Mucelj, Seah Move
A couple of transfers took place this morning, firstly with Grilled International's Slovenian midfielder
Bernard Mucelj leaving for Swedish fifth division leaders Southhill FC, for S$142000. Nearing twenty years of age, Mucelj's career had been flagging with G.I., but a few good performances in the last month persuaded several clubs to take a look.
Among those, Despicable Dunces (American Division Six), F.C. Shizen (Spanish Division Seven) and FC Estiones Ermengerst (German Division Eight) were involved in negotiations, but Mucelj eventually decided to swap his No. 34, for No. 54 with the Swedes.
About the same time, former Chicken Wings youth product Seah Chuan Cheng was picked up by newly-established local fourth division side SingaporTrab on a free. A spinoff of Italian club Trabslavonspor, SingaporTrab have also snagged CoCoTeaTree Islanders' Naresh Kannan, while releasing forward Ashwin Joshi.
Grilled head scout Tham Beng Li was pleased for Seah, but warned that the 18 year-old would have to put in a lot more work to stick around. "Seah's an okay midfielder with good size, but he won't be able to coast on his height for very long at the professional level. There's nothing stopping him from improving in other areas, though."
From how a couple of former Birds trainees have done for themselves in other recent transfers, Seah should feel reassured; for one, the 35 year-old Loo Tong Woon has arrived back home to play for Tampines Phoenix F.C., at the tail-end of a productive career spanning five clubs, the last of which was in Palestine with Division Two side Lambada Jerycho.
Probably more pertinently, 18 year-old winger Neeraj Addala has reportedly been rated at S$4 million by interested parties, a season and a half after his own free transfer to England-based Hattrick International club Gloucester City A.F.C..
"His development has been nothing less than stunning, from what I've seen." Tham added. "Props to Gloucester."
