Varun Tripuraneni reveals his biggest regret in leaving Kerala Blasters

The former Kerala Blasters CEO assured that the Yellow Army will soon find success on the field.

With thousands flocking to the stadium for every home game over the years, fans have proved themselves as ‘The 12th Man’ at Kerala Blasters. However, having large scores of fans also means a considerably high level of expectations for the club. One would ponder as to how the club’s management function under such high pressure and cater to their vast number of fans. Varun Tripuraneni, former CEO at the Yellow Army, recently appeared on Khel Now’s 'Beyond The Scores' podcast where he talked about his time at the club, the Manjappada and delivering the desired results.

The present co-owner of Hyderabad FC previously had two stints with Kerala Blasters. Speaking of his time during the inaugural season of the ISL, Tripuraneni stated, “When we turned out for our first home game in 2014, it’s something none of us expected. There was a massive crowd.

“To go back there as a CEO was a big honour for me,” he further admitted. “It didn’t go as well as I or the club would’ve liked. But, I obviously gained a lot of experience. There were a lot of initiatives we took in those two years. Hopefully, some results will come from what we’d started back then.”

In his defence, the first few years in the league would’ve been extremely difficult for any club. Regardless of the team’s successes on the pitch, one can only imagine the amount of hard work that is being done behind the scenes. Yet, in retrospect, there are always things that one wishes they could’ve achieved during the time.

In case of Varun Tripuraneni too, he revealed how he wished for Kerala Blasters to finish in the playoffs positions during his tenure. Unfortunately, they didn’t. He also stressed on how the first year during his latest stint was much better than the second.

“When I joined in 2017, it was the first time the league was moving from a shorter version to a longer one. At that time, we didn’t have youth teams at all. So, the challenge was to put together the youth teams.”

https://youtu.be/0zSbB4pQLzU

He went on to explain, “The expectations weren’t high and we just wanted to focus on the process. Get the right scouting and selection done. We did extremely well that year.”

It indeed was a good phase for the club, as their U-15s managed to reach the playoffs. The U-18s too did well and reached the final. However, they fell short at the last hurdle, losing to Shillong Lajong in the ultimate game. Then the Reserves team which the Yellow Army formed also finished atop the Second Division League group stage.

Now, not many would know, but this was the time Sahal Abdul Samad first came into the limelight. With his performances with the Reserves team, the youngster earned promotion to the first-team.

“Not being able to continue that would be the only regret,” confessed Tripuraneni. Further, speaking from the fans’ point of view, he assured that the Yellow Army will see success in the coming years. “Kerala Blasters, by far, have the biggest fan base in the league. That might add a bit of pressure for the head coaches. But, it’s hard to pinpoint 1-2 reasons for not having success the club probably deserves.

“ISL is itself a very young league,” he went on to explain. “A lot of people from non-sporting backgrounds are coming in. A lot of youngsters are running clubs and we are all learning every day.

“I’m sure the club will start getting the success on field that the fans deserve,” Varun Tripuraneni concluded on a positive note.