"We'll try to get more players in upcoming weeks" - Carles Cuadrat on East Bengal's team building
East Bengal started their preparations for the upcoming season on July 3, 2024, at the AIFF Centre of Excellence in Rajarhat, Kolkata. The first day of training witnessed 17 players taking part in the curriculum.
Notably, those players who were recently a part of the Indian national team were not present in the camp - Naorem Mahesh Singh, Lalchungnunga, Nandhakumar Sekar, and David Lalhlansanga. On the contrary, a few newcomers were seen gelling well with the side, like Debjit Majumder, Provat Lakra and Mark Zothanpuia.
It is important to mention here that East Bengal had only two foreigners in the session - Cleiton Silva and Saul Crespo. The other three overseas recruits namely, Dimitrios Diamantakos, Hijazi Maher and Madih Talal, are yet to get their visas.
After the training session was over, East Bengal head coach Carles Cuadrat engaged in an interaction with the media.
He said:
"It's my second season at East Bengal so we have to do things better. I expect we can achieve good results and play better football. I'm happy about what happened last season."
The Spaniard also shed light on how the management is working behind the scenes to bring reinforcements into the side.
He said:
"The management have been really working hard to build the team that can do a good job in the AFC Champions League Two.
"We want reinforcements in defence. For sure, we will try to get more players in the upcoming weeks. Until now we can be quite satisfued with the reinforcements in the final third of the pitch, but we have to keep working to reinforce the other parts of the pitch."
How many players do East Bengal still need to sign?
Looking at East Bengal's current squad, for sure it looks better than the previous season, but the defensive third still needs quite a few signings. To be precise, in order to fight for the championship, the club needs a good centre-back who can throw a challenge to Lalchungnunga that his position in the line-up is not safe.
A defensive midfielder is perhaps the need of the hour. East Bengal have a brilliant attacking third which comprises Cleiton Silva, Dimitrios Diamantakos, Madih Talal, Saul Crespo, Naorem Mahesh Singh, Nandhakumar Sekar, PV Vishnu, Sayan Banerjee, and Aman CK. To complement this attacking force, a proper screening is required in midfield.
As per reports, the club was previously in talks with Apuia, who went on to sign for their arch-rivals Mohun Bagan. As of now, reports suggest that East Bengal are trying to acquire the signature of Jeakson Singh from Kerala Blasters. Apart from this, a foreigner quota is still left and the club is expected to sign a versatile player who can play both as a defender and defensive midfielder, someone like Jose Pardo who played for the club last season.