Seven months into the league

by Karm Galea - 14th April 2010

In the first interviews that I gave after accepting to be President of the Club, I was asked what were my main objectives for this season. Without hesitating, I said that the two main objectives were that the Administration of the Club will manage the Club in a professional way making use of all the expertise that existed in the Committee members and that we will improve the team's standing in the League table on that of the previous season. This seemed a bit too ambitious for certain people, especially when one considered the presumed limitations of our squad. Seven months later I can state without any doubt that both objectives have already been met.

The Committee had been organized so that every member will be involved in the running of the Club. In this respect I am pleased to say that the members have done a wonderful job so far. In particular, the Club's finances have been managed very professionally with the Finance Sub-Committee almost making miracles by not increasing the Club's debt. All other sections of the Club have performed extremely well too.

As for the position of our team in the League table, we all know where we are at the moment. I'm sure you all remember how the media didn't believe much in our team and, indeed, some even ventured to say that we might even have to play in the relegation pool. Few people believed that we can be where we are today. But I can assure you that I was one of those few people! I am a person who does not believe so much in Stars but I strongly believe in a team made up of players each of whom would give his life for the team with ALL the players playing as a team and not as individuals. And that is what I saw the first time I watched our team playing at the beginning of the season. And that is what we are seeing today. All our players are playing with 'grinta' fighting for every ball and supporting the player with the ball. Experienced players like Michael Galea and George Mallia are being a very good influence on the other players and they have contributed in no small way to the harmony that exists in the team which to them is more of a family rather than a group of individuals. But the person who deserves the greatest praise for transforming our team in what it is today is our coach Paul Zammit. He knows the game inside out both from a technical point of view and from a psychological point of view. He can bring the best in any player who wants to play for the team. Even with the small squad that we have, he has managed to make use of players in whatever position they were required to play and still give an excellent performance. He and the Committee have a very good relationship with the Committee supporting him in any possible way and his players having the greatest confidence in him.

Whenever, some members of the Committee used to say that we must fight to stay with the first three teams in the table, I always used to reply that we have to fight for the first place in the table. And that's where we are at the moment! As the Valletta Coach said in his interview after we beat Valletta in the last league game, we had 75% chance of winning the League. Now that we have beaten Sliema, I would dare to say that we have increased that chance. However, let's keep our feet on the ground. We have not won the League yet. Anything can happen in football. Let us not be complacent. Let us, supporters, do our bit and continue with the wonderful support we have been giving to our players. Let us encourage Karkarizi to come to the stadium for the remaining games in which our team will be playing. Let us be the twelfth player of our team and then we will celebrate together our success!

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