Sathia wants pre-season stint in Thailand for Selangor

PETALING JAYA: New Selangor coach B. Sathianathan is looking at a pre-season stint in the Asean region as a headstart to their challenge in the new season.

The Red Giants are rebuilding the squad under Sathianathan and are in the midst of signing new players after releasing seven players from last season.

It’s learnt that former Felda United winger Wan Zack Haikal Wan Nor will be announced as the Merah Kuning outfit’s new signing soon.

Sathianathan said the Selangor Football Association (FAS) management have agreed to a pre-season training session abroad and were looking at playing club sides in Thailand.

“Thai clubs produce high standards in football in the region and they have top class facilities, good fields and stadiums ... so, I think we’ll have a good pre-season in Thailand if we can get the arrangements sorted out,” said the former national team coach.

“We started our training at the State Secretariat Office (SUK) field yesterday. We’ll have a few new faces coming in soon and we need to get the players to gel as a unit before the season starts.”

The former Felda United coach has been tasked to lead the Red Giants to a top-two finish in the Malaysia Super League next season.

Selangor fans have been thirsting for success in the Super League for many years as they last won it in 2010. The last time Selangor won a trophy was in 2015 when Mehmet Durakovic led the Klang Valley giants to their 33rd Malaysia Cup triumph.

Sathia said the team manage- ment were currently negotiating with last season’s top scorer Rufino Segovia of Spain to continue spearheading the team’s attack line.

“We’re still negotiating with Segovia and we are also looking at another foreign striker for the team,” said Sathia.

“I think we have good local players and we have further strengthened the squad by signing Faiz (Nasir), Abdul Latiff (Suhaimi) and K. Prabakaran.

“I’m happy with the management as they have secured our transfer targets.”