Interview with Arthur Papas (Dempo SC head coach)

Are you happy with the squad you have at your disposal or are any more transfers intended?

In our current squad, I have been pleased with the players ability to embrace the changes to the training and tactical adjustments. This is not easy for them after such a long period of working under a different system but their intention and willingness to learn has been satisfying. I still feel we could be better balanced in certain positions as well as the maturation levels of our young players in comparison to our experienced players.

Also, our squad is a much smaller squad by numbers in comparison to the previous season, which makes it even more critical that we keep our players fit and healthy. This reduction in squad size was necessary from an economic sustainability point of view, and in my opinion logical, as I still can’t understand how teams in India operate with squads of 45 to 50 plus players, it is plain reckless. Over the next three years, we aim to reduce our annual budget even further but at the same time increase our depth of talented young players to draw upon.

In line with this long-term plan, we are already looking at identifying talented young players for 2014-15 and beyond to further compliment our experienced players, with an eye on a sustainable club model that begins investing more in other aspects of the infrastructure such as facilities and medical department.

You have a lot of talented Indian youngsters in your squad. How important was it besides them to get experience in through the foreigners Simon Colosimo and Billy Mehmet besides getting back Roberto Mendes Silva?

It is about finding the balance in all areas of management and squad building. Both Simon and Billy, I worked with or against in the A-League so they are not unknowns to me and come with a certain level of quality both football and personality wise. They were signed not only to add their individual quality on the field but also to help the culture of the club for the long-term as both individuals are good characters in the dressing room and positive influences around the young players.

For young players to improve, there are so many avenues in the development process, in this particular instance it is an expectation of mine that our experienced players both foreign and Indian display the correct behavioural attributes as professionals and mentor the young players.

As for Beto, he is an important signing because he is synonymous with a very successful period in the club’s history and last year was a catalyst for Churchill’s triumph. He brings a winning mentality, understands the I-League inexplicably and showed a real desperation to rejoin the club and after one conversation we made the decision that we were just as desperate to be reunited. He has a lot to offer our project.

We are still in pre-season, but what do you expect from your new team in the 2013/14 season?

It’s a case of the unknown in a sense because from having myself away for the first three weeks, rejoining and then a week later losing our four national team players for the next five weeks, as well as the late addition of Shinnosuke Honda, there are more questions than answers right now. I think the first time we will have our full squad and staff together will be four days prior to the first game of the season, not ideal but it becomes about the team that adapts and overcomes the best.

There is still a positive in all this and that has been that it has allowed us to test our depth immediately, expose some of our younger players and use the Goa League as a platform to the I-League.

In terms of expectations we have set internal goals about where we see ourselves this season and I am sure with the ability to keep our best team on the park, we will aim to improve on last year’s final position.