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SCMP Reporter

HAPPY Valley have ditched the two overseas players who helped save them from relegation and are instead reverting to the policy of hiring only mainland Chinese as expatriate professionals.

   Australian Kris Trajanovski and Englishman David Clarkson have been discarded as the club's new convenor, mainland businessman Xu Zengping, insists on a return to the money-saving ''mainlanders only'' rule which backfired so badly last season.

   Valley, league champions in 1989, adopted the policy at the beginning of last season as a cost-cutting exercise, but suffered a disastrous run of league results which saw them fall to second from bottom of the First Division.

   With their mainland players failing to fire and the team looking doomed to relegation, Valley abandoned the policy and recruited striker Trajanovski and midfielder Clarkson.

   The team were beaten only once in eight league matches after the pair's arrival and eventually finished eighth in the 10-team First Division, three points clear of relegation.

   Xu took over control three weeks ago when Ricky Yu Kam-wai stepped down as the club convenor.

   The new boss has decided to fill the club's quota of five overseas players from among his compatriots rather than expensive imports from Australia and Britain.

   However Xu remains determined that Valley will not suffer the same agonies as last season.

   He said: ''We are getting physically stronger players from either the Shandong team or the August 1 army side and I'm sure they can hold their own in Hongkong soccer.''    The players Valley are hoping to sign include national goalkeeper Jiang Jin and robust 22-year-old Shandong striker Su Mauchun. Others are defenders Wang Dongon and Wang Tao, midfielder Feng Feng and winger Tang Lepu.

   There should no problems regarding Wang Dongon and Tang being allowed to come to Hongkong as they are both over 28 and are allowed to leave China to pursue professional careers.

   ''I am now having talks with top Chinese officials hoping they will give special permission for the younger players to leave the country,'' said Xu.

   The only mainlander retained from last season is defender Lin Zhihua, but the club are unsure if the Shanghai provincial player will return, as it is thought his family object to the move.

   Xu added: ''If Lin can talk his family into letting him come again, we will have all seven Chinese players in our camp and I would like to have them in Hongkong by September 20, immediately after the national championships.''    Valley will be coached by Guangzhou's Chen Yiming and the Hongkong players will have pre-season training in the mainland, starting next Friday with a month-long stint in Guangzhou.



Valley revert to 'Chinese only' policy