Manuel Gomes named East Bengal coach

East Bengal on Saturday announced former Portugal assistant coach Manuel Gomes to be their chief coach for the upcoming 2010-11 season.

Gomes will replace Belgian Philippe de Ridder, under whom East Bengal finished a pathetic ninth in the just concluded I-League tournament.

Giving details about Gomes, East Bengal assistant secretary Shanti Ranjan Dasgupta said: "Besides being Portugal's assistant coach, he had a successful stint with Maldives and was instrumental in the nation's rise to 145th place in the FIFA rankings."

"His last assignment was with Angola... He has the best credentials so we have chosen him to be our coach. He has given his consent and we will finalise on the contract within a week," he added.

East Bengal had also shortlisted former Churchill Brothers coach Serbian Zoran Djordjevic but they chose Gomes in a meeting, Dasgupta said.

Last season, East Bengal had appointed Subhas Bhowmick but after a string of losses the veteran made way to Ridder.

East Bengal won the Federation Cup under the Belgian but only to cut a sorry figure in the AFC Cup, where they failed to notch even a point.

In the I-league too East Bengal met with disaster as questions were raised about the Belgian's wayward tactics.