Project reset at Chennaiyin FC – Clifford Miranda looks to repay faith with fresh start in ISL 2026-27

Clifford Miranda has brought in 14 new players ahead of the 2026-27 Indian Super League season, and hopes to inspire the club to its former glory. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Nine points, as many goals from 13 matches, and four consecutive defeats to finish. In football, a run like that usually triggers a reset. At Chennaiyin FC, the result triggered a different outcome.

Clifford Miranda stayed, and so did the club’s trust in him, which gave him a multi-year contract, a reshaped squad with 14 new players and fresh technical staff.

Chennaiyin lifted the ISL Cup in 2015 and 2017-18, then reached a third final in 2019-20. Yet they have qualified for the playoffs only once in the last six seasons. Last season, the club won just twice and finished just a spot above relegated Mohammedan Sporting, conceding 11 goals in its last four matches alone. That decline carries particular weight.

“Very disappointing,” Miranda tells Sportstar. “That is the first thing that comes to my mind, and it should be the same for everyone associated with Chennaiyin FC, whether it is the fans, owners, players or staff. It starts with me. I’m the first one to raise my hand and say I should take the blame.”

His new task is to make that past feel relevant again.

“We had a squad that was ageing, and the hunger had dried up. The players had experience, but pushing them at that stage, both in terms of motivation and physical condition, was difficult,” Miranda reveals.

Though the average age of Chennaiyin’s squad has marginally shifted from last season — from 26.4 to 26.3 — the more pronounced difference is for the overseas cohort.

Six foreign players averaged 32.2 at the league opener last season, with Elsinho, Alberto Noguera, Mohammed Ali Bemammer and Daniel Chima Chukwu all being at least 34, while the new five overseas signings – Nuno Reis, Nikola Stojanovic, Emmanuel Imanishimwe, Madih Talal and Ramon Tanque – average 30.8. Reis, at 35, is the only one older than 31.

The reset is less about only younger legs but also about retaining experience in selected roles.

Lessons from last season

The 2025-26 league also began after a prolonged interruption and uncertainty, allowing little preparation time for the group to shift and get accustomed to his possession-based approach. He accepts both as factors, not excuses.

“One thing is accepting an idea. The other is performing and executing it,” he said. “The players accepted it and were able to execute it, but only for very short spells. Football is played in phases. We controlled some phases, but the level of error because of our inconsistency was very high.”

Miranda felt the late goals were partly a conditioning issue, but even more a question of mentality. The coming season will test that diagnosis over a different canvas. The ISL returns to a home-and-away league, with 13 teams scheduled to play 24 matches each before the top-six playoffs.

“I’m grateful to the club for having that trust in me and believing I’m the man to take it forward, at least for the foreseeable future,” Miranda says.

“After a performance and a finish like that, no matter what the reasons were, it is very difficult to trust someone, especially someone who does not have a lot of first-team experience. They must have seen something in the way my staff and I were working.”

Trust brought ownership and time. The scouting department presented selected profiles to Miranda; he assessed the players, spoke to them and made the final call.

“There is not a single player who has come here without my approval,” he said.

In the current squad, Brison Fernandes, Ayush Dev Chhetri, Muhammed Saheef, Dippendu Biswas and 21-year-old Lalhriatpuia Chawngthu bring in younger legs with senior exposure. Reis and Glan Martins provide experience where organisation matters.

“You only really know these things when the competition starts, when the players begin fighting for places and when something goes wrong,” he added. “That is when you see their character. At the moment, they are working hard and working as a group. Now we need to evolve as a team and come together for one objective.”

There are threads of familiarity inside the overhaul.

Martins and Bryce Miranda have worked with the coach at FC Goa; Brison and Ayush also arrive from Goa, while Talal and Stojanovic were together at Jamshedpur last season. Those connections may help, but 14 recruits and a new technical staff must still learn one another quickly.

Understanding Miranda’s philosophy

Miranda’s football rests on what he calls ‘progressive possession’. Chennaiyin should recognise whether an opponent can be opened with the next pass or whether the ball must travel through a longer sequence first.

“If we can go forward with one pass, we will go forward with one pass. If we require 10 passes, we will make 10 passes,” he said. “The players must recognise the moment.”

Clifford Miranda during a training session of Chennaiyin FC before the Indian Super League 2026-27 season. | Photo Credit: Siva S.

Training has included cognitive games and drills to sharpen that recognition. It asks midfielders to be calm enough to keep the ball, alert enough to accelerate and robust enough to disrupt the opponent when possession is lost.

Without the ball, Miranda wants aggression. Chennaiyin will press high and try to recover possession quickly. A high line needs pace behind it and a goalkeeper prepared to hold an advanced position; if the press is late or the distances stretch, the same ambition can leave the defence exposed.

The most urgent problem remains at the other end.

Irfan Yadwad and Chima, with two goals each, were joint top scorers; no one else scored more than once. Progressive possession ultimately has to produce progress on the scoreboard.

Tanque is the clearest attempt to change that.

The Brazilian won the 2024-25 Cambodian Premier League Golden Boot with 21 goals in 28 appearances for Visakha FC, adding five assists, then scored eight league goals in Persib Bandung’s title-winning campaign in Indonesia.

— Chennaiyin F.C. (@ChennaiyinFC) August 31, 2026

“Yes, we depend on him to score goals, but it is not just about scoring,” Miranda said. “We also depend on him to create for the players around him and work defensively when we do not have the ball. The structure and system should help him get chances, and he should help the others play and score.”

Need for local connection

For all the new faces, Miranda does not want the culture outsourced to the foreign players. He expects Mohammad Nawaz, Samik Mitra and Irfan Yadwad to become stronger voices, carrying the group through difficult selections and poor results.

“They have been here longer than me and longer than the 14 players who have arrived,” he said. “We cannot always expect a new player or a foreign player to push the team. These are the players who must pull the club forward and bring the group together, whether they play or do not play.”

— Chennaiyin F.C. (@ChennaiyinFC) September 5, 2026

S. Prakadeswaran offers a solution here, along with an added connection to the club. The Chennai-born attacker came through its youth system and scored his first ISL goal against Jamshedpur last season.

Miranda’s need for connection also extends to the stands. “Many coaches came before me, and many will come after me, but the fans have remained. I know they expect us to win, and we must win. Every day when we go to work, we have the same objective,” he says.

Chennaiyin has given Miranda the time, authority, and players he asked for. The ball is now in his court to deliver.

Published on Sep 17, 2026

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