By Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

precious emuejeraye

Precious Emuejeraye will now play for Woodlands Wellington. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports file photo)

National defender Precious Emuejeraye, who was left without a club after Gombak United dropped him at the end of the season, has finally found a club willing to take him in. He will now don the colours of Woodlands Wellington, representing the Rams in this year's S. League season, according to Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao (Alliance with Woodlands, Precious relieved; Thursday, February 5, 2009).

He shared that he was quite troubled and uneasy after being unable to find a club in the months after he left Gombak United. He said that he felt relieved and it was like a heavy weight off his chest. Prior to this, he was the only national player without a club. This affected his emotions and performance, which caused him to lose focus on the game.

Precious felt this might have been one reason why National team coach Raddy Avramovic did not field him in the Lions’ recent clash against Jordan in the Asian Cup Qualifiers.

Woodlands Wellington also have a new coach in Croatian Nenad Bacina after former coach Jorg Steinebrunner moved to Sengkang Punggol. Bacina was a former player with Singapore Armed Forces FC in 2004.

Even before the season has begun, Woodlands are already facing financial difficulties. Though they recruited nine new players, they had to release all their foreign players from last year’s team. Despite that, Bacina remains optimistic. He said that he hopes that the team can achieve an ideal result.

“I am a fighter. We will fight match by match, I do not want to think too far,” he said.

However, he later added that he hopes that the team would achieve at least an eight placing this season.

On the transfer front, Woodlands Wellington have signed three new foreign players. They are Iranian forward Tehranizadeh Haghighi Ford Mojtaba, Chilean Luis Eduardo Hicks (formally from Sengkang Punggol) and English defender Daniel Hammond (formally from the Young Lions).

Hammond played an integral role in the team’s 2-0 win over Balestier Khalsa in a friendly last week.

Former goalkeeper of Tampines Rovers Rezal Hassan has also joined the team as the goalkeeper coach.

Woodlands Wellington chairman Mr Jayadev Unithan said that though there is a looming global economic crisis, they will still retain their sponsor. The team also plans to reorganise in the next three years, and hope to break into the top four after that.