And they say no
12th of July 2006
While the rest of the squad was training hard under my assistant manager I had been wondering around Estonia. Well that had to end. But before that I fell straight to the bed after I had arrived in Lisbon and drove back to Porto for many hours.
As it was lunchtime I needed to get out of the bed to get to the office and discuss couple of things with the club's general manager as I was supposed to return to the training tomorrow. Before grabbing a meal or even going to the club ground I needed to take one hell of a good shower. The plane was as hot as it was flying in the sun and the swet on my body soon started to smell like rotten eggs.
Cutting the grose talk, I arrived in the training ground at 3 PM, as I greeted the team on my way to rush meeting with the club board.
During that board meeting we were supposed to make sure what our plans are, financial abilities and everything. The scouts were there and everyone from the technical staff too ofcourse.
The small & humble boardroom of Leixões
I was seriously disappointed when they immediately said they won't buy Konstantin Vassiljev as they gave me several reasons. They hadn't even seen him play, but they told me that the price tag set by Viktor Levada on my phone conversation on the way here is far too high and they can't even afford player that cost's half of that price.
They explained me that the only chance to get players currently is either loan or free transfer. They knew that I was looking for right-back & right-winger so they had singled out couple of players before with the scouts.
They said they had invited three-four wingers to the trials in the clubs and allowed me to choose which one I like the best and gave me some possible Brazilian right-backs who they can loan. They said it's very important to have a Spanish or Portugese speaking players in the squad in such division where team-work is going to be very important.
I left the board meeting rather disappointed with my first technical staff. This was one of the first lessons in the management that I learned - management sets the limits. But it's up to me to play with those limits.
