Tough indeed, but Bhaichung Bhutia enjoyed English

But Bhutia has demonstrated immense confidence and determination to leave a mark. “Everybody knew my fitness level was down though I was doing well at the training. So I did not get to play most of the season but I did get to play in the first team and got some goals,” says the sensation from Sikkim who has signed a three-year contract with Bury FC club in London.

Standards are as overwhelming as the approach to the game itself.

“Here (in India) if there is a game at 3 O’clock, we sit with the coach just half an hour earlier and discuss things without any idea of what game you are going to play. Whereas out there (in England) you know three days before which team you are going to play with, study their system/style and train on that.

“Besides, when you play a game you are given a job. It’s not like in India where I play a game without knowing what I am doing. I am only driven by the need to score a goal. There you need to score goals but apart from that you are given a job that of being part of a whole team movement.

“Then in India when a defence gets a ball, he kicks very long with the strikers having no idea which side the ball is coming. In UK, everybody, including the goal keeper knows which side the defence is kicking the ball as it is part of the training.

“It’s automatic. When one gets a ball and kicks it towards a particular direction, strikers move into open space and midfielders close the gap,” says Bhutia noting this was the thing he needed to work upon as he was used to speculating which side the ball would land for him to kick.

“You need to defend, it’s just not attack.. it’s also very physical,” he explains.

And it was mentally too tough for the young lad from Sikkim to imbibe a system so vastly different from the remote North-Eastern village of Tintikam in Sikkim, where he used to catch an early morning train from Siliguri to Calcutta to play a match the next day without any rest.

“It’s a big change. Playing such as Clubs Man United, Manchester United, Leeds are invaluable experiences because you are playing with some of the top international players and you get a feel of European standards,” said the player, who was recently in the capital.

“It’s difficult to come out separately and train, Then it’s even difficult to get into the substitute bench. I needed to train with the team members of my club.

“I needed to play 20 minutes, I needed to come in line and I needed to again improve,” recalls Bhutia, who had to cope a great deal to prove his mettle.

“Whenever I got the chance I had to work out in the gym on my own.”

From pre-match, pre-season foods to holiday programmes, Bhutia says his club Bury has provided him with all sorts of fitness programmes.

“Bury is a small club but even they have doctors who know precisely what I need to work on, which part of the body needs to gain weight.

“It’s amazing how different things are..”

He recalls how casual the attitude towards training is over here noting, “I was even punished once for wanting to drink water because practice time was up. The dehydration could have actually killed me.”

But Bhutia has had his share of anxious moments too.

“The worst thing” was the departure of Neil Warnock, the English coach, who signed him.

Neil had certain plans for me where I could fit into his game plan `because he had seen my game’. After he left it became quite difficult for me because the new coach and manager was a striker himself. Andy Preece, who being new wanted to prove his mettle and therefore filled the team with the best of players.

“Obviously he couldn’t take a risk by playing me because I am in a position where I am still catching up with their standards. Preece needed instant results. Yet he gave me a chance and I took it quite well,” says Bhutia pointing to the goals, which he scored much to their awe.

“It’s amazing how different things are..”

Our coaches need to get some of that training. Though there is a programme under which they go abroad and get special training, most of it is theoretical, says the player, noting that it does not give the real hang of the gameplan or the experience one gets in the club.

So how does Bhutia, tipped to be the captain of the Indian team going to play in England in July, see the future?

“It would be unfair not to share all my experiences with the other players here, so I want to come back. But it’s sad again that one person cannot change everything.

“You need to involve lots of people. It’s not impossible although getting money into football would be more difficult,” he observes.

The Asians in England are really looking forward to Indians playing and “we will get the experience of playing best European players.” says Bhutia urging compatriots not to take it lightly and train in all earnest.

Taking a break now, Bhutia returns to England soon where he has also developed a new love for golf, which he tees off whenever he finds the time.

He does not seem to have missed out much on studies. “It’s not that we can only make a life out of studies.” His motto is stick to your talent and enjoy what you are doing."

“You can’t complain about others not doing anything about the game. You need to fight on your own and improve,” says Bhutia denying his marketability has little to with his rise.