No Safee, no problem as Selangor beef up their strike force

PETALING JAYA: Selangor are prepared to face any eventualities even if their much sought after striker Mohd Safee Sali chooses to leave the team.

The FA of Selangor (FAS) have made contingency plans to strengthen the strike force even though they had parted ways with three other seasoned hands – R. Surendren (Pahang), Liew Kit Kong and Mohd Farderin Kadir (Felda United).

Manager and coach K. Devan said that he had reinforced the team for this season’s challenges, which begins with the Charity Shield match against Kelantan at the Shah Alam Stadium on Jan 29.

Selangor’s new signings for the forwardline are S. Sritharan (ex-Selangor), Azidan Sarudin (KL) and Mohd Fadzli Saari (Felda).

“We should be prepared to face the challenges with or without Safee. The important thing is that we have the men to get the job done in scoring goals and I have faith in these players,” said Devan yesterday.

Besides the newly acquired trio, the other attacking players for the Red Giants are national skipper Safiq Rahim, Mohd Amri Yahyah, Mohd Amirulhadi Zainal, Mohd Bunyamin Umar, Mohd Hardi Jaafar and Rudie Ramli.

Selangor have also signed up goalkeeper Saiful Amar Sudar, defender Yosri Derma Raju and midfielder K. Deepan.

Four clubs from Indonesia have showed interest in Safee following his exploits that won him the Golden Boot award with five goals in Malaysia’s winning run in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) championship last month.

The clubs who have had talks with Safee are Persib Bandung, Pelita Jaya, Balik Papan and Persipura Jayapura.

The FAS are prepared to release Safee, who has a contract to run until the end of the year, if they receive compensation.

The FAS secretary, Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin, said that Safee wanted new challenges and would take up a right offer.