FC Pune City sack head coach Miguel Angel Portugal after three games
Miguel Angel Portugal, who took over the reins from Ranko Popovic this summer, has seen his side draw one and lose two games.
Having been in charge of the team for only three games, Miguel Angel Portugal has been relieved of his duties as head coach by Indian Super League (ISL) club FC Pune City, pending paperwork. The announcement of Portugal’s departure is expected to be made by the club by Thursday.
Portugal, who took over the reins from Ranko Popovic this summer, has seen his side draw one and lose two games. After beginning the campaign with a 1-1 draw against Delhi Dynamos earlier this month, Pune slumped to a 2-0 defeat in Mumbai on October 19. The final nail on the coffin for Portugal came when the club lost 3-0 at home to Bengaluru FC three days later.
Portugal was the head coach of Delhi Dynamos last season when the club finished a lowly eighth and had already gone out of play-off reckoning midway through the season.
In between the end of the last term and this season’s start, Portugal had briefly taken charge of Spanish second division side Granada towards the end of their 2017-18 campaign.
An official close to the development at Pune City said that the club’s technical director, Pradhyum Reddy, is likely to take interim charge now. Reddy is the former coach of Shillong Lajong FC, whom he had led to a 10th place finish in the 2011-12 season. He later joined Bengaluru FC during the club’s establishment in 2013 and served as an assistant coach under Ashley Westwood for three seasons. During this period, Bengaluru went on to win the I-League twice and the Federation Cup once.