Looking forward to the title in the Indian Women's League (IWL) this season East Bengal is in a process of building up a strong and competitive team. 

In their first step, the club's top brass is keen to rope in Anthony Andrews as the coach. Anthony Andrews has been the coach of Gokulam FC for the last three years and under his guidance Gokulam FC won two back-to-back IWL titles. 

Anthony is still contracted with the Kerala-based club and is scheduled to expire in 2025. Gokulam FC does not want to release Anthony.

So, East Bengal’s top brass who is still willing to rope in the coach from Gokulam FC has to pay an ‘eye-catching’ amount of transfer fee to Gokulam FC to sign a contract with Anthony. 

If the signing, expected to be made by the Kolkata club by the end of this month, happens finally this will be the first incident in Indian women’s football where the club has to recruit a coach also from another club against an ‘impressive’ transfer fee. 

“Gokulam FC does not want to release Anthony. So we can only get him against the transfer fee and the amount is quite big. Still, we are keen to rope in him for the coming season," revealed an East Bengal executive on condition of anonymity.

V.C. Praveen, Gokulam FC president when asked about the issue, divulged, "Yes, we have not released him. East Bengal is keen to recruit him and in that case, they have to recruit him against a transfer fee. But the matter is under proceedings now. Let us see." 

The IWL this season is scheduled to commence from 25th October. But Anthony, if finally signs for the Red-and-Gold brigade, is likely to start training in August as East Bengal is also scheduled to play in the state women's league (Kanyasree Cup). In a bid to strengthen the team East Bengal has reportedly signed six-to-seven national footballers including Sandhya Ranganathan and Soumya. It is believed the club has taken the initiative to rope in three foreigners.

However, former coach of Tata Football Academy (TFA) Ranjan Chowdhury has joined Gokulam FC as the Technical Director (TD). Along with looking after the club’s youth development program, Chowdhury is expected also to offer advice to the men's and women's football teams.