5 potential FC Pune City managerial replacements for Miguel Angel Portugal

Under head coach Ranko Popovic, Pune City FC last season breached the top-four barrier, a first time in the club’s four-year history. Despite losing out to Bengaluru FC in the semi-finals, the Serbian had a huge impact on the club.

“It has been a great season for FC Pune City and thanks to coach (Ranko) Popovic for making it memorable. His belief in the club’s ethos, especially the youth was remarkable, and it helped us achieve a lot and unearth the hidden talent in our system. He deserves a lot of credit for the historic run the club has had in 2017-18,” said FC Pune City CEO, Gaurav Modwel, to The FreePressJournal.

Apart from his tactical nous, Popovic had a knack of spotting talent and transforming them into full-fledged players. Under his guidance, a host of young players enjoyed a breakthrough season: Ashique Kuruniyan (20), Sahil Panwar (18), Vishal Kaith (21), Sarthak Golui (20) and Rohit Kumar (21) all played key roles during the phenomenal campaign.

In fact, Popovic not renewing his contract with Pune came as a surprise to many. A contract extension would have meant continuity and stability, which was critical to the future success of the project.

After parting with Popovic, Pune City appointed Marcos Paqueta as their new head coach. The Brazilian did not last long as he terminated his contract and joined Brazilian top-flight club Botafogo.

Pune City intensified their search and turned to former Delhi Dynamos coach Miguel Portugal as their replacement for Marcos Paqueta.

Much was expected from the Spaniard but Miguel Portugal was fired after just three games in charge. Miguel Portugal’s reign is the shortest in the Indian Super League era.

Pune City’s hierarchy has already started the hunt for a new manager. It will be interesting to see whom they choose to appoint in the dugout before the season ends- a season that could easily slip away.

Let's look at five candidates that could fill the vacant managerial position at Pune City FC.

#1 Helgi Kolviðsson

Helgi Kolviðsson is currently the assistant coach of the Icelandic national team. In 2016, Kolviðsson joined the national team setup as assistant to manager Heimir Hallgrímsson. The duo performed admirably, guiding Iceland to their first ever FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Iceland's improbable success was truly an underdog story, foiling higher ranked teams like Croatia, Ukraine, and Turkey in the World Cup qualifying campaign. At football's biggest stage, Iceland held giants Argentina to a tie, losing the other two matches to Nigeria and Croatia.

Prior to his role in the national team, Kolviðsson managed Austrian second division sides Austria Lustenau and SV Reid.

According to a report by Khel Now, Helgi Kolviðsson was tipped to take over the top managerial job at Pune City FC.

#2 Paul Le Guen

Le Guen is probably the most high profile name linked to Pune City FC. The 57-year-old Frenchman started his managerial career with Rennes before moving on to Olympique Lyonnais in 2002. At Lyon, Le Guen enjoyed the most successful spell in his career winning three consecutive Ligue 1 titles.

After his time at Lyon, Le Guen managed Rangers and Paris Saint Germain. But he could never replicate the level of success he achieved at Lyon. Thereafter, he had spells with the national teams of Cameroon and Oman.

His playing career is also quite decent appearing for Nantes and Paris Saint Germain. In seven seasons at Paris Saint Germain, he won a league title, three French Cups and two League Cups.

#3 Ashley Westwood

The former Bengaluru FC coach could be an astute appointment given his familiarity and sound knowledge of Indian football.

Ashley might have failed at Penang FA, but no one can take away the credit he deserves for laying the foundation for Bengaluru FC’s rise in Indian football. Ashley spent three years at the club and led it to three titles, playing an entertaining brand of football.

Perhaps, the hallmark of his tenure will the success in the AFC Cup, where they reached the last 16 in their first attempt in 2014-15. That's a fair return on investment and given time, Ashley can oversee a revival at Pune City, helping the club reach the summit.

#4 Austin MacPhee

MacPhee is currently the assistant head coach of Scottish Premiership side Hearts. He is also an assistant to Martin O'Neill with the Northern Ireland national team since 2014.

MacPhee's Hearts finished sixth in the Scottish Premier League in 2017-18 with 49 points.

Prior to that, he spent three seasons at Scottish Premiership side St.Mirren as an assistant coach.

According to a report by the Daily Record, Pune City offered MacPhee a lucrative deal worth in the region of £350k a season. It will be interesting to see whether Pune revisit the opportunity to sign MacPhee.

#5 Pradyum Reddy

After the dismissal of Miguel Portugal, Pune City appointed Pradhyum Reddy as the interim manager. Reddy is no stranger to Indian football, having won the Second Division I-League with Shillong Lajong in 2011.

Following that, he moved to Bengaluru FC as the assistant to Ashley Westwood. After three trophy-laden years at Bengaluru, Reddy joined Pune City as the assistant coach for the first team and the head of football – youth in 2017. In footballing circles, he is known as someone whose core strength lies in scouting, nurturing and grooming young talent. In fact, Reddy was one of the key reasons for Pune City’s phenomenal run last season.

It remains to be seen whether Reddy is given enough time and chance to impress and possibly win the job outright.

Edited by Kishan Prasad