Show cause drives miffed Bhutia to jettison Bagan

“I don’t want to play for Mohun Bagan anymore,” said Bhutia, even as club officials claimed a final decision would be taken after they receive anything in writing from the striker.

Bhutia, who reached here on Sunday night after taking part in a dance reality show in Mumbai, termed the show cause letter as a publicity gimmick.

“Anjan Mitra (Mohun Bagan general secretary) needed just a phone call to sort out the matter. Instead, he decided to go public and distributed copies of the e-mail to the press. What was the reason for that?” asked Bhutia who, it is learnt, has had discussions with an East Bengal official.

“It really hurts me more than anything else. As for me taking part in the television reality show, from day one I have taken permission from the club. We decided that I just miss Saturday practice,” explained Bhutia, who still has a year left on his contract. “I missed only one friendly match and this is the outcome of that. I think there’s more to it than that. There’s a lot of ego problems attached to this,” said Bhutia, Bagan captain for the last two seasons.