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The Portuguese coach opened his heart about his last experience with “Tigers”.
Portuguese Sergio Conceicao, the former coach of Al-Ittihad, told about the reasons that ruined his experience with the club and the possibility of returning to work in the Saudi Arabian league in the near future.
He took over as Al Ittihad manager last October, replacing French coach Laurent Blanc, but failed to win any league titles and the club announced his departure at the end of last season.
The post-plan era
Conceição said in the statements given to the Portuguese newspaper “Maisfutebol”. “When I arrived (Al-Ittihad), the club was coming off a positive season in terms of results, having won the league and the Copa del Rey.”
He added: “But there were well-known problems, especially at the level of the organizational structure, and that became clear after the start of the season after the departure of Laurent Blanc. I remember he led the team in two AFC Champions League matches.”
He added: “Then I entered a completely different cultural reality where we tried to somehow hang on to results until December when we had a training camp in Dubai and got some time to work with the team.”
“Before that we were under more pressure than usual, playing every three days, and it was difficult to work on some aspects that I think are very important for my teams to be able to compete.”
“We did this work in December and since then we have achieved 7 positive results, including 6 league wins, as well as 5 wins in the AFC Champions League, which allowed us to get back into a position that was not easy to reach and then qualify for the final in Jeddah. We did it.”
The departure of Benzema and Kante
“After those matches, the winter transfer window opened in January and it was a very bad period for the team because it weakened our competitiveness somewhat after the departure of many important players like (Karim) Benzema and (N’Golo) Kante.”
He continued. “I think it was kind of a reduction in investment, and it became clear later after the sporting director left, because a lot of structural problems started to emerge.”
He explained. “We got into a situation that was not good, as if the work was not done according to expectations, but inside the club they knew very well that the task was very difficult.”
He continued. “However, we managed to reach the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League, where we came out in (bad) form. These types of encounters stick in the memory for various reasons. During the meeting itself there were events beyond our control.
He explained. “I remember Danilo’s perfectly accurate goal, apart from two balls that hit the post. However, there were certain circumstances that led us to go against Japan’s Machida (Zelvia), the team that later reached the finals.”
Return to Saudi Arabia
Regarding his experience in Saudi Arabia, Conceicao said: “I left with a completely different experience. It was a completely different experience from what I had known before in professional football.”
“I have to thank Saudi Arabia and in particular the union and its officials because they gave me the opportunity to live this reality where the work culture is different and the level of discipline and rigor that I wanted in my daily life at the club and in the team was difficult to impose or even respect.”
He continued. “Frankly, it’s a country that pays a lot of money to players, administrators and coaches to bring their experience from Europe and around the world to try to instill something different, but we’ve reached a stage where we have to adapt to a completely different reality.”
The Portuguese coach said about the possibility of returning to training in the Saudi League. “Yes, what I saw is a country that is developing and very much wants to develop, but wanting to develop is one thing and achieving it on the field is quite another.”
He clarified. “For various reasons, they are not used to training during the day, and if we did two training sessions a day, it was difficult to stick to the arrangements, sometimes it was difficult even to come to the training sessions, it is a completely different reality.”
He continued. “My biggest doubts were this. they pay us a lot of money and this could be a real strength for the country to show that professional football can develop and achieve the required success and goals if it is provided with the basic elements required on a daily basis, such as what I said before: discipline, rigor and the ability to work.”
He concluded. “They pay a lot, but in return they do not provide the conditions that make all this a reality on the field.”
