Marko Šuler maintains high expectations despite poor results: sports director expects Ante Šimundza to fight for championship

Published on 4. October 2023 5. October 2023

Ante Šimundza took over Maribor at a very ungrateful moment. Violični are getting poor results, fans are disappointed, some are even furious, and many football insiders are convinced that the biggest problem for the Styrian giant is its modest squad. Marko Šuler, Maribor’s sport director, insists on high expectations. What’s more, Marko Šuler expects Krznar’s successor to fight for the championship title.

“I think it is all very clear. There is no philosophy. We need to turn the curve upwards immediately. I need to give the boys their confidence back and turn the curve upwards this Saturday. Then there is a mini-cycle where we can build on things to an idea that the new coach definitely brings and has. Everything else remains very similar. There is a fight for the title. It’s a tough fight because we have a serious competitor. We need to make a selection or find the backbone of the team, which we have not found so far and which will form the skeleton. But then the winter transfer period is coming up, when we need to make some things up. This is a leap year for changes, which are preferably kept to a minimum in summer,“, said Marko Šuler at a press conference in Ljudski vrt.

Marko Šuler: “It is necessary to be patient”

All well and good; but how to get Maribor to “kick it up a gear”? Damir Krznar tried for a long time, but it all seemed in vain. He himself has said that he feels like he is doing the work of Sisyphus… “Above all, we want to make a Maribor that will, as Ante Šimundža said, return to the roots and the fundamentals that make up Maribor. So also by affirming younger players as much as possible, because Maribor is a club where the bar is set differently than elsewhere. We will involve the youth school as much as possible. At the end of the day, we all depend on results and success, and here my ambitions and those of the coach are great, but it won’t happen overnight. When we started this project less than two years ago, we knew it wouldn’t happen overnight. We have made some radical changes, but we need to be patient. But we absolutely want to compete, perform and fight in Europe, and our championship remains the basis. We need to lift the team psychologically and start building on the things we have set ourselves,” said Korošec.

So Marko Šuler says it won’t happen overnight. That is why Ante Šimundza has also signed a long-term contract until summer 2026. “This means that it is not a short-term story. But it is true that every thing takes its time. Things are set up in such a way that we will do some things immediately. Psychologically, there is never time in football. Then we have to move on, but it’s like school. We need to start with the first grade and not immediately jump to the fourth. Things simply have to fall into place, but the contract is set up so that Ante is with us until 2026,” added the former Slovenian national team player.