The crafting of a winning football team goes far beyond the 11 players on the pitch.
This is an axiom which Al Jazira technical director Gianluca Nani is plainly aware of. The Italian was hired in December after a lengthy career in Europe and was immediately tasked with improving all areas of the club.
In tandem with coach Henk ten Cate, the 53-year-old saw fallen giants rise from relegation candidates to President’s Cup winners by season’s end.
The challenge now for the man who oversaw a side featuring all-tme greats Pep Guardiola and Andrea Pirlo at Brescia, as well as teamed up with Italy legend Gianfranco Zola at West Ham United and Watford, is to turn this success into an Arabian Gulf League title push during 2016/17.
It is a great experience. I heard a lot about Al Jazira before I came, but honestly I did not realise how big this club is. It is really a great club, with great people working here. When we arrived, the club was not in a good position in the league.
We have improved and done a good job, all together. The club and team can improve a lot. But this is a winning club. We are happy about the job, but then we need to build for the next season.
For sure, it is important. But also, we have really good young players from the academy and great people working at the club.
When you work at a big club, everyone expects to win. It is not always easy to win. We have to think like a big club and build the team in a way to compete. The summer is important, but it is not just about the transfer market.
We need to work on the whole club. I am really proud that we were named as ‘Professional Club of the Year’ at the 2015/16 Arabian Gulf League Awards. But looking at the sports side, for sure we need to build a team who can compete with the best teams in the country.
We have great foreign players, but we were very unlucky with the bad injuries for Mirko Vucinic and Jefferson Farfan which kept them out for the whole season.
They are coming back and are important assets for the club. It is not an easy league, and some players who have great experience in Europe do not always do well here.
Luca Toni only scored three goals for Al Nasr and performed really bad, went back to Italy and was top scorer in Serie A.
It is not enough just to buy a name. They need time to adapt and then you have to wait.
I believe that if you already have a good player who knows the league and has already proved their ability to compete here, you should think a lot before changing them.
Anyway, we have time during the summer to do all the considerations with the coach and with the board, and to go for the way we consider most convenient for the club.
I will be honest, I didn’t know a lot about him before I received the call from Al Jazira. But I then studied the player and was hugely impressed by him.
We also have other great young players, like Khalfan Mubarak, Ahmed Rabea, Sultan Al Shamsi and Ahmed Al Attas – who can become a top striker and the best in the country.
We have so many other good young players, as well.
Mabkhout has the skill to play in a top European club, but he is Al Jazira. We do not think about moving him on at all and I do not see this team without Ali Mabkhout.
For sure, it is the most important for the supporters – you sign players and sell players. But every day I am trying to build a nice environment around the club and team.
You talk with the players every day, try to organise a nice pre-season and help improve everything around the club.
You also help build the academy, while scouting opposition players. There is a big job to do.
The supporters in the summer are waiting for new signings, but this is just a small part of the job.
I remember we had an unbelievable team. Our strikers were Toni and Roberto Baggio, and the midfield contained Guardiola, future Juventus star Stephen Appiah, Matuzalem – he was maybe the best midfielder I ever worked with – and then Pirlo.
Guardiola and Pirlo were world class, on and off the pitch. They helped us a lot.
Pep Guardiola during his time at Brescia.
Again, I was really lucky. For sure, Mr Pozzo is the most-successful chairman in football.
This is not because of the trophies won, but the organisation and spirit he puts around the football club. I learned a lot from him.
I was really lucky, as it was like going to university with these people. I still feel I am learning a lot from being at Al Jazira and in the UAE.
At this moment, Al Ahli, Al Ain and Al Nasr are a step ahead. You cannot just go ‘boom’ and improve straight away in football.
The local market is very difficult, as clubs are not happy to sell their best players easily. Not just having the four-best foreign players is enough, as squads are of 25.
Ahli and Al Ain have most of the UAE players. To compete with them is not easy at all. This is a project which must be built step by step. The club is even younger than me and it is an unbelievable job they have done in such a short time.
We have to create a great basis, then try to create and collect the best players.
Al Jazira have to compete at the top. It will not be easy at all, but we will try to be next to the top teams for next season and hopefully above them.
