Manolo Marquez works well with young talents, feels Varun Tripuraneni

The Hyderabad FC owner also revealed that how developing talent is a long-term goal for the club.

The upcoming season of the Indian Super League (ISL) beckons. Almost every club is active in the transfer market now, signing and retaining players in a bid to create formidable squads that will compete well in the league. One team that has stood so far in the case of new acquisitions is Hyderabad FC - who have roped in two very experienced ISL stars in Bartholomew Ogbeche and Edu Garcia. As revealed by the Nizams' owner Varun Tripuraneni recently in an exclusive interview with Khel Now, the club are clearly intending to make sure that their solid 2020-21 campaign is not a one-off.

This particular article pertains to the third and final part of our interaction with Tripuraneni. Check out his response on Manolo Marquez' work with youngsters, the sale of Liston Colaco and more.

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Manolo Marquez's work with young players

According to Varun Tripuraneni, one key area where head coach Manolo Marquez stood out was his work with young players.

"I think he did an excellent job with youngsters. Some of them did not have much prior experience in the ISL, before last season. Players like Rohit Danu, Akash Mishra - even Chinglensana Singh, who has gone on to become the top centre-back in the team - have benefited from him. He got the best out of these youngsters and that's impressive," he said.

"Even the foreigners, when they were returning to their home countries, told us that this (Hyderabad FC) was one of the best young sides that they've been a part of. Credit to Manolo, but also credit to the team as a whole because everyone's performances were good."

More on youngsters

"I think - going back to our first season, we had youngsters like Asish (Rai) and (Mohammad) Yasir who got plenty of game-time under Phil Brown. However, when the 2020-21 season began, we were not really sure as to whether they will get the same game-time once again," Varun recalled.

"Later, injuries to some key players and their subsequent unavailability resulted in more players like Akash Mishra making the most of their opportunities. Most of them also had a consistently good campaign, which is equally important because sometimes you see these starlets starting well, but slowly wearing out. That did not happen with our players. In the end many of them - Akash, Liston (Colaco), Yasir and so on got national team call-ups.

"I think Asish would've got one too, had it not been for his unfortunate injury at the fag end of the season. These players have a long way to go. I just hope they go from strength to strength and have a better season next time around - that should be their target anyways," he added.

"Hitesh Sharma is another player who I think was one of our best players. I watched him first when he played at ATK for Steve Coppell. Danu did not get much minutes, but he took his chances whenever he got them. I am pretty confident that he will become one of the best youngsters in the upcoming season. Another talent that shone was Chinglensana. I know he's 24 - a bit senior when compared to the others, but we need to speak about his role as well.

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He went on to explain how the former FC Goa centre-back developed a good rapport with his partner Odei Onaindia and coach Marquez.

"Manolo made very few changes to the back four throughout last season. I think that proves how good the defenders were - and Sana emerged as one of the top players in his position in the league," Varun Tripuraneni explained.

Liston Colaco

The Hyderabad FC owner opened up on Liston Colaco as well, revealing that he had his eyes on him right from his days with Kerala Blasters as their CEO.

"I remember watching him during the Santhosh Trophy back then. We knew he was going to sign for FC Goa - but then, he did not get as many number of matches as he would've wanted. At Hyderabad FC, he did extremely well and contributed well in our success. I know he is at ATK Mohun Bagan now - and I'm sure he will do well there too and also play a sparkling role with the national team in future."

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Regarding his sale to the Mariners, Varun spoke about the importance of having a sustainable business model at any football club.

"The players contribute a lot to this sustainable business model. As you know, the league is growing a lot and player salaries are on the rise. So, we find it important that players are rising through the ranks. But, that takes time. I would say we don't have a fixed system yet, where we can expect talented starlets from Hyderabad to straightaway make it to our first-team," he said.

"So, our model for now is kind of a mixed system, which involves bringing in players at the right age from other clubs, while also looking to develop talent on our own parallelly."

"In terms of what the objective is - I think, with the example of Liston itself, there was of course the financial motive where we're getting a good fee in return for his sale. At the same time, we also decide to let players go only after making sure that we have enough alternative options available. We'll definitely be developing more talents through our grassroots systems in the coming years - and that is of course one of our most important long-term goals," Varun Tripuraneni concluded.

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