“It's good to be home. Thanks for making me come back». That's how coach Manuel Cajuda described his return to the club where he started both as a player and head coach, Olhanense.
The Portuguese coach spoke of «joy without limits», which seemed to have infected the first training session guided by the new technical team of the Olhão club, where the good mood prevailed.
Manuel Cajuda entered the service this morning, less than 12 hours after the previous technical team resigned, and signed a contract valid until the end of the season. With him, he brought Rui Nascimento, a coach who has been with him for a long time.
In addition to his assistant of two decades ago, Manuel Cajuda met goalkeeper coach Diamantino Figueiredo at the club and admits hiring one more element to complete the technical team, although he is not necessarily a physical trainer.
At the press conference that served to introduce the new coach of Olhanense, which took place today, Tuesday, in the early afternoon, the focus was on the return to Olhão of a local son and man of the house.
“The choice comes as no surprise to anyone. We had been thinking about solutions for some time, in case things didn't go well [with Sérgio Conceição] and Manuel Cajuda was the favorite», said the president of Olhanense Isidoro Sousa.
The coach who was born in Olhão had already been the first option about a year ago, when Daúto Faquirá left Olhanense's coach, but at the time it was not possible to consummate the contract, and the club opted for Sérgio Conceição.
“Last year, we tried with União de Leiria [the club where Manuel Cajuda was at the time] to count on him, but it was not possible,” said the director.
The technician revealed that this «is not an old relationship, it is the only one» that exists, in his perspective. “No one can qualify or quantify the joy I feel inside me for returning to a stadium I helped build. I've been there picking up stones», said the coach, who recalled that he started playing football at Olhanense «when he was 15 years old, still in the old Padinha Stadium».
The hiring was therefore easy. “When the president called me yesterday, saying that they needed me, I went straight away [to the north of the country]. We didn't talk about contracts or money», revealed Manuel Cajuda.
Manuel Cajuda counts on those who are and even those who have already left
The issue of the squad and the lack of solutions, which have been at the base of the disagreement between the previous coaching team and the club's management, seem to bother Manuel Cajuda a little.
The coach says he counts on those who are and hopes that the players who are injured will recover quickly, as well as saying that he doesn't care that there are many entries.
“I don't need to take players home with me. We have a good team and a good squad and we will definitely recover some of the injured players», he said.
As for the reinstatement of Djalmir, scorer who fixed his boots at the beginning of the season, but who was reinstated in the squad recently, Manuel Cajuda says he will have no problem using it.
«I'm counting on Djalmir. It doesn't get any worse! (laughs)», said Manuel Cajuda. "I was still playing for six months and nobody ages that much in this period of time," he added, recalling that, when he coached Sporting de Braga, "the best player in the team, Karoglan, was 37 years old."
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