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Total expenditure – 3.19 crore
Squad
Note: Value of each player in brackets. Loan fee share is included for players who were contracted to IMG-Reliance; the rest are on loan from I-League clubs.
Goalkeepers: Arindam Bhattacharya (37.5 lakh + 40% loan fee share), Lalit Thapa (18 lakh + 50% loan fee share)
Defenders: Dharmaraj Ravanan (37.5 lakh + 50% loan fee share), Pritam Kotal (18.96 lakh), Deepak Devrani (17 lakh + 40% loan fee share), Anupam Sarkar (14 lakh + 50% loan fee share)
Midfielders: Lenny Rodrigues (55 lakh + 55% loan fee share), Mehrajuddin Wadoo (20 lakh + 25% loan fee share), Ashutosh Mehta (16.5 lakh), Manish Maithani (38 lakh + 25% loan fee share), Tapan Maity (7 lakh + 80% loan fee share), Pratik Shinde (7 lakh + 100 % loan fee share), Israil Gurung (15 lakh + 55% loan fee share)
Forwards: Joaquim Abranches (20 lakh)
Overview
The Pune franchise have tied up with I-League club Pune FC with the club’s head of operations Chirag Tanna playing a key role in the selections. Pune had the privilege to make the first pick of the first-ever ISL draft and they selected regular India national team player and former Churchill Brothers skipper Lenny Rodrigues. Day one proved to be fruitful for Pune as they also picked up another ex-Churchill Brothers player in Dharmaraj Ravanan besides getting the talented duo of Ashutosh Mehta and Pritam Kotal. Day two saw them pick up two former Churchill Brothers goalkeepers in Arindam Bhattacharya and Lalit Thapa but otherwise it wasn’t a great day as they couldn’t pick too many quality players and even had to settle for teenager Pratik Shinde, who is talented but has not even played in the I-League second division. They were the third lowest spenders behind Delhi and Bengaluru.
Strengths
The Pune franchise have plenty of options in midfield with Lenny being the standout name. The likes of Mehta, Tapan Maity and Manish Maithani are all versatile and capable of playing different roles in the middle of the park while the experienced Mehrajuddin Wadoo can play both in defence and midfield. They don’t have a natural forward but that shouldn’t be a problem as foreign strikers are expected to be signed. Instead they have Joaquim Abranches who is adept at operating in both flanks and has the ability to come up with important goals.
Weaknesses
The major issue for Pune is the absence of a natural left back and there isn’t going to be too many left backs in the foreign pool, which will be dominated by central defenders, central midfielders and forwards. Deepak Devrani is capable of playing there but is more comfortable in central defence and he didn’t feature regularly in last season’s I-League. The franchise is also a bit short in terms of international experience with a combined total of less than 75 caps.
Player to Watch
Lenny Rodrigues
The hard-working central midfielder has been one of the best Indian players in the last three seasons of the I-League and is an important member of the India first XI. Lenny will be aiming to show the same level of consistency in the ISL also and justify his heavy price tag.
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