The appointment of Cristian Gălan on the bench of the “alb-violeleților” in the summer was perhaps viewed with distrust by many people, but the supporters and those always around Politehnicii Timișoara did not doubt the professionalism, hard work and ethics of the man who, as a player, wore the captain’s armband of our team. The interview below with the young coach focuses around the challenges of the fall

How has the season been so far, good, bad and then you ended the year on a high!

It’s been a merry-go-round, and it’s ended on the upswing. We were somewhat expecting what happened, because we knew that their youth could not have a clear consistency and then there would be ups and downs, but all in all I think they reacted quite well and in the latter part of the championship they really played some very good games, as evidenced by the results we had!

How would you evaluate the boys’ evolution: above expectations or in line with expectations; because at a certain point the results were, as you pointed out, fluctuating?

Overall, I think we are somewhere in line with expectations, maybe people wanted more from us, but at a first analysis, I think we are where the level of the team shows.

For you it was also practically the beginning of your career as a senior coach, many of the current players were your students at the Academy, so it’s a lot of juniors. The team’s balance sheet is also your balance sheet. There were voices from outside the club who said perhaps at the beginning: who is Cristi Gălan to take over Poli? How did you personally handle these things?

I knew what was waiting for me, because when I accepted the position, I knew that the squad was not a high performance squad, but a young squad with which you can perform. I knew that I might have problems in terms of the public and certain people who will shout depending on the results the team has. But that’s not a hindrance, because when I started in this job I knew what to expect. I knew that at some point you might lose five games in a row and be shouted down or win five games and be applauded by the whole stadium. These things happen in every coach’s life, so I took them on.

What has been the biggest challenge in this period of about five months on the job?

The biggest challenge, I think, is translating the methodology from training into games. Because I’m working with a new group, who may or may not know what you want in terms of the game. And it takes a while for them to get used to what you want them to do and to be able to translate that on the field. Slowly I think we are getting closer to what we want to do. We are not yet at the point where we can say we are playing exactly what we would like to play, but we are growing from game to game!

What plans have you made for the local winter training period?

We will have a normal periodization, in which we will play seven games, in which we will have the same type of training that we have had so far, based mostly on technical-tactical training. Of course, the physical part is included in those trainings, as a dosage, and we are not trying to change what we are training. We coach football and that’s what we want to do. We don’t know all the opponents yet, we have some targets that we want to set clearly… because we should be in very good shape in the first three stages of the beginning of the year.

As usual at this time of year, there will be changes in the squad.

We hope there will be as few as possible. Because we should be a homogeneous squad and we should win by developing our players and be as competitive as possible.

You will also promote new juniors from what I understand.

We will try to bring players from the academy, to have a little bit of contact with the first team, to see what happens and as a reward for what they have done this part of the season at junior level.

It being the end of the year, winter holidays, what message do you have for the supporters who have been with the team, as usual, even in hard times?

We thank them for being with us and for having the patience to be able to watch our games and enjoy the end of the year with us and have happy holidays and see you next year in the stadium!