Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Oscar Garcia, who this week rejected an offer to coach the Belgian side Club Brugge, used the club's weekly press conference to comment: "I like what I'm doing here"
This evening Maccabi Tel Aviv held their weekly press conference with head coach Oscar Garcia and sports director Jordi Cruyff both in attendance. Quite naturally the proceedings were dominated by mid-week reports concerning Garcia, to which the head coach replied: "Two or three days ago my agent called me and said that a very big club in Europe are interested in me. I wasn't interested but decided to go there anyway. It was an extremely attractive offer that would indeed have provided quite well for me and my family, but I decided that right now my project here at Maccabi Tel Aviv is more important than any financial offer".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8QNf_TV1gg&feature=youtu.be
Garcia continued: "I've grown very attached to what is going on here with my players, I know the club have invested a great deal of time and resources in order to succeed. I very much like what I'm doing here, I'm very happy with my staff and the players and if everything turns out the way I'm hoping I believe I'll be staying at the club for many years to come".
"Let there be no mistake, the offer I received was three or four times what I'm getting here but I decided to reject it for one reason only, the fans. I understand them perfectly, I know they really like me and appreciate me so there's no reason to leave the club. The offer is still out there and it's the right offer, but look, here I am".
Sports director Jordi Cruyff also took the opportunity to relate to the matter: "I know that some people find it peculiar, but the truth is when we brought Oscar to the club we already knew there would be a lot of interest in him, and a lot of offers too. I very happy Oscar has decided to stay with us because the offer came from one of the biggest clubs in Belgium. I've always trusted Oscar and believed he'd stay with us and this business will not alter that situation at all. The bottom line is we have a coach who is wanted by many clubs in Europe, but he's staying with us".
At the end of the conference Garcia also addressed criticism of the team's performance in the derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv: "If I remember correctly we played with three men up front, in all we had three or four good chances during the match, and they played defender John Panstil as a defensive midfielder. By the looks of it, it seemed to me the fans were happy with the team's performance at the end of the match, you have to remember Hapoel had one attempt on target".
The team's evening training session was suspended after half an hour due to warning sirens.
