For the first time in their history, the Stallions have succeeded in retaining their head coach.
Ahead of their Super Cup tie against Chennai City FC, FC Pune City received a massive boost as head coach Phil Brown signed a contract extension that will keep him tied with the club for the next couple of seasons.
The news came out rather as a huge positive one for the club which has reportedly been under financial snags since the latter stages of the season. While the board is in search for a new investor and that CEO Gaurav Modwel also hinted at a shift of base out of Pune, the club has been under a lot of pressure.
Yet, retention of the head coach is a major accomplishment by the club, their first since the inception of the Indian Super League (ISL). The Stallions saw five head coaches being shuffled in their first five seasons with Phil Brown being appointed as the sixth head coach after taking over the reigns from interim coach Pradyum Reddy.
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Brown’s earlier contract with the club was limited only upto the end of the fifth season meaning he could only manage the team for a course of six games plus the Super Cup.
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However, the Englishman’s magic worked superbly at Balewadi as he led the Stallions to four wins including a 4-1 thrashing of Jamshedpur in an away game and suffering with just one defeat and a draw. That meant Pune finished the season at an unexpected seventh position in the league after a series of poor results early on.
Moreover, the 59 year-old had mentioned several times that he was glad to be with the club and would be pleased to stay beyond the season. Brown definitely instilled hope in the fans that the club can achieve wonders with those performances and now that he has signed a two-year contract extension, nothing would match the happiness of the fans at the moment.