It was early into Igor Stimac's tenure as India's men's football team head coach. A young player was speaking to a scribe when out of the blue, Stimac swooped in for a quick hug, quipped 'he is the future', and left. It was a moment that showed his affection toward his wards. It was the benign side of the Croatian.
This past week at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, we have seen a different side of the 55-year-old - a fighting, combustible one.
Stimac has received two send-offs, one a straight red against Pakistan and the other for two offences against Kuwait; in both matches he was on the touchline at the SAFF Championships. All emminently avoidable when his side was winning and in control of the proceedings. The second send-off can lead to a suspension beyond the usual one-match ban, meaning Stimac could miss the rest of the tournament.
The All India Football Federation is peeved. Sources confirmed they've had words and were dealing with it 'internally'.
Read | Stimac defends his actions
"This is not normal behaviour from a coach. It's not acceptable. It brings some chaos into the dressing room," a former international remarked.
"Sometimes we can go beyond the line, we have to learn from it. This can't happen continuously," echoed Shabbir Ali, one of the finest players and coaches in Indian football.
The actions will have an impact, though tough to quantify. Detractors will point at the touchline brawl as a cause of Anwar Ali's own goal. The defender, impressive all tournament, lost concentration.
"No one does calculations about the effect of the coach not being on the touchline," a former Indian stalwart said. "It's an extraordinary situation. As a player, you always look towards the bench. The coach is the driver. By words, expression, body language... you can see if he is feeling happy or annoyed. Suddenly you are missing that person and there is a vacuum."
The next few months are big for Indian football with King's Cup, Merdeka, and pre-World Cup qualifiers leading to the AFC Asian Cup in January. Some are concerned that the opposition will target the coach or that the officials will be more on guard. Assistant coach Mahesh Gawli admitted the red card was fair against Pakistan but insisted, following the Kuwait match, that the officials were 'targetting the coach'.
The question being raised is will Stimac change? Can he?
The Croatian had proudly tweeted he would defend the country's colours and is a 'warrior' and will 'do it again' to protect his boys after the first red card.
Perhaps that is how Stimac sees it. He has done it all his career. His career coincided with war and turmoil in the Balkans after Yugoslavia separated. Stimac, and his generation, were tasked by elected leader Franjo Tudman to defend the country' on the field and promote Croatia's existence, independence, and history. They did, famously reaching the semifinals of the 1998 World Cup.
Lest this be thought an excuse, it's not. If he does not rein himself in, it can undo a lot of good work he has done.
Stimac is most certainly at the end of his tenure with Indian football. He has seen good times, a pandemic, and criticism over his tenure, and finally, the tide seems to be turning.
India is now unbeaten in 13 games at home. They just set the record for the most consecutive clean sheets (8). The performance against Kuwait, a harder side than reflected in the rankings, was impressive.
"This team is young, they are coming up. If they can be together and moulded, then they can do well for a few years. But you have to take care of them. As the leader, Stimac has to be careful," former international defender Gouramangi Singh remarked.
The Asian Cup will be a gargantuan challenge for India and they will need all the help they can get. A head coach on the sideline is non-negotiable.
(Sandeep Menon is a freelance journalist)