Dropping Sunil hardest decision of my career: Bengaluru FC coach Grayson

Having started in all but two of their first 11 games, Sunil Chhetri was on the bench for 10 of Bengaluru FC’s next 11 going into Saturday’s final of the ninth season of the Indian Super League (ISL). Taking Chhetri out of the first 11 also triggered a 10-game winning run at the start of 2023 but coach Simon Grayson said it was the hardest decision of his career.

“Because of the personality and icon of Indian football that he is. And leaving someone of his quality, experience and professionalism. But I have to make what I think is the right decision,” said Grayson, a manager since 2005 with stints across the Championship and League One, the second and third tiers of English football, including Leeds United and Sunderland.

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The 54-year-old former Premier League player said he understood that not “every decision of mine is going to be accepted” and that he wouldn’t have been happy had Chhetri done that either. “But if you have the professional attitude he has, you get just rewards like he has over the last few weeks.” In the last five games, including the knockout playoff round and the semi-finals, Chhetri has scored thrice off the bench

Chhetri, 38, said he is “not happy” to be on the bench in the ISL final “or a game of badminton or table tennis and he (Grayson) knows it.” He said they had a conversation and I “knew his head and heart was in the right place.” So, making the gesture of biting his hand, Chhetri said he continued training hard.

“But I will take credit for how players have contributed coming off the bench. I know the kind of power I have over everyone. They know that if this guy can train hard and wait for his turn, they can too,” he said here on Friday one day before his third ISL final. En route, Chhetri said there were training ground bust-ups “because we were hurting and had taken the easy option of giving up on the season.” Reputations and national team call-ups too were on the line, he said.

Happy as they are at coming this far, Chhetri said Grayson kept pointing out through their 10-game winning run that “we haven’t won anything yet.” And unless we do tomorrow, we will probably be forgotten, said Chhetri, ISL winner with Bengaluru FC in 2018-19.

Chhetri said he would “understand” if father-in-law Subroto Bhattacharya supported ATK Mohun Bagan. “He has played 17 years for Mohun Bagan and is a club legend.” But about this he was sure: wife Sonam, whom he met as a Mohun Bagan player, would root for the team he plays for.

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