Five seconds that changed his colour Bitter though, one has to swallow the pill as the speaker is Subrata Bhattacharya himself. In a recent interview with an Ananda Bazar Patrika correspondent, he said that taking the decision on whether to give his coaching career a red-n-yellow makeover took only 5 seconds from him.

Question: Have you been thinking this over (Joining East Bengal Club) for a long time?

Subrata: No. It took only five seconds.

Qyestion: What are the main reasons behind your decision?

Subrata: One, I want to prove that I am not a spent force yet. Two, I want to give a befitting reply to all the disgrace I was subjected to in Mohun Bagan. Three, I like the team spirit, motivation and zest of East Bengal club. Liked the club ambience as well.

Question: Do you gel well with the East Bengal club culture?

Subrata: Of course I do. I like their killer attitude. I feel like going to the club-tent twice a day now, a spontaneous compulsion that was never there while staying in Mohun Bagan as a coach.

Question: Has it been the difficult-most decision in Subrata Bhattacharya’s life?

Subrata: Nope, Not at all. My spell at Mohun Bagan is stretched over seventeen years and four months. No footballer, till this date, has a better and more consistent show than me there. But my reward has been three dismissal letters they shot at me, which are a part of my personal memorabilia now. One look at them and you would know the culture they imbibe now.

Question: What was your feeling while entering the East Bengal tent for the first time?

Subrata: Believe me, I was not nervous. Rather, I was asking myself why didn’t I come here in the eighties, in 1978. I have a very true feeling now, am I worth the admiration and love East Bengal club is pampering me with now? If I could bring East Bengal the success I gifted to Mohun Bagan as both a coach and a player, they would have made me a king by now.

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