India need better system, not big names as coaches: Bhaichung Bhutia

KOLKATA: Even an Alex Ferguson or Zico will 'struggle' to change the fortunes of the game in India if a proper youth development system will not be in place, football icon Bhaichung Bhutia said today.

"Good coaches will deliver good results with good players. In India we need to start developing our players. But if we don't give good players, and if you bring in Alex Ferguson as well, they would also struggle," he said reacting to rumours that Brazilian great Zico maybe approached to succeed Wim Koevermans as India's next football coach.

"Zico is a great coach no doubt. But if you don't give him the 20 good players, he's also going to struggle. Let's invest in the U-17 team and tournaments, selection and then hopefully the quality of the game when they start playing in seniors will be much better than our standards... That time we can invest in a good foreign coach. It's important to change the quality. That is the format I'm looking at."

On the technical committee to pick India's next coach, Bhutia said the focus is not to go for a high profile coach for the seniors and instead to invest on a good U-17 coach.

"My personal view is not to spend much money as we did on Bob Houghton or Wim Kovermans. You want to see that salary is good but want to ensure that we don't spend much.

"We are also looking at U-17 coach. We also want to spend a decent amount on this. We want to bring somebody with a good background that is also going to cost money. We also want somebody who's attached with Indian football."

Asked whether they would go for an Indian or foreign name, he said: "It could be Indian or foreign. But they should have knowledge or done something for the Indian football."

"It's important to have Indian coaching staff as well. He's going to help out and it will make a difference. We've not discussed anybody's name," he said about the meeting which is scheduled on December 21.