During a press meeting held in Austria, our Technical Director Ertuğrul Sağlam unveiled his team’s plans for the upcoming season.

Sağlam revealed that following a series of tests performed in Istanbul to determine the physical conditions of his players, he was able to finalize the team’s pre-season training program for the upcoming 2008-9 football season. After reminding the reporters that the part of the program planned for Austria was already in its 9th day, “We are extremely pleased with the training sessions we’ve had in Istanbul and Austria. Our players have been putting up a top level effort to get ready for the next year’s games. At present, we are going through a very busy period. The positive attitude and seriousness shown by my players and the lack of pre-season injuries are signs that we are on the right track,” said Ertuğrul Sağlam. Drawing our attention to the fact that most players stayed fit during the off season, Sağlam added: “With the implementation of a new scientific training program, we managed to avoid unnecessary injuries during our first part of practice period. I would like thank all my players before you. Their professional behavior will definitely help us at the start of this new season. We are happy to see Holosko and Tuna have overcome their injuries and are back with the team. If Uğur İnceman gets better, we will have no player left on the disabled list.”
Underscoring the difficulties of adapting a new player to the team, our Technical Director assured the Black and White fans that Beşiktaş this year signed players who would not be going through any kind of adaptation problem because they were all top level professionals and had strong characters.
 
Ertuğrul Sağlam went on to express his satisfaction with the performance his team put up against the German Bundesliga Team Bochum in an exhibition game, especially in terms of the team’s 90- minute physical condition and execution. He also told reporters his players were slowly but steadily getting used to the system and the harmony among the players was at its highest level.
According to Sağlam, on certain areas, the team still needed improvements and they were working hard to perfect them before the start of the season. He sent a message to Beşiktaş fans by saying, “We have a great team this year, full of talented players. We will not the repeat the mistakes of last year. We are definitely more experienced this year and placed in a better situation to go all the way than last year.”
In regard to Beşiktaş’s new transfers, Sağlam made these comments: “Together with Sivok, Zapatocny, Emre, Tuna, and if agreed, Gökhan Zan, we will have a total of 5 central defenders on our rooster which I think will be sufficient for this season. If need arises for more due to injuries we will let you know.”
 
Like everybody else, he also had an idea about this year’s starting, but this would change depending on his players’ performance. He stressed that young players like Serdar Özkan and İbrahim Kaş would always get a chance to play in his team, because he and his technical staff always placed high emphasis on Beşiktaş’s youth organizations which constituted the future of his club with a stream of talented players.
In response to criticisms over the silence he kept after the unfortunate controversy between İbrahim Toraman and İbrahim Üzülmez, he maintained that the Club’s General Secretary Sinan Engin had enough to say on the matter, and he agreed every word Mr. Engin said because all managerial decisions were taken unanimously at Beşiktaş. “As the captains of one of the most important clubs in Turkey, Beşiktaş players, besides being a true sportsman  on the pitch, must  set a good example to all off the field. We had always paid extreme attention to these rules when we were playing for Beşiktaş. Apparently, the said players somehow have put their personal interests before the Club’s and will now pay a price for their unacceptable and unjustified behavior. If we let their acts go unpunished, it will be very difficult to enforce any kind of discipline in this club. The reason why we designated Delgado and Nobre as our next captains lies behind their excellent dialogue among themselves and with the rest of the team,” concluded Ertuğrul Sağlam.