Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Chhetri Wants to Join National Team

This January the AFC Asian Cup is to be held in Qatar, and India will be competing in the tournament. The Indian national team is currently involved in a training game in Portugal to prepare for the tournament. Due to Sunil Chhetri playing with the Wizards, he is unable to attend. According to The Telegraph from India though, Chhetri wants to go join his country men in preparations. Siting unnamed sources, The Telegraph says that Chhetri is desperate to get to Portugal to join the rest of the team. He's also apparently upset with his lack of playing time for KC, which has consisted of only 45 minutes of competitive action for the Wizards. The Indian national team is willing to pay his salary while he's with the team, but will not be able to pay any compensation to the Wizards for him getting out of his contract midseason.

With the transfer window open, the Wizards could certainly look to replace Chhetri if they were willing to let him go and join the national team, but I'm not so sure the team is wanting to let him go. I keep hoping that he'll get the chance to get some first team minutes, if for nothing else to at least see a bit more of what he can do. The US Open Cup game was so soon after he arrived he hadn't fully adjusted to his team mates. And with the United game over the weekend, he was thrown into a situation where he wasn't going to impress unless he was brilliant as he was deployed as a lone striker on a team playing with 10 men.

3 comments:

Ron Bishop said...

Yeah, I'd like to see the Wizards poop or get off the pot with Chhetri. He's been riding the pine since he got here.

For all the hoopla, I'm not seeing it. I don't think he has really had a chance to show what he can do in a game - but if the Wizards don't feel he's ready yet, then when?

jtreg said...

I'm sure the kid is pretty homesick. Or probably desperate for some familiarity. Unfortunately the Wizards don't have the record to where they can do some experimentation with this kid in the first team. Every point is mattering.

Anonymous said...

come on KC, let him play as a sub in few league games and make him play for 20-30 minutes....he will come handy and will eventually be ready to be in the starting XI. Its obvious that any player who was used to be a star player for his former club will feel heartbroken after not being able to show his potential. He definately deserves something better. The club can loan him out else to give him match practics.