Kerala Blasters have not been in touch with Steve Coppell in the last few days, who led them to the final of the 2016 edition, with regards to retaining him for the upcoming season, Goal can confirm.
The Sachin Tendulkar co-owned franchise had spoken to the Englishman to explore the possibility of him linking up with the Tuskers for the upcoming season earlier and the coach had even flown to India to discuss the future during the Federation Cup.
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Kerala Blasters are currently negotiating with Rino Anto to retain him for the upcoming season with Mehtab Hossain choosing to go into the draft pool. It is also reliably learnt that Coppell was keen on retaining Mehtab Hossain.
When Goal contacted Steve Coppell to learn his views on the matter, the 61-year-old confirmed that the Blasters management have not been in touch with him of late.
"I have not been told anything about Mehtab and have not had any contact with Kerala for a few days," he said. The former Manchester United winger also mentioned that he has yet to sign a contract with the Kochi-based team.
It was expected that Steve Coppell would be offered an improved contract after a stellar performance to drive a limited team forward all the way till the finals last season.
Coppell was thought to be holding out on signing a new contract until the ISL rules and regulations were in place.
However, in the light of this revelation, Kerala Blasters might not have finalised whom to hire as their coach.
Goal's attempts to contact Kerala Blasters CEO Varun Tripuraneni to get his views on the matter remained fruitless.