Balancing The Books
Grilled Birds went some way towards repairing the hole that
Massoud Dob had burnt in their finances, by letting
Mohammad Ramli Saliman and
Valentin Batâr go. The sale of the pair recouped about eight million for the club, with
Hovaness Noubaryan told that he had to sell if he wanted to be able to buy again.
The 28 year-old Saliman had just completed six full seasons back with Grilled, but it was ultimately a problem of wrong timing for the former U-20 playmaker. Caught in no man's land between Grilled's previous cup-winning generation, and the new crop represented by Moey, Davlatov, Parvathaneni and Chan, Saliman could only serve as a bridge of sorts, in a barren period for the club.
"It's just bad luck for him." assistant coach Luis Alcántara sighed. "He deserved better, but the team wasn't what it was, when he came back."
His S$5 million move to Turkish leaguewinners İLTERİŞ SPOR can be seen as a win-win in this light, with him set to make an immediate impact in tomorrow's promotion match against Ufkubu. Victory should see him enjoy a free role as the fulcrum of İLTERİŞ' 5-3-2, as they seek to survive Division Three.
29 year-old Romanian goalkeeper
Valentin Batâr for his part wasn't too chuffed at having to give up his Number One jersey to Dob, and handed in a transfer request, once Noubaryan confirmed that Dob would be starting for the foreseeable future - as might be expected of a S$16 million man.
Batâr, who kept twenty-two clean sheets in a hundred competitive starts at Grilled, had no trouble attracting offers, with Dominican Republic club Valconny FC eventually contracting him for just over three million. Italian sixth division side Odio il tiki-taka were in contact too, but their Bulgarian gaffer Konstantin Osikovski declined to try and top Valconny FC's bid.
