Expectations need to be realistic: Stephen Constantine

India’s football head coach Stephen Constantine has asked for lesser expectations from the Indian men’s team that he claims is going through a transition. The Englishman who has two wins in nine games since taking over in February says he is rebuilding and wants his side to be judged over the next half-a-decade.

“Our expectations need to be lowered because of what we have done in the last five years,” said Constantine.

“When I came we were 176, our worst ever Fifa ranking. What we are trying to do is rebuild the team. We’ve already reduced the age (average) from 32 to 24. You’ll have a team now for the next five or six years, the same as 10 years ago when I was here,” he said.

With the SAFF championship beginning December 23 in Thiruvananthapuram, Constantine wants to experiment with fringe players. However, he refuses to be tagged favourites.

“I don’t consider us as favourites. Afghanistan (reigning champions) are training in Qatar, Sri Lanka came here few days ago and they’ve been training for three months and it’s same with Nepal.”

Despite winning the competition a record six times, Constantine says it will “not be the end of the world” if India do not regain it. “SAFF gives us an opportunity to blood some youngsters,”he said.