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What's the story?
I-League side East Bengal has announced six new signings for the upcoming 2018-19 football season.
The Red and Golds have lured four former Minerva Punjab stalwarts in Kassim Aidara, Rakshit Dagar, Sukhdev Singh and Deepak Devrani.
They have also signed Bengal Santosh Trophy Midfielder Sanchayan Samaddar. Youngster Ginkaholen Haokip has also been promoted to the main team from the Reserves.
In case you didn’t know…
Aidara, Dagar, Singh and Devrani were part of Minerva’s I-League winning squad in the 2017-18 season.
Devrani started his youth career with East Bengal and is all set to make a return to his former club. Samaddar was pivotal in Bengal’s recent Santosh Trophy campaign.
The heart of the matter
Aidara, a Senegalese born French domicile had previously played for several lower division German League sides like Paloma, Luneburger and Estonian League sides like Kalev Tallinn, JK Sillamae Kalev and FC Infonet, before moving to Minerva Punjab in the I-League.
He prefers to play as Defensive Midfielder and is deemed to be a replacement for Khalid Aucho who has been rumoured to be all set to leave East Bengal after a fairly successful Super Cup Campaign.
Dagar was linked to East Bengal for several weeks as he finally signed on the dotted lines in favour of the Kolkata giants. A towering goalkeeper from Delhi, he will be pivotal in keeping the goal as Ubaid CK is also rumoured to switch sides and bid adieu to East Bengal.
With Salam Ranjan Singh indefinitely being linked to Indian Super League side ATK and Arnab Mondal already signing in favour of the two time ISL Champions from Kolkata, East Bengal quickly snapped up defenders Singh and Devrani from Minerva Punjab to strengthen their back line for the upcoming season.
A young emerging midfielder from Behala, Kolkata, Samaddar has come a long way to sign for the famed East Bengal side for the upcoming season.
Samaddar was part of the Bengal Santosh Trophy side in the last competition and will be pivotal for East Bengal in the centre of the park.
GHaokip, also known as Kuki has signed for East Bengal as well. He is a winger and will provide ample amount of pace during East Bengal’s moves up the pitch from the wings.
What’s next?
East Bengal are also linked to Chencho Gyeltshen and Henry Kisekka and are likely to snap up one of the tried and tested foreigners in India soon for their next season.
With Eduardo Ferreira, Khalid Aucho, Cavin Lobo being one of the many names set to leave the Red and Golds, East Bengal are likely to have a very busy transfer window in the next few weeks.
Author’s Take
Induction of new players after each season has been now a usual norm practised by the Kolkata side in a bid for a relatively better performance in the I-League but has failed every single time.
East Bengal are going in for the same pattern yet again which can result in yet another poor season owing up to internal politics and strife among the coaches and the officials despite having a strong team on paper every single season.
