ABU DHABI // Eric Gerets stayed away from the media spotlight on his first day at work with Al Jazira, leaving team manager Ayed Mabkhout to do all the talking at training.
A special welcome was reserved for Abdelaziz Barrada, the Moroccan international who had returned after his wedding in France last month. He was given a bouquet of roses and was tossed up in the air by his teammates.
The first day of training for the 2014/15 season on a steamy Sunday night was confined to running and some stretching work for 40 minutes, a routine that is set to continue throughout the next week. Jazira’s two new foreign recruits, Mirko Vucinic, the Montenegro international from Juventus, and Jonathan Pitroipa, the Burkina Faso international from Rennes, are to arrive Thursday.
“We will have a news conference to officially introduce them on Thursday or Friday,” Mabkhout said. “Everything that has happened in the past month and the plans ahead have been worked out in consultation with the coach.
“It is his first day. The majority of the first team players were in attendance on the first night but the coach will have a look at some of the players in the reserve and the Under 19 squads as well as those on national duty with the Olympic team.
“We are still on the lookout for local players from other clubs and are still negotiating with other clubs.”
Jazira’s bids to recruit Habib Fardan from Al Nasr and Ismail Al Hammadi from Al Ahli have fallen through. Their negotiations with Mohanad Salem, the Al Ain centre-back, may have also had the same result. The player, having delayed his travel plans to talk to Jazira, flew out to join his Al Ain teammates at their camp in Italy on Sunday night.
“As you see he is not training with us,” Mabkhout said when asked about Salem’s move from Al Ain. “We are open to talks with those players in the transfer market. This is an ongoing thing at this time of the year.”
The club’s foreign contingent is complete with Barrada retained from last season and Jucilei da Silva, the Brazilian who was signed during the January transfer window, joining them as the Asian player since having obtained a Palestine passport.
Vucinic replaced Felipe Caicedo, the Ecuadorean international, who the club will either sell or send out on loan.
“There are some clubs from France and Latin America that have shown interest in him,” Mabkhout said.
Following the conditioning camp in Abu Dhabi, Jazira will play in a friendly tournament in the final week of the fasting month of Ramadan before they head to Switzerland for a three-week camp on August 3.
apassela@thenational.ae
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