Anthony Pilkington adjusting to life with Robbie Fowler in Indian bio-bubble

Anthony Pilkington (centre) in action for East Bengal FC. Pic via @sc_eastbengal Twitter account

When Anthony Pilkington received a phone call from Robbie Fowler a couple of months ago, it was entirely in keeping with the madness of 2020.

“I was in a friend’s house when the call came through and my wife thought I was joking,” he explains.

The former Ireland winger was out of contract following a disappointing end to his time with Wigan, who had been relegated to League One after entering administration.

The club, managed by Paul Cook, had a storming end to the season, but the 12-point deduction did it for their Championship survival hopes and a raft of players were let go.

“We know what happened with the Wigan owners, deciding to bail, it’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the club,” Pilkington said. “There were no contracts for more experienced players, the majority of them left and the club have to play U23 players now...it’s terrible. That’s when I left.

“I’d had some interest from England and other places, but I’ve been playing there all my career, so when this opportunity came up and it offered the chance to experience something different, I thought, ‘I’ve done more than I ever dreamed of since starting out in non-league when I was 18...’

“Obviously you never know what’s going to happen in your career — but I am where I am.”

Where is he is? India. Goa, more specifically, where all of this year’s Indian Super League games are being played across three stadiums.

Robbie Fowler’s East Bengal FC are the newest team in the 11-team tournament, having been officially announced just weeks before the opening tie.

The Liverpool legend joined after a spell in Australia, and he soon snapped up Pilkington, who was on the out-of-contract list.

The ISL, first played in 2014, was once home to the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Robbie Keane, and Freddie Ljungberg, though it is missing that kind of star power this season — perhaps understandable, given the current circumstances.

Travelling through India may have been appealing to some previous big names, but that option is no longer the case in a tournament played entirely behind closed doors, and within a strict ‘bio-bubble’ in Goa.

“I feel I know every shopkeeper and farmer on the one-hour drive from our hotel to the training ground, it’s the only travel I do or sights I get to see,” Pilkington said.

Instead of playing in front of 80,000-plus fans in the Salt Lake Stadium, every game Pilkington plays is now at the empty 5,000-seater Tilak Maidan Stadium.

I thought you’d see Goa and experience more of India, but I only really found out when I got here how it would be. I knew there’d be some restrictions — but didn’t know how strict the restrictions would be.

“There are one or two families here, among the foreigners, but my kids are at an age (eight and 10) where they can’t sit still, so staying in a hotel would not be fair to them.

“They’re mad into football but they’ve missed enough school this year, and while it’s very difficult for me not being home for this time of year, it wouldn’t be fair to ask them to quarantine either.

“We had to settle instead for Facetime, I call them a couple of times a day. We’re five and a half hours ahead, so I woke up Christmas Day and had to wait for them to wake up. We’ll go on a long holiday in March, all going well.”

We are one BIG red-and-gold family! ❤️💛
Our entire team enjoying their Christmas dinner together.

বড়দিনের নৈশভোজে একত্রিত আমাদের গোটা দল। #ChhilamAchiThakbo #JoyEastBengal #SCEBCFC pic.twitter.com/7aDAedPH9x

— East Bengal FC (@eastbengal_fc) December 26, 2020

Donegal’s Carl McHugh, Gary Hooper, Adam le Fondre, and Danny Fox are some of the familiar names sharing Pilkington’s Indian experience, while Owen Coyle is in charge of Jamshedpur.

It’s been a rocky start to the season for Fowler, though, with no wins in the opening seven matches, while some Indian football legends have been critical of the outspoken Englishman.

“It has been tough, but we had two weeks pre-season,” Pilkington argues. “We’ve only played seven competitive games, while the others played six friendlies in pre-season. That’s where we are...

“The squad was thrown together three weeks before the season started and we’d still lads in quarantine who are joining the squad before Christmas.

“The club wasn’t officially announced as part of the tournament until weeks before it began so it all came about very quickly, for Robbie and me. It’s tough [for Robbie] coming over — but the whole club is getting used to how the league is. You don’t want to have a long bedding-in period but you have to be realistic.

“It’s been great learning from Robbie, someone of that calibre, and obviously he’s still relatively early on his career path as a manager and coach.

“He’s had to deal with a lot in a short space of time, but it’s night and day now from where we’ve been.”

The last of Pilkington's nine Ireland caps came under Martin O’Neill. Picture: David Maher / SPORTSFILE

Now 32, with his last Ireland cap arriving under Martin O’Neill, Pilkington doesn’t hold much hope of an international recall, but he’d still welcome one if it arrived.

The overwhelming sense when he looks back on his nine caps in three years, though, is one of frustration.

“I would have liked to be involved in more games, I found myself watching a lot of the games, and I thought I could have been called up earlier than I was,” he said.

“My time with Norwich, I was in the form of my life, definitely, and Ireland qualified for the Euros that year (2012) so it was disappointing not to get a call up there. After that season [eight Premier League goals]... it was frustrating, but there’s nothing you can do.

“I played two games under Trapattoni, he was a massive legend in football, and he was such a nice guy toward me...but it would have been nice to play more.

“I just ended up coming to a lot of games and training and watching games. It’s difficult after a while, especially when you have a family. But I don’t regret it one bit.”