Our first signing of the summer Dušan Jovančić spoke about his first impressions as a Crvena zvezda player.
“Everyone greeted me with open arms here. It would mean a lot to any new player. There is a great team spirit here. You could see it on the pitch last season, and now I get to experience it firsthand. I’m happy to be here and I hope it will only get better.”
Vladan Milojević and his team complete initial preparations in Belgrade before heading out to Zlatibor on Thursday. The squad will continue with training in the mountain setting of central Serbia.
“It’s a bit hot here in Belgrade with temperatures well above 30 degrees all week. This early stage of training is hard anyway, but moving a tad cooler climate will surely help. We’ve got a work to do and it’s important to do it well because it should allow us to perform at 100% when matches come.”
The plan is to fly out to Austria just a day after returning from Zlatibor. Four friendlies have been arranged to help the team gain match fitness ahead of Champions League qualifying stages, but Jovančić keeps focused on physical training alone.
“It’s too early to start thinking about matches. We need to build our fitness as much as we can before testing ourselves against other teams. My only aim at the moment is to work hard and prepare well. It’s going to be a long season and I want to repay everyone for their faith and the support they are showing me.”