The Indian players' draft of the Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 produced some inspired picks as well as some notable omissions as 134 players out of 206 were picked up by the 10 teams across 15 rounds of picks.
Here are some of the prominent takeaways from the draft process:
Teams pick from defence onwards
Barring Mumbai City FC (Balwant Singh) and NorthEast United (Holicharan Narzary), every team opted to start their picks with either a goalkeeper or a defender. Chennaiyin FC also started with a midfielder in Thoi Singh, but they were the only team to join the draft as late as the fourth round and had already retained goalkeeper Karanjit Singh and defender Jerry Lalrinzuala. A typical sequence of picks for most teams was to go from defence up to forward and then build again from the back.
In past ISL seasons, six foreigners have typically started in the playing eleven, which has often meant Indian players have been reduced to roles either in goal, defence or defensive midfield positions. Even though this year is expected to see an increase in the minimum number of Indian players in the starting eleven to six, it appears most clubs are still keen on strengthening their defensive contingent among the Indians.
Familiarity helps in balance
Bengaluru FC were keen to get back most of the players who had served them well in the I-League, and succeeded to an extent with players like Lalthuammawia Ralte, Harmanjot Khabra, Alwyn George and Lenny Rodrigues. That also made them one of the few clubs that took the least time to decide on their pick in each round, closely followed by ATK, for whom technical director Ashley Westwood must have been instrumental behind picking familiar players such as Eugeneson Lyngdoh, Shankar Sampingiraj and Robin Singh.
Local knowledge played a part in the selection of players in at least another two teams -- Kerala Blasters have Thangboi Singto and FC Goa have Derrick Pereira in their support staff, and that saw a number of players familiar to the two go to their respective teams. Among the remaining sides, Jamshedpur FC had both head coach Steve Coppell and their official from the Tata Steel sports department Mukul Choudhari -- an old Indian football hand who was with Mumbai FC when they launched 10 years ago -- to thank for starting aggressively with picks like Anas Edathodika, Subrata Pal, Mehtab Hossain and Souvik Chakraborty, each of whom has had some memorable ISL seasons in the past.
The big spenders and those that weren't
Jamshedpur FC spent Rs 4.75 crore (about $736,000) in picking 15 players, the most money spent overall among all the teams. Given that Jamshedpur and Delhi Dynamos were the only teams to participate in all 15 rounds, their average money spent on each player paled in comparison to ATK, who spent Rs 34 lakh (about $52,000), the most among the 10 teams.
The lowest fee spent was by FC Goa, who shelled out Rs 2.6 crore (about $403,000) for 13 players, but the lowest money per player was spent by FC Pune City, who only paid Rs 2.7 crore (about $418,000) for their 14 players. Pune's overall strategy seemed a little confused, even though they did make an impact with Kean Lewis as their second pick. They bought a number of younger, more inexperienced players in the middle stages of the draft, and that left them with fewer options to choose from in subsequent rounds. One of their impressive signings, nonetheless, was midfielder Isaac Vanmalsawma, an impressive component of Shillong Lajong's best-ever finish in the last I-League season.
The ineffectiveness of 'Instant Trade'
Teams were allowed two uses of the Instant Trade card, to suggest interest in a player picked by another club inside 15 seconds, and then get three minutes to negotiate a trade and seal the deal. ATK were the first team to play that card as soon as it became eligible, looking to snag Lewis from Pune City. It was to be a fruitless exercise for all the teams through the rest of the day, though, with ATK themselves having to turn down an offer for Lyngdoh. Other noteworthy players who were pursued with conviction by more than one club were Bheke, Khabra, former NorthEast United defender Robin Gurung who will now turn out for Jamshedpur, defender Keenan Almeida and attacking midfielder and India Under-23 international Germanpreet Singh, who went to Chennaiyin FC but was chased by Delhi in the last pick of the tenth round.
There was no deal made, and while Pune, NorthEast, ATK and Chennaiyin had used up their two options of looking for instant trades, other teams soon gave up on the chance of even bidding to convince other clubs to trade in the final few rounds.
The surprise picks and the misses
The teams were meant to pick up 13 Under-21 developmental players between them, and NorthEast United had to be reminded to complete their quota of two such players right in the last round of picks. FC Pune City academy midfielder Mohammad Yasir was the penultimate pick for FC Goa, while the last pick of the day was Ajith Sivan, who was bought by Kerala Blasters after being spotted while playing for Nirmala College, Kochi in the finals of the Reliance Foundation's inter-college competition.
However, familiar faces like defenders Gouramangi Singh, Denzil Franco, Gurjinder Kumar, goalkeeper Sandip Nandy and attacking players like Israil Gurung, Syed Rahim Nabi and Uttam Rai were not picked.
They could be added to the optional three players for each of the ISL clubs, failing which, turning out for the I-League could be another option, which would also be the case for the rest of the 72 unsold players.