Coyle thrilled with Chennaiyin’s crop of domestic players

CHENNAI: Chennaiyin FC’s newly-appointed head coach Owen Coyle is thrilled to work with the young crop of domestic players, especially wingers, in the forthcoming 2023-24 season and said it was important to develop young Indian players as it would help the national team become better.

With only one current India international -- Rahim Ali -- part of the Chennaiyin set-up, Coyle, returning to the club that he guided to the Indian Super League 2019-20 final, has a tough job on his hands. But the Scotsman, who has been tasked with a rebuild, is enthused about developing youngsters and turning them into household names.

“Obviously, I can’t sit here and name names because there are players who I would love to bring to the football club. There are players at the club that I know, for example, I know Rahim, who is an outstanding player, and there are other young players who I have seen playing but I have not worked with.

“But when I get to work with them, I will see all their qualities. Hopefully I can help. Hopefully I can improve them, as I have done in my time in Indian football,” Coyle said.

Coyle is looking forward to raising the game level of wingers, who are vital to his style of play. “We (his teams in the ISL) have played an exciting brand of football, and we want to do that again. We want to take care of the ball. We want to have exciting players. I love my wingers, as you know. “I love exciting players who take people on. So, we want to build an exciting team. But to do it, it is going to take time,” Coyle added.

The fortunes of CFC, two-time champion, have been up and down in the ISL, and Coyle is keen to ensure things improve for the club, but admits it is a challenge.

“Yeah...well, the plans are very simple. We have to come in and we have to look to improve the club that’s made the playoffs one of the last five years, and that was the year that I came in, obviously halfway through.

“So there’s a lot of work to be done, but we’re looking forward to working with the young Indian players to grow and develop a team that our fans can be proud of. But you’re right, there’s a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

Coyle also said the effort would be to “make sure that we’re a better team.”

Also, he said, “It’s important that the foreign players I bring in add to the quality of the Indian players that we have.” He further said there were high expectations about Chennaiyin FC and that he wanted to take the club “back to those heights again.”

“The expectations are there because Chennai has been a two-time winner before. I want to move back to those heights again.”

Coyle, looking forward to the new season, said there were a number of talented young players in the team and that they would get opportunities and it was up to them to step up.