/Mohun Bagan/Mohammedan Sporting, or the local league regulars like Southern Samity, Bhawanipore and Aryan, firing a coach comes naturally to the management. In a football culture where coaches can lose their jobs over a bad month in the league or a bad relationship with a club official, it's very hard for a coach to establish his own system and legacy. Trevor James Morgan is one of the handful of coaches in the Maidan who has managed to do it.

A former centre forward who played domestic football extensively in the English lower divisions, his managerial career has seen him leave a deep, constructive impact in almost every club that he has had a proper spell with. 

Morgan first managed Sorrento FC, a lower league club in Australia. His stint with them lasted almost a decade, before he went to Sarawak FC in the Malaysian Super League and spent 6 good years there. He joined East Bengal in 2010 at a time the club could sense trouble.

Indian football was slowly becoming more and more professional in the I-League era, and East Bengal could feel itself falling behind. 

In 2007-08 and 2008-09, East Bengal finished 6th in the league. In 2009-10, they went down to 9th. Veteran coaches like Manoranjan Bhattacharya and Subhas Bhowmick had failed, and even Belgian coach Philippe de Rider had not managed to turned things around; despite winning the Federation Cup, their presence in the league was waning.

But Morgan's tenure was a breath of fresh air. He re-did the first team from ground up. The old guards like Naoba Singh, Sanju Prahan, Mehrajuddin, Alvito, Rahim Nabi and Vashum were now sharing the responsibility with a younger, promising crew of Harmanjyot Singh Khabra, Mehtab Hossain, Robin Singh and Baljit Sahni. Many of these newer players would later go on to become the pillars of the Red and Gold team we know today. Morgan also introduced a deadly attacking combo with Nigerian midfielder Penn Orji and a young Australian striker Tolgay Ozbey. The resuls were instant. Not only did East Bengal defend the Federation Cup title and win the Calcutta Football League but also emerge as a strong title contender in the I-League after a long gap; finishing second in the table. 

The turnaround was dramatic not only because of the improved performance but also the way the team worked: a flamboyant midfield, attacking approach and an overall positivity flowing through the game. For the first time since winning the league in 2003-04, East Bengal were finding their footing again in the national stage and asserting themselves as viable contenders.

3 years Morgan remained with East Bengal during his first spell with the club. Under him, The club won almost every major domestic title including the CFL, the Federation Cup and the IFA Shield except for the I-League. During his tenure he gave the club a solid core group of Indian players that they continue to depend on till this day. They started a winning streak in the Calcutta Football League that continues to this day, and has resulted in them winning the 7th CFL title in a row; a record in the league's 118 year history. They also had a record unbeaten 30 game run in the I-League under him. And he helped them cross the group stage of the 2013 AFC Cup. They went on till the semi-finals of that campaign.

But more than anything else, Morgan was responsible for returning to East Bengal the pride of contending in the national, even international level; and re-introduced the importance of holding onto a chosen few Indian players as the team's long term flag bearers to a club that was increasingly losing its footing in a fast evolving national landscape amidst the meteoric rise of the Goan clubs in the I-League. 

Morgan left East Bengal in the summer of 2013 after East Bengal failed to meet his demands in the new contract. But he remained influential in Indian football. As the assistant coach of ISL franchise Kerala Blasters he brought over a number of East Bengal players to that team and helped them reached the finals in 2014. Later he went on to coach Dempo, but could not fit into the existing setup over there; the season ended with the club getting relegated.

That's one tendency that Morgan has often had; he needs the time and freedom to build his own team. The same was observed when he returned to East Bengal on an emergency basis towards the end of their I-League 2015-16 campaign; he didn't deliver outright wins. The club's Federation Cup campaign also ended early. But the familiar form of the Red and Golds was back when Morgan played a young talent-laden side in the CFL.

And one look at the East Bengal squad for I-League tells you that Morgan has done his homework. What we see in this team is the beginning of a transformation. Since Morgan left, East Bengal clung onto the core team he set up during his first tenure as the fans compared every new coach to him and found constant disappointment. But the same old players are no longer cutting it as the Indian football has transformed once again, establishing Bengaluru FC and Mohun Bagan as the new big contenders. East Bengal have lost their place in Asia and once again are in dire need of a rejuvenation. 

There couldn't have been a better candidate to take them in that direction other than Morgan.