Meeting News pt 3

Details of the meeting on Wednesday evening between Omiya Ardija staff and 150 supporters have been uploaded on to the club's website. The format of the information is that of minutes of a meeting, divided into two sections. The first section is made up of ten small parts, which president Seigo Watanabe uses to address questions emailed to the club by fans. The second section is a straight question and answer session. GGOA here presents without comment a brief summary translation of Section 1 of the meeting minutes; Section 2 to follow.

1. The Meeting

"This meeting came about as a result of discussions with fans following the Marinos game. The media were invited to encourage openness and to let supporters who couldn't attend know the outcome. Some fans asked for Jang Wae Ryong to attend, but I want Jang to concentrate on his work on the pitch and therefore didn't invite him. I regarde it as my own job to explain the views of the club. I realise that communication with fans generally is not good enough and I will be taking steps to improve this."

2. The Banners

"Four banners were displayed by fans at the Marinos game that did not have the purpose of encouraging the players to play well. They were against the coach and club staff. Stewards asked the supporters to take them down, but they did not do this and so the stewards pulled them down. The fans who brought these banners to the stadium have been banned from attending the next five home matches and the away matches that occur during this period. The reason for this is because such behaviour is against both J-League and club rules."

3. The Coach

"The club's target is to be among the leading teams in Japan in two or three years' time, so we were searching for a coach who could take Omiya closer to that goal. Last season's coach Yasuhiro Higuchi used quite old players and so we also wanted to make a younger and more aggressive team. Haruo Yuuki and Ryugo Okamoto researched possible replacements for Higuchi and identified five candidates, one of whom was Jang.

"They met him in November last year and talked to him about his ideas for development, management and coaching. He had achieved good results with Incheon United, he studied in Europe, had experience of working in Japan and lots of self-confidence.

"The start of the season was very successful and also included first team opportunities for players like Ryohei Arai, a rookie. Currently there are lots of injuries in the squad but we trust the coach and will continue to support him in the future. We are in a transition period, moving to a younger team and we have not given up hope of finishing in the top five."

4. The General Manager & Strengthening The Team

"We spoke to several candidates as potential new general manager. We were looking for someone with a good network to improve our scouting. When I spoke to Yuuki, he had these things and he knew about the strengths and weaknesses of all the Ardija players in a lot of detail.

"We wanted to have a new team this season, with younger players, so we watched a lot of videos with Jang and drew up a list of the sorts of players we wanted: a quick forward, a winger who could run and a strong header of the ball at central defender. As a result we bought Park Won Jae, Mato Neretljak, Naoki Ishihara and Yoshihito Fujita. Also Tomoya Uchida joined permanently and Takahiro Takagi came back from loan.

"However, there was a miscalculation in that Daigo Kobayashi left after we had already started to prepare for the new season. He had a clause in his contract that enabled him to move to a foreign club and after he went to Norway, we didn't have any time to bring in a player of a similar type.

"We are always researching new players and have a list at the moment of defenders, midfielders and forwards that we are interested in. We are in negotiations, but I cannot say more at the moment.

5. The Coach's Team Concept & The Current Situation

"Jang has several points that are characteristic of his football and the football he wants the team to play; for example, that all players attack and defend, that defence is the key to victory, that the team passes the ball quickly, that the midfield area is controlled and that it's important to take advantage of set pieces to score goals.

"This demands athletes who are flexible in their approach to playing and who can play in more than one position. They must have physical and mental strength. They must do the simple things and get the ball forward quickly. Things started well and we were unbeaten for the first seven games before losing to Kawasaki. Jang said after that game that he and the team had lost sight of the basics and that he had learned a lot from the defeat.

"The team concept became blurred and we were affected by the injury to Masahiko Ichikawa. The three recent Nabisco Cup games have been very disappointing and we thank the fans for their support. Jang is going to have a proper translator when he has media interviews so that we can be sure that the nuance of communication is properly expressed. I believe that this team can achieve what we want to do."

6. Yoshiyuki Kobayashi's Transfer

"In the middle of May, we received a transfer request from Yoshiyuki Kobayashi's agent. Previously he had never had an agent so we knew that he was serious about wanting to move. I was very surprised, it was very sudden. He picked up an injury pre-season that was in the same place as he was injured last year, so we knew it was going to be a difficult year for him. He has had limited opportunities to be in the team and we felt we had to respect his desire to play."

7. The Players

"We have skillful, professional players who are not lacking in motivation. The players, the coach, all of us feel angry and ashamed about the recent results and we are serious about wanting to improve. We have had a lot of injuries. Klemen Lavric, when pre-season training started he had a weight problem and it took some time to get him into shape.

"He's been having some back pain for the last month or so and is training separately from the other players. Denis Marques has had problems with his knee and ankle and he isn't 100% yet. Ishihara has had a knock on his calf. Uchida and Park have hip injuries and like Lavric are training separately. Ichikawa will be back in a month or two. So for the last few games we've been without seven or eight players."

8. Team Selection

"We have been asked a lot of questions about team selection and everyone wants something different. It's impossible to satisfy everyone. But compared to other teams, young players are getting more of a chance at Omiya and we want them to develop experience that will make them better players in a year or two. But don't think that this is our absolute priority and we don't care about winning, because a team is always selected to try and win a particular game."

9. The Ardija Vision

"The club have a vision and a framework for achieving that vision. I believe we can win the J-League in 2011, with a balanced squad that we are developing today. We have targets for crowd figures and we will consider our options in terms of how best to achieve those targets. That includes using Saitama Stadium.

"We want to become less dependent on sponsorship revenue, which means increasing the revenue that we raise from other sources. A petition in support of the building of a new club house and training facility in Omiya was signed by 76,502 people and we are working hard to pursue this idea."

10. Others

"We are working to raise money from other sponsors as well as NTT. We have been asked about refunds for season tickets and no. 32-branded shirts following the sale of Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, but I cannot respond to those questions."

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