Right through their 2-1 victory, the Indians imposed their accurate passing on their opponents and pressed them relentlessly in defence. Myanmar were up against a team of players with an innate feel for each other’s game – a team consisting largely of players from the Indian Arrows outfit that played together week in and week out against the best clubs in India.
Since then, seven Arrows youngsters were called up to the senior national team for the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur, out of whom four – Jeje, Jewel Raja Shaikh, Shilton D’Silva and Raju Gaikwad – made their India debuts. All were 21 or younger, and none of them looked out of place in an unbeaten team that topped their group. Before they joined the Arrows, though, three of them hadn’t played a single I-League game. Jeje had made only two appearances for Pune FC.
Empowering individuals
“A year ago these kids were warming the benches of their I-league clubs, hardly getting a game. With the Indian Arrows, they play every week developing as individuals and as a team,” says Desmond Bulpin, coach of the Indian Arrows and the Indian under-23 team. In the recently concluded season of the I-League, the team — without a foreign player — finished in a respectable ninth position, when all in the football community expected them to get relegated. “We achieved mid-table when no one gave us a chance of survival. With all due respect to Mohun Bagan, who finished four points ahead of us, they’ve been around for a hundred years, we’ve been here for one year. With no foreigners,” said Bulpin.
Bulpin is a vocal admirer of German football, and the rapid ascent of the Arrows crop is certainly reminiscent of young Bayern Munich players like Thomas Mueller and Holger Badstuber going from the reserve leagues to the World Cup semifinals in the space of a single season.
Despite the palpable results that the Arrows experiment has thrown up in its very first season, the club now enters a phase of uncertainty. The coming season might see a break-up of the squad, with some players set to return to their original clubs or join new ones. The question remains: What next for the Arrows?
Bulpin feels that the core must not be disturbed if their development is to be sustained. “I would ideally like this same team to be together for the next four years. This would help prepare a strong squad for the future. If the players do leave, we will have to start from scratch and survival in the I-league will be a tough proposition,” he says.
AIFF director Tathagatha Mukherjee says that the federation is doing all it can do to keep the core unit of Indian Arrows together.
“We want to extend their contracts for at least the next four years. We have spoken to the players and they are very happy with their all-round development at the club. The AIFF will need to have a word with the coach.
‘More Jejes’
“If the players want to leave and join another club they will be welcome to do so. Our main aim with Arrows was to produce star quality players like Jeje. Our motive has been served. We are happy to release him and others like him to their respective clubs. We will engage in creating other Jejes for the future,” says Mukherjee.
The club’s new owners, the Kolkata-based Pailan Group, might be key to retaining players at the club. Pailan, who have agreed a five-year sponsorship deal with the AIFF to take over the funding of the Arrows, should theoretically be able to pay the players wages that match any offers from other established clubs. Were the core group to stay together, the pace of their development will only increase, says Bulpin. “There are seven in the national squad now. Hopefully, we should get that up to 10 or 15 if they stay together till 2015,” he says.
Colm Toal, who works with India’s age-group teams as technical director, says that the establishment of the Arrows team was the most progressive development in Indian football since his arrival in 2007. “In order for Jeje and the others to maintain what momentum they have developed, they must continue playing for the same team the next season,” he says. “If they go back to their club they won’t be guaranteed a start. They need to play week in week out 26 games a season in order to improve.”
The fact remains that the need of the Indian Arrows team arose due to a lack of youth structure in Indian football. According to Bulpin, academies in the I-league clubs, with a few exceptions, do not have a professional youth academy.
“Only Pune FC, Salgaocar and a couple others have academies. The way forward is for every I-League club to run an academy, where the boys start at 12 with good coaches, nutrition and education,” Bulpin says. “If you educate them, not just in football, it makes them better footballers. The first club that gets its youth development right will become the Manchester United of India.”