ISL: East Bengal to sign Hyderabad's Subrata Paul as Sankar Roy goes the other way

East Bengal are set to rope in goalkeeper Subrata Paul from Hyderabad FC while Sankar Roy is set to play for The Nizams, Goal can confirm. Both Paul and Roy's transfers are loan deals.

Subrata, 34, made six appearances for Hyderabad this season and kept two clean sheets. Subrata then suffered an injury that saw Laxmikant Kattimani start in his place for the last five games. Hyderabad coach Manuel Marquez had confirmed that the India international had a problem with his knee. He has recovered since but has not made it into the starting XI.

The Tata Football Academy (TFA) product has kept as many as 28 clean sheets in his ISL career with 91 appearances with clubs such as Mumbai City, NorthEast United, Jamshedpur and Hyderabad.

Having started his senior career with Mohun Bagan, this will be Subrata's second stint with East Bengal after the 2008-09 season in which he won the Federation Cup.

Interestingly, Subrata has never managed to make it to the play-offs with all the four ISL clubs he represented in the past.

I-League

On the other hand, Roy played a crucial role last season with Mohun Bagan as they clinched the I-League title. He conceded only nine goals in 14 I-League matches and also kept six clean-sheets and was preferred as the number one by then manager Kibu Vicuna.

Roy was then signed up by East Bengal and was a back-up to Debjit Majumder. The only match that the 25-year-old custodian played at the Red and Golds under Robbie Fowler was against Jamshedpur in which he kept a clean sheet as a 10-man East Bengal had held the Men of Steel to a goalless draw. 

Hyderabad are currently fourth on the ISL standings table with 17 points from 12 games while East Bengal are second from bottom with 12 points from 13 games.