India's football coach Stephen Constantine came down heavily on the country's heroes of yesteryear, saying they are having a demoralising effect on the current crop of players and have become a "nuisance" towards the development of the game in the country.
"These former players could be great players of yesteryear but what they are now doing is actually harming the interest of football in the country," Constantine told UNI on the sidelines of a conference on Indian football in Delhi.
Declining to identify the former players, the English coach said most of them have become insensitive critics and ceased to find a role for the development of the sport in the country.
"These former players are making open statements about the decline of the football in the country... and that nothing can be done at present," Constantine said.
Former India captain Chunni Goswami had said there is no genuine talent in the country at present and even present captain Baichung Bhutia is no longer a great player.
'I do not think there is any genuine talent at the senior or junior level at present and talks of the overall development of the game are mostly superficial,' he had said.
Another former captain, P K Banerjee had said Indian football is badly suffering because of health and height factors apart from the lack of infrastructure and adequate money in the sport.
'Football is a contact game and there is a need for good and strong players in the country,' he said.
Terming these suggestions as "rubbish", Constantine said South American footballers do not have the same health or height as compared to European players yet their flair rules the international football scene.
The India coach, whose high point since he took over in July 2002 is guiding the national under-23 team to victory in the LG Cup, said the need of the hour is an attitude to win, which the present bunch of players is steadily developing.
