Odisha FC brought back head coach Josep Gombau who enjoyed a good two-year spell at the club where the team saw the emergence of some talented youngsters as the team played an eye-catching brand of football.

The results didn’t go according to plan as Odisha FC despite a lot of promise fell just short of the semi-final places. However, Gombau is back at the helm with a greater hunger to succeed and has been backed by the management as Odisha FC have made some shrewd signings in the transfer market.

They had an impressive run in the Durand Cup which was only ended by a last-gasp goal by Roy Krishna as they lost to Bengaluru FC after extra-time in the quarter-final before a perfect group stage.

Gombau felt the decision to return to Odisha FC was an easy one as he enjoyed his time at the club and felt the experience of managing a team in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) was an enriching one.

“Even the day that I was leaving, I was thinking, one day I will come back here because I enjoyed a lot and in the league, and I liked a lot the people here,” Gombau said during the latest episode of LFL Twitter Spaces podcast.

“What I also liked a lot was the desire the players showed to grow and how the players wanted to work. The Indian players are hard workers. they want to learn, they want to grow and I like to work with this kind of people and players,” he added.

Gombau also elaborated on how he sees his team developing in the upcoming Hero ISL season and opened up about the various signings the club have made during the summer, with the latest one being goalkeeper Amrinder Singh.

“Amrinder is a very good goalkeeper and we were looking for someone like him after Kamaljit joined East Bengal. He is a leader and will improve our team,” said Gombau on his latest acquisition.

Gombau spoke about a host of other aspects looking ahead to the new season on the LFL Twitter Spaces podcast.

Listen to this interesting conversation involving host Suyash Upadhyaya and Hero ISL experts Paul Masefield and Darren Caldeira:

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