Prof. Sorin Brîndescu took over at the end of July, in a very difficult moment for our club, the position of executive director of Politehnicii Timisoara. After the end of the first half of the championship we had a brief chat with him about how things have evolved at the team in the last five months or so and what are the team’s prospects for the future.

Mr. Brîndescu, how do you assess the team’s progress in the fall season, also taking into account what happened in the summer?

I think that after the way we started in the summer we are on an upward trend. With plusses and minuses, but I think we’ve grown, not necessarily because of the latest results, I’ve even made the point that we shouldn’t be too euphoric, we have to be realistic, down to earth. Just now after the last round I had a discussion with Mr. Gălan, the team coach, in which we evaluated the players and their progress in this round of the championship. What is encouraging is that the quality of the game has improved, that the boys understand what we want from them, what is our conception of the game of football and we want the results to come as a consequence of the quality of our play.

Another discussion is the financial side. Have some of the debts been settled?

Well, they go hand in hand, in a club, you need money to run your club, and since the summer until now, at the minimum we could afford, we have managed to cover our expenses. The number one problem is debt, which we are still struggling to cover.

What are the plans for this competitive break?

We have broadly discussed the plan for the second half of the championship. We meet on January 16, dates for friendlies have been set, some are under discussion and we won’t do a training camp, because we can’t afford it, but we will have training here locally. I think it will be appropriate for what we want.

Regarding the lot, there will certainly be some departures, arrivals!

I’ve seen that everyone is expecting, winter, summer, departures-comings. I see that’s the fashion in Romanian football. We’d go more for continuity and consistency. In other words, we have struggled since the summer until now to teach our children and players what we want in the game of football. We can’t afford every six months to start from scratch. There’s some talk about some of the players that have excited us this championship. We have talked about some who still have work to do. We still expect progress from them. Or, there are certain players, who we have our eye on, but not many players, who add value to the squad we have now. Basically, we are going on the skeleton from this championship.

Have there been other challenges, besides financial, during this period? I’m thinking of the training pitches, you managed to get an old pitch near “Dan Paltinisanu” back into use…

Yes, the challenges are in several directions. We managed to recover one of the pitches in the Stoicov Complex, and we set it up for training. The big team has also trained there on the pitch, but more to have it as a guarantee when the demolition of the stadium starts. That that will be a challenge too, where do we move all our materials, the storeroom, the locker room, all the equipment, everything we have? Probably to Base 2 we will move them and what field will we train on? When the demolition starts.

Have you had any further discussions with the authorities about this land issue?

There are discussions. For example, one positive thing. We have discussed at the County Council level, that when the site is being organized, they should protect the land on the Stoicov base, because I understand that the site is being organized there. And automatically you lose some training grounds, the area on Stoicov Base. And then, not only the stadium will be demolished, it’s clear that machinery will have to be brought to the area. And from the discussions that we had, we found understanding and support from the CJT, to keep that training ground, which we have arranged this fall!

As it is the end of the year, what do you say to the supporters, who have been by the team’s side, through the same core, through thick and thin?

Well, you realize that we can only thank them. We are very appreciative of the fact that they are by our side and that they are tolerant with us, I know that results in football are uncontrollable, they are oscillating, but we do our best to do things as well as we can. And I hope that this will show in the second half of the championship. Let’s do these things better, bring them joy, good results. In the meantime, I wish happy holidays and good health to all football lovers!