Here we are again! Welcome to the House Of Fun! That’s right, we’ve got a bit of Madness blaring in the ISL UK HQ. Welcome to Newsflash Wednesday.
Do Dreams Count As A Source?
Now, how we’ve been doing this has been a bit of a mismatch and I’m not entirely sure how this one is going to play out, but we’ll see how it plays out. I’d had been covering rumours off certain sites like Goal & SportsKeeda, however, they seem to go from the scattergun approach so we’ll give them a miss for the time being unless the articles contain any quotes.
They have to be relevant quotes as well; in one article they say that Hitesh Sharma has signed a new deal with ATK and the quote they use is of what Sheringham said at the start of the season, good one lads. I’m not in anyway trying to discredit those sites, I’m just not putting them in an article based on Goal understands or SportsKeeda has learned. Imagine if we started doing that as well, be a bloody nightmare. Although I joke, I did have a dream that Jeje left Chennaiyin to join FC Goa, so maybe I should do an article on that? Na didn’t think so.
So, we’ll focus on the four deals that have been confirmed since we last looked over everything. We’ll take it from the top and go with the most recent one, to begin with; Boithang Haokip has signed a new deal with Bengaluru which ties him to the club until 2020.
Boithang Becomes Player Number Five To Commit To Bengaluru
Boithang becomes the fifth player to commit his future to the club this summer after Juanan, Bheke, Gurpreet and Paartalu also signed new deals. The versatile Indian has only featured twelve times this season in all competitions, nevertheless, Roca is very aware of his value to the squad; his passing accuracy throughout the course of this season has always stayed above 80% which gives you just one of the reasons why Bengaluru were keen to tie him down.
Next up, Romeo! Delhi have acted to keep him with the club for another two years and upon signing the contract, Romeo was eager to inform the fans that he meant business…
“I am delighted to extend my stay with Delhi Dynamos for another two years. I improved a lot as a player last year and I am happy that the club believes in me as well. We want to improve from last season and I want to make sure that I win the Championship with Delhi,”
Fair play to him for coming out and being as straight to the point as that, I must admit, I’m a big fan of players making claims like that and who knows, maybe next season will be their year? Saying that surely if you want to do some damage you keep hold of your best players… More on that shortly.
Jamshedpur Give Out Their SEVENTH New Contract
Jamshedpur, like Bengaluru, have been busy making sure they keep their core together. We’ve already seen Subrata, Tiri, Farukh, Sumeet, Memo and Wellington commit their futures to the ‘Men Of Steel’ and we now have another one to add to that list.
Step forward, Yumnam Raju. The twenty-nine-year-old didn’t really get a look in at the beginning of the season, since then, he’s forced his way into Steve Coppell’s plans. While he may not be the most recognisable of players in the Jamshedpur team, just take a look at his equaliser against Delhi when he placed the ball in the top corner from the edge of the box. Majestic is the word you’re looking for. Much like Delhi’s Romeo, Raju was also positive about next season:
“I had a good season, but I would like to work on my weaknesses and rectify mistakes I made last season. I really want to help Jamshedpur FC reach the semi-finals next season.”
Right on, Yumnam, right on.
ATK Sign Uche – Incredible Signing
We end with an actual transfer that has been confirmed. I said that if you want to compete for the Championship like Romeo said, you really need to keep hold of your best players. Well, Delhi’s top goalscorer, Kalu Uche, has moved on to pastures new. He’s gone to Kolkata side, ATK.
Now, when this news broke on Twitter, Steve and I were naturally quick to react and we were met with a lot of responses saying things along the lines of that Uche can be replaced etc in the same way that Marcelinho was the season before.
I wholeheartedly disagree and will happily admit being wrong if Delhi manage to find someone who can score as many/more than Uche for next season. It even got to the point where Delhi’s director, Rohan Sharma, said ‘watch this space’ or something similar to that. He’s now deleted his tweets regarding the transfer which is a bit strange but never mind.
To give you some context, Uche scored just under 50% of Delhi’s goals this season and while five of them may have come from the penalty spot, they still need scoring. A fantastic signing for ATK and if Robbie Keane decides to stay in any capacity, he’ll be a great mentor for Uche.
That’s all for this week. Providing there’s more news that breaks this week, this’ll be back once again for next week! Enjoy the rest of your day.
Until the next time.
