Wikki Tourists coach Usman Abd’Allah says the reason the club is signing a lot of players ahead of the upcoming 2020/2021 season is to transform the Bauchi Elephants from strugglers to title contenders in the Nigeria Professional Football league (NPFL).

No fewer than 10 new players, including Jamiu Alimi, Kamal Sikiru, Jimmy Ambrose, Hamisu Saleh, Bright Emmanuel and former Enyimba stars Stephen Chukwude and Thomas Zenke have joined the Wikki Tourists in a very busy transfer window.

In the past three seasons, Wikki have finished outside the top 10 in the NPFL, managing to escape relegation despite a third place finish in the 2016 campaign.

The former Enyimba coach says the quality of players the club has signed so far is an indication that they want to change the narrative and start competing for major honours.

“You know already the standard. When you go 5 to 7 years back, you can see where we are ending up in the league,” he told www.busybuddiesng.com.

“They might start very well but, if you look at history of the club, you will see that it’s a club that always tries to survive in the league and if you have to change that mentality, you have to change a lot of things.

“You have to meet the target, you have to raise the expectations of the team and doing that, you have to look at the players you have to change and bring [in]. More experienced players; players that can compete well and get results. That’s why we are changing (the team).”

Abd’Allah led Enyimba to their record 8th NPFL triumph in 2019, a year after he guided the 2-time African champions to the semi-finals of the CAF Confederation Cup, where they lost to eventual champions Raja Casablanca of Morocco.