Crawford In Lane
Grilled Birds head coach
Dan Alstani has pulled one final coup for the Singapore Cup final, as he brought in 35 year-old Saint Vincent and the Grenadines legend
Jerome Crawford, for slightly under S$3.4 million. With 93 senior caps and 28 caps at junior level, the evergreen playmaker hardly needs any introduction, what with it being no exaggeration that he has more international experience than most upper-division teams by himself.
Crawford is not short on domestic honours either, having won the Guatemala national double with Liga del Quetzal side Deportivo Gamo three years ago, after a St Vincent & Grenadines Ruby Challenger Cup with mother club Jabba the Catt. There would be a short six-week stay with Italian III.13 former Coppa Italia winners Racing Castellaneta, but their Ukrainian boss Konstantin Sturov would place him on the transfer list after three straight losses, including a seventh round cup upset to Division Four outfit FC Zancle 1900.
Castellaneta's loss would be the Birds' gain, as Alstani held up a brand-new Number Nineteen jersey together with Crawford, one more than the number he wore with Castellaneta. "It might seem foolhardy to debut a player in a cup final, but if there's anybody who can handle the heat, it's Jerome here. What hasn't he seen, after all these years?"
The journalist pack would be left with a bunch of unanswered questions as Alstani then cut the presentation short, and one figures that they would have given almost anything to hear the other Grilled squadmembers' thoughts on the move. The Cooking Pot was under total lockdown - as usual - for the day before the big one, however, and they had to be content with their own idle speculations.
