Are reinforcements on the way?

If the Bangkok Post article is correct - and how could anyone doubt Tor Chittinand? - then we have another good quality player at the Thunderdome in the form of goalie Weera Koedpudsa.

The OS - reporting on yesterday's friendly game with Tero - says Dagno and Christian are back but I haven't yet seen them in any training videos, and since all the English language articles on the OS are translated from the original Thai, sometimes things are lost in translation. It could mean: "they should come back" or something like that.

So let's take a pessimistic view and say that Dagno and Chris are not back, Kone will be gone before the season starts and Ibrahim has indeed left. The starting team would look something like this:

Weera / Kawin

Kallio
Panupong
Rehman
Pakasit

Datsakorn
Boonmatoon
Pitchipong
Pornsai

Teerasil
Sagnosi

On the bench we may have....
Kawin / Weera (but who covers the first choice goalie if Kawin is still injured?)
Abdoul
Ammorn
Nattaporn
?
?
?

The starting eleven look, on paper, as strong as the side that reached the AFC semi-finals last season. With PEA and Chonburi yet to make any real improvements in squad strength and BG yet to make the ground up, this is heartening. But as well as the loss of a top coach, we also look slightly weaker in reserve, particularly in the areas of goalkeeper and striker.

Rob is aware of this and confirmed on the OS that new forwards will be sought after.This makes the mystery Ibrahim transfer even stranger. Of course, it may yet be the case that Dagno and Chris return and we will then look much stronger.

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This article from an English paper is of interest but has a couple of factual errors. Muangthong are backed by Siam Sport not "Siam" and although they are a wealthy and influential company they are certainly not the "biggest company in Thailand" (in terms of revenue that would be PTT) and last season we reached the semi-finals of the AFC Cup (Asia's UEFA Cup) not the Asian Champions League.

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Thong will play a warm up game away to feeder club Phuket at the end of the month.