Javier Aguirre used his final press conference of the season to set his Al Wahda players an ambitious target for next season – become Arabian Gulf League champions.
The Mexican steered his side to third place in his maiden campaign in the Emirates and into the AFC Champions League playoffs. In a season of firsts at Al Nahyan Stadium, the Clarets also lifted their first Arabian Gulf Cup.
Aguirre said the four-time UAE champions, who last celebrated lifting an AGL title in 2010, have a tall task to topple champions Al Ahli, who finished 23 points ahead of them, but insists his side have no excuses not to improve next season.
“Next season we will fight for the title,” said the 57-year-old with cautious optimism on Sunday. “We haven’t talked about the goals but we will be fighting in four tournaments. We have to do this.”
The former Atletico Madrid manager admits that while the club might not be able to compete financially with superpowers Ahli, Al Ain and Al Jazira, he believes he has a good mix of youth and experience in his squad.
“(Jorge) Valdivia has a contract (for two years), all the young players renew, Hamdan (Al Kamali) extended his contract, goalkeeper (Adel Al Hosani) too so we have no excuses not to be better,” he said.
“I don’t know if that big, big gap can be closed but I’m really confident for next year. Today, 23 points is a big gap to Al Ahli. They and Al Ain are much better than us, but we have to close that gap.
“We don’t have money to invest in two or three big names. We can’t compete with Al Ahli, who paid more than Dh100 million on players, and we don’t like to spend money like this because we have a really good academy and can use our young players next year.”
Though Wahda may lack financial muscle against these juggernauts, Aguirre has earmarked several areas where his side can improve.
“Of course we have to be a better team. We have to get more points and everyone has to work better, including myself,” added Aguirre. “We suffered too many defeats (nine) in my opinion. We also have to not repeat the mistakes of the past, so not as many yellow cards, red cards. In the beginning of the season we left many points on the field, so the key is hard work from the beginning.”
Aguirre pointed to a 3-2 win against Emirates Club on November 27 as the key match of the campaign.
Trailing 2-0 with 13 minutes to go, Denilson, Mohamed Al Shehhi and a dramatic stoppage time Ismail Matar winner started a sequence of 10 wins in 18 games as they surged to third.
“From the Emirates game, our performances got better, that was the key for the season, because we were losing 2-0, but changed the result,” said Aguirre. “If we lost we might have been playing for 10th or ninth place. I think we deserved to finish third and we got the Arabian Gulf Cup too.”
