Farmer Bunnies made their first major buy - or any buy, in fact - in over a season, as they recruited Czech star Dušan Václavík from former American Cup champions Bulgars. Bulgars had, of course, supplied Grilled Birds with Sølve Lunde some eleven years ago, and while today's S$11.5 million fee was slightly lower than what the Birds forked out then, the hype over Dušan would be scarce less than for Lunde.

What made the transfer extra special was the difficulty in categorizing Václavík, who has made frequent appearances not only in midfield, but also at fullback and forward for Bulgars. This has had him somewhat of an enigma to most football fans, but as his Bulgars boss Jackson Ellis liked to say, this only meant that Václavík was good enough to play anywhere, which had to be high praise indeed.

His meteoric improvement in the three seasons since arriving from native club FK Polaban Neratovice was well convincing enough for Vishnu Tallapaka, who stated his intention to cultivate the 24 year-old as the Buns' new core midfield lynchpin, as they transition to a more possession-based style of play. "Dušan has a combination of qualities that none of our players possess for now." the head coach explained. "Among them are a knack for spotting the right shot, and calling plays at the same time."

Tallapaka recognized that this sounded like it would marginalize reigning Player of the Season Mauro Fau, which he assuaged by insisting that Fau still had a role with the club. "Mauro will need to drop deeper to save his legs sooner or later, and given that he will turn 36 soon, that baton is due to be passed."

Václavík will retain the Number Thirteen that he wore so proudly at Bulgars - coincidentally just vacated by Mushtag Al-Nameeri - and he pledged to give it his all, likely as early as against kaloons tomorrow. "It is a honour to join the Buns, I will spare no effort while I am here!"

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