Brothers Union have roped in Indian coach Subrata Bhattacharya Jr with the aim of improving on last year's performance. The Gopibagh-based outfit had failed in their bid to retain veteran coach Syed Nayeemuddin, who was poached by Mohammedan Sporting Club, so they contacted Subrata, who has a vast managerial experience in Indian domestic football, including a stint at Kolkata Mohammedan where he had coached in the last season.

The AFC A-licensed coach, who arrived in Dhaka yesterday, said that even though he does not have much idea about the Brothers Union squad, he would want to see his new side finish at least third in the twelve-team table of the Bangladesh Premier League.

"I haven't seen the players yet, but I know about Bangladesh football from my experience as Kolkata Mohammedan coach during the Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup in 2015," Subrata said while talking to reporters at the club tent. "As you know, the Federation Cup is only a couple of days away. My target will be to see the side finish at least one place higher than last year [when brothers had finished fourth]."

While Brothers Union have a relatively young squad with hardly any high-profile domestic players to speak of, it is their foreign trio -- Augustine Walson, Siyo Zinapiyo and Twum Frank -- who could be pivotal in their bid to finish inside the top three. The club has not spent a great deal on poaching star players the club's long-serving president Nazrul Islam conceded, adding that their aim is to produce quality domestic players and groom them even further.

With the season's curtain-raiser scheduled to start on Saturday, Subrata conceded that he did not have enough time to prepare the side for that challenge and hence his target would be to do well in the league.

"While the time I have at hand isn't ideal, the reality is that in South Asian countries, coaches don't get enough time to prepare their sides. So our target will be to do well in the Premier League. I will be focusing on strategies and fitness of the players in that regard," Subrata added.

As there was a kind of a tug of war between Brothers and Mohammedan over Nayeemuddin, with the latter eventually winning that war, the newly-appointed Brothers coach said that it would not have any impact on either the respect between the two coaches or their approach to the matches.

“[Syed] Nayeemuddin is a respected coach in India and I even played for the junior national team under him," Subrata said. "But that doesn't mean we will give an inch to each other on the pitch or that we will be extra motivated. In fact I am happy to follow the footsteps of Nayeemuddin to become probably the second coach from India to guide clubs outside the country."