A New Eve
Preparations were underway at both The Cooking Pot and Carrot Field, but while the Birds went about their daily training with the assurance of a club that has been around the block, it was close to chaos with the Farmer Bunnies, as men ran about helter-skelter trying to get things done.
It was perhaps already something of an accomplishment for the Bunnies, though, given that they had just three days to patch a team together. With
Vishnu Singh, who had been installed as caretaker coach, at the helm, the major personnel issues were at least sorted out.
To start with, Singh suggested that the Bunnies keep a handful of the former Sentosa FC players on to ease the transition, and following a round of interviews and trials, eight of them were signed to season-long contracts. The remainder will adopt jersey numbers above seventy, as they await a transfer to either the Kits team, or some other club.
Other than that, the Bunnies have gotten some much-needed reinforcements, signing four experienced foreign attractions to hold the fort. After several abortive talks, Singh yesterday secured the German
Berndt Weißhaus and Finnish
Ollipekka Korpijärvi for a combined total of S$62000 to form the Farmers' midfield nucleus, while
Ermis Ftenopoulos was signed as a free transfer from Greek Division Six Pensioners to be the Bunnies' target man.
To this trio was added Romanian wide midfielder
Milán Bolgár for S$44000, over interest from FC "Viršuliškių Liūtai", this afternoon, which Singh proclaimed to be his final import for the meantime. "I'm running a tight ship here." Singh said. "But realistically, for tomorrow, we're just aiming not to be beaten too badly, and maybe sneak a goal. We're looking at three points from our first home game after that, however."
As for Grilled, reports have them continuing to sweat over the availability of
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim tomorrow, after the star forward was seen moving about gingerly on the training fields today.
