Who will fill in Bob Houghton's boots?

NEW DELHI: Bob Houghton, India's football coach for five years, has left a 'larger than life' impression on the Indian footballers who consider him the one who turned the fortunes of Indian football. In fact, no other foreign coach in the past has had such a huge impact on the players.
To an extent, Stephen Constantine also became popular with footballers in 2002 but none could match Houghton's rapport with the players.No wonder, the unceremonious exit of Houghton last month has left players like Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri, NP Pradeep and others shocked.
Frustrated and devastated, these players expressed solidarity with the outgoing coach during his controversial 'fight' with the football federation (AIFF) following an allegation of racial slur by an Indian referee. AIFF has taken a strong stand against Houghton's sympathisers. "As far as we are concerned that is (Houghton era) history. We are also very clear that indiscipline of any sort will not be tolerated whatever the profile of the player/official,' said AIFF secretary Kushal Das.
The feud between Houghton-AIFF meant that a considerable time was lost. And now, with two crucial games - Olympic and World Cup qualifying matches – coming up in June and July, AIFF is groping in the dark to find Houghton's replacement. "We have got more than 50 applications and we are carefully evaluating our strategy, especially on the development side. We will take a decision on the coach soon. We will not rush into this decision," Das added.
While the federation is keen on a foreigner for the post, it hasn't yet zeroed in on a big name. The AIFF executive committee which is meeting on Friday is most likely to make Dempo's Armando Colaco the interim coach.
With Colaco's name cropping up, there's talk in the football circles that East Bengal's Trevor Morgan and Salgaocar's Karim Bencharifa should also be considered as Houghton's replacement.
For the record, AIFF has ruled out the possibility of considering well-known foreigners like former Argentina coach Jose Pekerman, German Otto Pfister, Frenchman Philippe Troussier, Real Madrid assistant coach Jose Ramon and Johan Cruyff's son Jordi Cruyff.