#TFGinterview: Bengaluru FC CTO Mandar Tamhane on ISL & AFC Cup campaign

BENGALURU FC, in their debut season of ISL has made it to the playoffs, currently sitting at the top of the points table. The entire team has been performing at their best and it's all smiles for their club Chief Technical Officer Mandar Tamhane.

TFG caught up with him at the sidelines of 'The Football Movement' conference which was held in Mumbai. Expressing his joy on the fact that team is doing well, he shared what's the mood in the dressing room like,

"Obviosuly the team is feeling very confident, I think the results speak for itself and the feeling is justified. We are looking forward to the two games because the job is only half done and it's the business end of the league is yet to start so we need to make the most of what we have now before entering the playoffs."

BFC are playing Jamshedpur FC and Kerala Blasters next, both wanting to make it to the top four. When asked if BFC will let that happen or spoil their party, with a smile, he replied,

"See for us every game is important, we understand that probably there are few matches that are more important to the others but we will continue doing what we feel is the best which is doing our best whenever we are on the field and that has been the aim since the inception of the club. Whichever players the coach decides to play in these two matches, they'll be giving their 100%."

BFC came into ISL after having played for three years in I-League which followed promotion/relegation. In ISL, the is to be in top four rather than the table toppers winning the league. So what's BFC's take on the same?

"For us, we didn't think about promotion/relegation even in year 1 also. Even if we had, we had the exemption from not being relegated so to say. But that was a thought that never came to our minds, Now after being in Indian football for 4 years, all we think of is winning trophies because that's the standard that the club has set. So coming into ISL too our aim was only to perform and give our best so let's hope for the best."

ISL has in its short existence has seen that table toppers never lift the trophy. So does BFC intend to change that story?

"Again, I will just say that, we only want to give our best whenever we play. So whether that brings in a change in history, so be it or move with the history, so be it. We'll take one game at a time and obviously we still can't call ourselves as the number one team in the league because two more matches yet to be played. So there might be a chance that others could go above us, whether that happens or now, our aim is to be consistent as possible in the league phase also and hopefully in the playoffs and if we make it to the finals too."

Mr. Mandar was then put in a fix as he was asked to pick his favourite player from the current squad of BFC, takes a long pause,

"It is a very difficult question. All of them are very good. Everybody has performed to what we expected them to perform but for me honestly, the ones whom we considered as our second and third pick in the ISL draft was Rahul Bheke and Subhasish Bose and I think they have performed extremely well and justified the thought process of the coaching staff and myself had in going for them and that is helping us immensely. But then again you can the same about players like Miku, Sunil, Dimas, Udanta, Gurpreet, all of them have been performing but I'm happy to see the way Bheke and Subasish have performed in ISL and AFC Cup."

Finally talking about the AFC Cup campaign, he said,

"AFC is something that's very important to the club because that's the way we can represent our country in Asia and that continues to be something that we aspire to win and unfortunately we haven't so far and therefore we'll be trying to go all out this season to try and win it. Going forward AFC will be where we would want to continue playing or if it's the Champions League, then so be it."

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