Sport 07/07/2002

Escaping relegation will be Marsa's main aim

"Again the Premier League will be hard. Obviously our main aim is to stay there. However, keeping the present squad together plus signing a couple of experienced players could make it work." New Marsa Coach Patrick Curmi spoke to RAY ABDILLA about the new Marsa side and what he expects from them this coming season

From Lija to Pietà and now to Marsa. He had a brief experience with Hamrun Spartans but that was mostly with the junior squad. At Lija and Pietà he was his own man and did well with both teams.

With Lija, he helped win promotion to the Premier League and although it was a struggle with their limited resources, they were always a respected side. Their never-say-die attitude was something remarkable and they always worked to a plan.

It is no secret that when he left and joined Pietà, Lija's play died down a bit and their loss became Pietà's gain. In fact although finishing in the relegation pool Pietà always showed that they have something more than the rest of the other teams fighting it off for the drop.

In fact they always had the best over Marsa, the positive surprise of the Premier League last year being extremely unlucky not to make it to the Championship Pool.

The culprit was Patrick Curmi, who now has joined Marsa.

"The 2000-2001 season was definitely the hardest campaign of my three year experience in division one with Lija. Our promotion gave me great satisfaction especially when one considers that there were bigger clubs that fought us for this promotion."

When speaking to MaltaToday, Patrick Curmi spoke about his side’s determination and quest to win promotion in one of the hardest leagues on the island.

"For me this is because all the teams are of the same level and on the day, they can beat one other."

Regarding his move to Pietà he said that it was another difficult task. The team was not playing as well as in the previous seasons so a change was needed.

When asked about the 3 – 4 – 3 system. He said; "I love this system and for me it always worked well. At Lija and then at Pietà it always gave me results. Obviously I will try to do the same with Marsa now.

"I am striving to have the players adopt the system and I think I am not that far off even though I need a couple of other players to add to the squad.

"I have already got the services of former Lija player Gordon Camenzuli and there are a couple of more in mind. I would also like to keep all the players who were on loan to Marsa last year. But we're still discussing and meeting other clubs about such a possibility.

Regarding the foreigners, we are in touch with a couple of new ones and we are surely going to keep Nikolai Slavtchev. We still don't know about Evi Parker while we are on the brink of selling Minabo to a foreign club.

We started training last Monday and had 24 players present. These players were only those who are on the Marsa's books (not loaned). We had 10 from the first squad, eight from the reserve squad and six were minors," Patrick said.

Regarding the difference between Premier and Division 1 clubs Curmi thinks that the first three clubs in Division 1 can compare well with the teams fighting in the Premier League relegation pool. One has also to consider that the promoted clubs can register three foreigners.

He spoke about the two new clubs promoted from the First Division: "Marsaxlokk look promising enough and are working hard on strengthening their side to make an impact into the Premier League. Mosta on the other hand could rely on the majority of the players, which helped them win promotion. But they have a good youth nursery and for them they have no problem in giving young players a chance. So they might also be a handful."

According to the former Lija mentor there were several good players during his time in Division 1. "Marsa surely had a great player in Slavchev and luckily he is on my side now, while a player that always impressed me was Alan Galea of St. Patrick’s."

Regarding the Marsa set-up for the new season, Mr Curmi said that first of all they should do their utmost to retain all those players who wish to stay with the club next year. Then, they will try to strengthen the squad with one or two players. "We are so eager to do well this year. It's still very early, but like all other clubs we have contacts. Our President has gave me the go-ahead to strengthen the side and that means he has secured some good sponsorship deals."

Mr Curmi said that he agrees with the present Premier League format. "Yes I do agree. With this format, smaller clubs have more chances of survival. And this is what we are going to try to achieve this year.

We have to be on solid ground. It's true that it's going to be difficult, but we are very optimistic. If we can create the last year's atmosphere, everything is possible.

Last year the team was unlucky not to make it into the Championship Pool. We will try to make it this year. If we do make it, I would not want us to be the Cinderella of the Championship Pool. I want the team to give a hard time to all, even the so called giants of Maltese football," the new Marsa coach said.

When asked about the other Premiership clubs, Patrick said that except for Sliema, most of the teams are not looking high into the transfer market. "I agree with Birkirkara's policy giving youngsters more chances to play.

There are others such as Sliema and Valletta who seem to want to balance their books and sell off some of their players. With the champions having some good young players, it should turn out to be a very balanced league," Patrick said.

Asked about the First Division League Curmi said: "In my opinion the gap between organised First Division clubs and the so called smaller clubs in the Premier Division is definitely decreasing."

As a kid Patrick used to be a Floriana supporter. He used to go to the Gzira stadium with his uncles to see the great Floriana players in action. Patrick was crazy about Willie Vassallo and Louis Arpa. Then in his late teens he started to support his hometown, Hamrun.

"With Hamrun I started my coaching career at the age of 29. I had great days there and I cannot forget the founder of the Hamrun Nursery, and a close friend of mine, the late Tony Bajada. He was my inspiration to continue coaching. He helped me to make it to the top. I coached all the categories with Hamrun Nursery and finally thanks to Mr Lolly Aquilina during season 1995/96 I was engaged to coach the U18.

"During the 1997/98 season a string of bad results by the top team drove Mr.Victor Tedesco to give me the chance to express myself in top football coaching for the last part of the season. After that I was off to my Lija for the 98/99 season.