Carles Cuadrat Resigns as East Bengal Head Coach After Poor ISL 2024-25 Start | Whats Next for The Red And Gold Brigade

Carles Cuadrat resigns as East Bengal coach after a poor ISL start. Can interim coach Bino George revive the Red and Gold Brigade's season?

Pic Credit - x.com/east Bengal 

 In a shocking development, Carles Cuadrat has resigned from the position of head coach of East Bengal FC following a poor start to the Indian Super League (ISL) 2024-25 season. This was announced by the club on Monday along with the news that Bino George will take charge of the team as the interim head coach until a new permanent coach is found.

Cuadrat’s exit is shocking, especially after he had earlier helped East Bengal win the Kalinga Super Cup in 2024, which ended the club’s 12-year title dry spell. He also helped them finish in the 2nd position in the Durand Cup previous year, which endeared him even more to the supporters. Yet, the poor showing at the beginning of this season has shifted the focus onto the Spaniard, forcing him to quit.

The ISL campaign for East Bengal for the 2024-25 season commenced on a negative note for the side that had suffered from three defeats in succession against Bengaluru FC, Kerala Blasters, and FC Goa. The defeat on home soil against FC Goa proved even worse as fans inside the Salt Lake Stadium were extremely irate leading to an environment with hostile chants such as "Go Back Carles!"

This depressing trend is the most terrible as far as does East Bengal start an ISL campaign in seasons since the first one in 2020-21 season where they placed ninth. Even with the expectations to be one of the huge benefactors on the ongoing season transfer window - allowing of ₹5.8 crore to sign the best domestic players Jeakson Singh and Anwar Ali - the team has not performed in the field. Some of the club’s high-profile foreign acquisitions like Dimitrios Diamantakos, Madih Talal, and Hector Yuste failed to make any impression as well.

A Champion, Nonetheless

Cuadrat’s contributions to East Bengal are too many to be ignored. His leadership brought about the end of a long spell without silverware with the Kalinga Super Cup triumph which restored the… hopes and pride of the Red and Gold Brigade. His tactics worked and so did his brand of football, but the inevitable… pressure that has come with ISL’s early season failures has somewhat eclipsed those achievements.

Emami Group’s Mr. Vibhash Vardhan Agarwal expressed his thanks to Coach Cuadrat and remarked, “The management of Emami East Bengal FC wishes to thank Coach Carles one last time for helping the team reach out for the Kalinga Super Cup championship as well as the AFC continental championships after a long period. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Moving forward, the management has called on the fans to support the team as well as the acting head coach Bino George while the squad is trying to turn things around.

Support Staff Stays On

In spite of Cuadrat's resignation, his assistant backroom staff comprising Assistant Coach Dimas Delgado, Goalkeeping Coach Javier Pinillos, Physiotherapist Senen Fernandez Alvarez, and Fitness Coach Carlos Jimenez Sanchez will help Bino George during this transition. Their experience as well as the fact that they have been in the club for some time will be important in facilitating the next head coach's transition to the club.

This season was expected to be better cincluding high ambitions after an active transfer market, boosted even more by a Kalinga Super Cup win. Supporters and management believed the Red and Gold Brigade would fight for a good placement in ISL, however, such expectations were tempered due to early disappointments.

The club's statement reassures its supporters that the team is focused on bouncing back and expects support even under a caretaker period. East Bengal fans are being asked to organize a memorable farewell for Cuadrat as well, as a sign of appreciation for what he did for the team while he was here.