Msida St Joseph are once again aiming for a Top Six place and a berth in the Championship Pool this season.
And this despite the fact that they have made an almost complete overhaul of last season’s formations.
Club president Robert Farrugia said yesterday they had to allow their three foreigners go abroad as they got a good price for their services. “Unless we do that, it is impossible for a local club to survive. In fact, it is almost a recurrence every season that a club like Msida spends around Lm60,000 and gets back only Lm20,000 in revenue,” he said.
Farrugia, who is in his first year of the presidency, said they had started their work by confirming Patrick Curmi as their coach and appointing former Valletta player Joe Abdilla as his assistant.
Despite the several players leaving the club, Farrugia is convinced that Msida will again offer a strong challenge for a Top Six place. “We have brought in several new faces, among them two foreigners, George Ogbola, a Nigerian striker with an English passport, as well as Njongo Riso, a Cameroon midfielder who is a former Under 23 international. The others are Gilbert Camilleri, Andrew Spiteri, Glenn Magri, Clive Brincat, Clive Spiteri, Lawrence Mizzi, Charles Black and Stacey Vella, the latter moving to the club on a temporary basis after having been on loan with us last season,” said Farrugia.
The club president said the difference from last year was evident. “We have a much longer squad this season. We had five players leaving, but we have recruited ten new faces. We also hope to sign two other local players and another African foreigner before the transfer deadline next week. Then we will have a full squad of 24 players,” he added.
Coach Patrick Curmi is well aware of the losses from last season, but he is again confident that his new bunch of players will do well this season. “Players like Omar Borg, Josef Mifsud, Paul Fenech, Shaun Bajada (who was on loan), and the three foreigners are not easy to replace. But we believe in our present potential. The start will definitely be difficult. We will look at tomorrow’s match against Sliema as a challenge, but we will certainly be stronger in the matches against all those clubs challenging for that sixth Championship Pool berth. In a sense we were lucky to have been drawn to face Sliema now. If we can squeeze a point from this match, then I can assure everyone that we will be partying at the club in the evening. We have nothing to lose and we are not afraid to face such strong opponents.
“That is our objective. We have to be realistic. We have to work harder than last year, but after seven weeks of hard training, I can say we are well prepared for the challenge ahead of us,” he said.
Asked to make a prediction for this season, Curmi said: “There has been a lot of movement in the transfer market this season. Sliema and Valletta have been the most active with, in my opinion, Sliema getting better players to play in the positions they wanted. And although Sliema are my favourites for the title, I would not exclude a third team to challenge alongside the Wanderers and Valletta.”
The club is sponsored by Powerade, Eurosport, Active Zone, Ristorante del Capo and Tex Mex.