The Chinese owners make coach Contini more resilient

Is that still irony or already cynicism? “I love it,” says Giorgio Contini when asked how he thinks about the sportingly pessimistic expert forecasts and the rather negative reporting about GC. “I like to hear what we can’t do,” says the GC trainer, referring to his five years in Vaduz. In Liechtenstein, too, he experienced a lot of skepticism and negative things in the environment and from the media, but he was promoted and, contrary to the forecasts, defended his place in the Super League.

These experiences have strengthened his “resilience”, says Contini, the time in Lausanne and last season with GC have also helped to strengthen his resilience under difficult circumstances. “Under me, neither a president nor a CEO or sports director has ever scored a goal.” Continental smiles.

The 48-year-old is of course alluding to the recent upheavals in management. The sports director Seyi Olofinjana and the managing director Shqiprim Berisha had to go, for three weeks the club has had a sports director again with the former GC player Bernt Haas.

The events were once again seen as confirmation that the Chinese owners and financiers do not attach much importance to transparency and continuity. But they pay the bills. Although GC is the only club in the league that does not publish any figures, it is said that there was a deficit of more than ten million francs last season. It ended with big tremors in 8th place, an average of 5700 spectators might be interested in the Chinese project.

Captain Amir Abrashi raves about the “great atmosphere” in the team

“Success,” says Amir Abrashi, success is the prerequisite for more people to come to the stadium again and for something like identification and joy to arise around the Grasshoppers. The 32-year-old is the GC captain, together with Contini he looks back on the preparation and ahead of the championship, which starts for GC on Sunday against Lugano.

Abrashi reports on the “super good atmosphere” in the team, on the fact that most of the players have known each other for a long time and how he keeps telling the boys on and off the field to follow the rules and give everything in every training session. It is a pleasure to lead the team.

As a leader, Abrashi has owed a lot since returning a year ago as a leader and figurehead with GC’s past. Due to injuries and bruises, he was only on the field for almost a third of the possible playing time, he often wanted too much and let himself be carried away by emotions like in a derby against FCZ, when he received two warnings within a few minutes and was thrown off the field.

“That was stupid,” says Abrashi, but he loves and lives football, without emotions it’s boring. It is much more important that he cannot remember “ever having had better preparation than in the last few weeks”. After a season in which he “always returned a little too early”, he now feels “in top shape”. That also applies to the team, in general GC is stronger than last season. Abrashi exudes the cheery confidence that optimists can afford when a game hasn’t been played and a point hasn’t been awarded.

Abrashi and Contini are a good match as sellers of a project that has remained essentially unchanged. The articulate coach will continue to be the face of Grasshoppers on the outside and focus on helping the club develop the team and players on the inside. Everything that comes to mind for President Sky Sun and the owners of the Fosun Group should not affect the daily work of coaches and players. As a goal for the season, Contini names a place above 7th place, but he also doesn’t rule out “blinking to fourth or fifth place”.

Contini is counting on the squad’s structure being more or less the same as last season. Only the departure of defender Allan Arigoni to Lugano sees Contini as a gap worth mentioning; Georg Margreitter, Noah Loosli and Ayumu Seko should form the three-man defense.

Petar Pusic reports back. And the 22-year-old striker Francis Momoh is said to score more goals than the four goals in the second half of the season. Not an easy task. With the departures of Kaly Sène (10 goals) and Léo Bonatini (7 goals), a lot is missing. “I hope we can add another player up front,” says Contini. Sports director Haas is said to be negotiating with 1. FC Köln about the change of 31-year-old Sebastian Andersson.

Wolverhampton send Dadashov and Shabani to GC for parole

Renat Dadashov is the name of the attacker who is new on campus. He is not someone who scores 15 or 20 goals per season, says Contini, “but his mentality, his willingness to run and his commitment are convincing”. The 23-year-old is one of five players on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers, who, like GC, are owned by the Fosun group. Dadashov was at GC before but was injured and completed rehabilitation with Wolves. Dadashov spent last season at Tondela in Portugal’s second division and scored two goals.

Like Meritan Shabani, Wolves’ second new loanee, Dadashov is a footballer yet to break through at GC. The German-Azerian dual citizen received a professional contract at Eintracht Frankfurt when he was 18. He was cautioned when he entered training camp after being overweight and in March 2018 suspended for hitting a teammate. Dadashov later made two appearances in the second team for Wolves. And now GC.

“Dadashov and Shabani speak German and don’t need time to get used to it,” says Contini. Abrashi reports how he “learned excellent English” last season because he mediated between German, Japanese, South Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, French, Slovakian and Hungarian.