In a major turn of events, Viva Kerala has signed Nigerian attacker Badmus Baba Tunde while releasing Guinean midfielder Mohammed Conte. This comes as a surprise as "Baba" had a forgettable season with Viva last year in which he failed to impress.

 

Nevertheless, the management and coach Sreedharan believe they made the right choice. It was evident that Mohammed Conte was not effective as the coach would have wished him to be. Being hard-working in midfield, he was not the commanding schemer and goal-scorer as expected. 

 

Adding to this, the inexperienced but very able forwards Sabeeth and Shibin failed to convert many chances in recent tournaments which proved to cause many headaches for the chief coach. 

 

As an out-and-out goalscorer was dearly needed, Viva directors re-called the free agent Baba Tunde. Of course, this decision will raise many eyebrows as the Nigerian was instrumental in Viva's success in the 2006/2007 season, but he was shown his limits a year later when  most of the I-League defenders were superior to him.

 

"Most importantly, we now need an efficient striker who can convert our chances. This has been our major bottleneck so far. The 2nd Division starts at the end of this month, so we were under pressure. But Baba is shaping up well so far. He knows that he has to make a lot of amends and thus he works very hard in practice sessions.", says the Viva coach Sreedharan. "Our midfield is very well balanced with the likes of Sakeer, Firoz, Rahul, Manoharan, Saleel, Lalu and Siraj. Plus the return of Baba, Sabeeth and Devadasan give me more options in the front-line." 

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