Struggling Mumbai sack Santosh Kashyap

MUMBAI: The signs were there. 12 winless I-League games later, the latest being an embarrassing 5-0 defeat to DSK Shivajians, Mumbai FC have sacked coach Santosh Kashyap. Mumbai currently lie at the bottom of the table, fighting relegation.
Though the management is yet to issue an official statement, sources in the know told TOI that the former India player was told on Thursday that he would have to pack his bags.
Kashyap was signed at the start of the season after Khalid Jamil was given the boot. Incidentally, Jamil is now coach of minnows Aizawl FC who sit atop the league standings.
There was a lot of resentment from the fans towards Kashyap, especially since he 'fired' three players - Steven Dias, Allan Dias and Pratik Chowdhary - last month without giving them a reason. After fans gave him an earful during the match against Minerva at the Cooperage Stadium, Kashyap decided to call back the trio. But the fans had already made up their mind that they wanted Kashyap out.
Kashyap, an AFC Pro Diploma certified coach, was signed with a lot of promise. When he came on board, he said his aim was to see his team finish in the top 3. But after winning the initial two games, Mumbai went into a slump and have never really recovered. Add to that, the constant bickering with the players and suddenly he had fallen out of favour with most in the team.
The final nail in the coffin was when Kashyap, after Mumbai's humiliating defeat to Shivajians, questioned the upbringing of the Mumbai FC fans. The fans chanted against him throughout the match and Kashyap didn't hold back in the post-match conference, saying, "They (the fans) are from good families so that's (chants) disrespectful. I believe their upbringing is a problem."
The club's deputy vice-president Atul Badgamia met with Kashyap on Thursday and told him that his time was up. "While the management was happy with the changes he brought about in the training methods, the results simply didn't go in his favour. He just had to go," a source told TOI.
The team was supposed to train on Friday, but the session was cancelled. "They didn't give us a reason. They just said that the training is rescheduled for Monday," a senior player told TOI on Friday.
Mumbai will need to win their remaining four matches and hope that other results go in their favour if they are to escape relegation. While Kashyap's successor hasn't been named, TOI has learnt that David Booth, Oscar Bruzon, Karim Bencherifa and Stuart Watkins are in the reckoning for the post.