The Kerala Blasters in a press release said, “Kerala Blasters and head coach Rene Meulensteen have decided to mutually part ways with immediate effect due to the latter’s personal reasons.”
The Blasters, last season finalists, have been struggling in the ISL-4 campaign with only seven points from seven matches despite signing big names like Dimitar Berbatov, Wes Brown, Sandesh Jhingan and C.K. Vineeth; now the Kerala Blasters took this drastic step to try and salvage the season.
Assistant coach Thangboi Singto will be temporarily in-charge of the side likely also of the match against FC Pune City on Thursday, January 4 before the Blasters announce a new head coach for Meulensteen.
Kerala Blasters CEO Varun Tripuraneni said, “The club like to thank Rene for all the hard work in his time at the club. The replacement would be announced soon!”
Meanwhile Meulensteen added, “I like to thank the management, staff, players and amazing fans for this experience and wish them well for the future.”
Meulensteen, a former Manchester United assistant coach, thereafter had worked with Anzhi Makhachkala of Russia, Fulham FC and Israel’s Maccabi Haifa with limited success. Now his stint in India ends prematurely as he never got the team working with only a win to show from five home matches infront of the Blasters faithful.