Denizli: Do Not Doubt Persepolis Will Be Champions

They say he is the most well paid coach in the history of Iranian football. His contract with Pas last season was the subject of a lot of speculation. Even though some changes were made, he could not win the Championship for Pas, but he emphasizes that he really wants to achieve winning the Championship with an Iranian team: "I want to win a Championship in Iranian football."

Football, according to Mustafa Denizli, has caused him to leave his country, and despite numerous offers, he returned to a league that had already left him unsatisfied once before.

According to him, he was not very familiar with Persepolis when he became the team's manager: "I did not have any information about the condition of the current roster of players at Persepolis. I accepted the position of manager with only a general familiarity of the team." However, he says he wants a different experience with this team than he had with Pas.

Denizli, in a detailed discussion, spoke about many issues: from his hopes for Persepolis to things that could have happened that would have made him the current coach of the Iranian National team, and the issues football clubs face in Iran and the comparison of Iranian football to Turkish football, and other issues.

Denizli first spoke about his coming to Persepolis. In response to the question about what happened that caused him to return to Iran for the second time, he said: "Persepolis had many preliminary discussions with me. The conditions of the talks led me to decide to come to Persepolis."

He does not consider his coming to Persepolis to be related to Senol Gunes, the coach Persepolis were most after before they landed Denizli: "After Arie Haan stepped aside, discussions about me coming to the team became more serious. This had nothing to do with the club's previous discussions with Gunes."

Denizli emphasizes that after leaving Pas, he had no intention to return to coaching: "I had no intention to coach again this year, and I had decided to do things outside of football. I wanted to do those things, and even though I got many offers from different clubs, I had decided to spend one year away from football. Clubs from Turkey, Japan, Russia, and even 3 to 4 clubs from Iran held discussions with me. They gave me offers that I did not accept. It was in the middle of the World Cup that I even had discussions to coach the Iranian National team. All of these offers were available, yet Persepolis was the most serious and put in the most effort and that brought me to the negotiating table."

Denizli considers one of the reasons he came to Iran is to come to a club like Persepolis: "I knew that Persepolis is a big team. A few months after meeting with the people in charge at Persepolis, Ansarifard and Nazemi came to Istanbul to hold a meeting with me. It was then that the discussions became more serious."

Denizli believes that despite Persepolis's big name, it has recently not had any major successes: "Persepolis can get better results. We have many fans and with their support, we can win many titles."

I Love Persepolis, and Tehran Even More

Despite the fact that Denizli believes that Persepolis possesses qualities that are different from other Iranian teams and that is what made him choose Persepolis over other teams, he confirmed that his love for Tehran is above everything else: "I really like Tehran. I returned to Iran because of how much I like Tehran. I was also thinking about the excitement of being involved in Iranian football."

We Will Build Persepolis

Denizli said: "When I came to Persepolis, many of the former players had recently left the club. Still, I tried to improve the situation in a way that would allow us to get the results we wanted. After coming to Persepolis, I was looking to build a successful team. We have developed a good team. I think we have done well and we have played beautiful football compared to our opponents. Through my coaching career, I have coached many big teams. I have a lot of experience dealing with passionate fans and I understand Persepolis current situation in relation to the huge amount of support that we have. We will definitely build a successful team that will get good results."

I Wanted Foreign Players, but...

Denizli stated: "At the beginning of my time at Persepolis, I wanted to sign some foreign players under my consideration for Persepolis, but unfortunately, because of financial reasons, we were unable to sign them. What is important is that we want to move forward with the current situation and the players we now have. We will definitely find a solution for the problems. Until now, we have solved many of the problems and from now on we will work to solve the other problems."

Denizli believes that Persepolis's results in the first decade of the Iranian Premier League have been good: "Apart from the two games against Mes and Fulad, our results have met my expectations. I know that this team is capable of big things. The only thing that is important for me is that I am conscious of the abilities of this team and I am sure that this will reap rewards."

Do Not Doubt That Persepolis Will Be Champions

Denizli stated: "We currently have some problems, but according to what I agreed to at the beginning of the season, we will fight for the Championship. I do not have the smallest doubt that we will be champions. I want the fans to be sure that Persepolis will be the Champions. We want to make the fans happy and we have no other plans but to become champions. There should be no doubt in Persepolis becoming Champions."

Source: IranSportsPress