ŠK SLOVAN BRATISLAVA official website

At the beginning of this calendar year presented the management of ŠK Slovan Bratislava its strategic plan for the period of next seasons, in which shall the most successful Slovak club prepare itself in all aspects for performance at the new stadium. However, Slovan is continuously undergoing trough significant changes. Vice president of the club Ivan Kmotrík ml. therefore explains the situation.

The most significant changes for our fans are for sure squad changes. Is current squad near to your expectations?
“Although we were able to promote to the group stage of the European League twice in four years and we were successful in domestic competitions for a long time, we felt the need for major changes in our team. It is not a bad result, but we are looking for more. To promote from pre-rounds and play in Bratislava against European teams like Athletic Bilbao, Paríž St. Germain or SSC Neapol is on one side nice, but on the other hand, we feel need for better results in the group stage as well. Therefore, we needed some major changes. It was not easy for numerous reasons, but I think that we made fair piece of work in this manner and Slovan made numerous trades, which cannot be seen in Slovakia every year. I believe in these steps and I believe in this team. We have experienced leaders and also young players. Although the beginning of the season is not the best for us, I still believe that its end, we all will be happy with performances and achieved results.
In this manner, it is needed to say that we have far more professional choice of reinforcements that we used to have. In the club is fully implanted scouting division and it has important role in selection of right candidates for sky blue jersey. For instance, about Frederik Valach, who is a member of national team U17 has not been written as much as about Ján Mucha, but we believe, that once he will achieve as unique results as Jano. Therefore, we offered him a long term contract.”

For preparation of young talents, it is needed to have also facilities and equipment. What improvement have we made in this manner?
“By gradual steps, we are approaching to the goal that Slovan would have an academy comparable with teams in highly developed European countries. According the number of fields, we have probably the best conditions in whole Slovak republic. Training area in Prievoz, where our U15 and U17 shall train during the next years is being reconstructed during the summer. In the first stage, we reconstructed the locker rooms for our young players and new sport equipment has been added. In next two or three months shall be repaired accommodation and rest area or classroom shall be added. In one sentence – everything needed for growth and complex development of young talents. We need to fulfill cooperation with schools, so that our young players would have also good education. Jozef Valovič will be new director of the academy and he will be responsible for coordination and control of whole academy.”

Our new head coach will be foreigner Nikodimos Papavasiliou, which might be for some people an unusual step. Why have you decided in this way?
“In April, we ended our cooperation with Jozef Chovanec. Unfortunately, at this time there was no one suitable at the market for the position of head couch of Slovan. Provisional solution was transfer of Dušan Tittel to the first squad, but we were still looking for someone for long term cooperation. We were in touch with several candidates and the most suitable was Nikodimos Papavasiliou. I had a meeting with him approximately three months ago. He convinced me already then by his serious approach and perfect preparation. He submitted prepared project, which is very close to my expectations. We have communicated a lot about my expectations and about what I want to achieve with Slovan. Our opinions are similar and often even the same. The priority shall be to bring fans back to the stadium and to entertain them with attractive football. We want Slovan to have its own style, which would be characteristic for it and which would bring success at home and in Europe as well. Of course, it needs some time. We need to work hard to fulfill our ambitions. However, I am convinced that we have the best squad in the league and with right system we shall dominate in our league. From our new head couch I expect modern elements in our game and attractive football style. We need to gain as many points till the winter break as possible, so that afterwards, we will be able to fight for the title. Our form will be better and better and I have no doubts that with new coaches we will be able to entertain and bring joy to our loyal fans.”

You have indicated that some players shall leave the club till the end of the transfer period. Can you name who are these players?
“In case of some offer, we would like to release Lester Peltier for a loan or transfer. In case, he would finally stay in Slovan, he would need to radically change his attitude and efficiency. Richard Lásik shall similarly as Soumah leave for a one year loan. We want him to play regularly and have a chance to convince us about his qualities. We are still negotiating with Erik Čikoš. We offered him three years contract. Erik is a great warrior and he always fights his best at the pitch. We would like to find conditions, under which he would stay at our club. Of course, we count also with a possibility that he would reject our offer. We don’t want to destroy his development, but in this case, he would probably spend the rest of autumn with reserves. His contract is expiring in winter and we want to give a chance to players that we can count on in the future.”