Re-appointed South Melbourne coach Con Tangalakis has declared that it’s time for a new era at South Melbourne. After South narrowly avoided the relegation play-offs last season, Tangalakis has been given the job of building a squad that the club hopes will make last season’s disappointment a distant memory.

The club first appointed Tangalakis as interim coach from round 18 last season, following the resignation of then coach Sasa Kolman, as South found itself struggling to avoid the relegation play-off. It narrowly avoided the play-offs, but not without a few scares along the way.

Speaking to Neos Kosmos following the club’s midweek announcement, Tangalakis said of his appointment for the upcoming season:

“It’s totally different. It allows me to do what I want to do at the club. Last year, I inherited someone else’s team. It was hard to transition into something else when the window had effectively closed. It was difficult to take over a squad that’s been so successful over the last five years yet were running close to last when I took them over. There was a lot of turbulence. I’d probably call it nervousness…

“I tried to be very diplomatic. I compromised alot. Basically I did enough to get them over the line. But I wasn’t going to go in and put new habits and new style of coaching, training. I just kept things as simple as possible. Made things basic for the boys and allowed them to get enough points to get us over the line. I worked very closely with the committee in doing that as well….But this year, a whole new restructure as far as the senior team is concerned. All new coaching staff and I’m also bringing in quite a few new players.”

Tangalakis says he wasn’t frustrated that he wasn’t re-appointed immediately after the end of the season. Instead he was offered the job after the club’s unsuccessful attempt to sign a more experienced coach. As widely reported at the time, South Melbourne initially offered the senior coaching job to Bentleigh’s John Anastasiadis, who considered the offer but eventually declined it, deciding to stay on as head coach of Bentleigh Greens.

“We’ve got a lot of new boys coming in and together with old boys staying behind, we need to make the team jell. We need to make the team composed and we need to make the team competitive. So we’ve got a lot of work in front of us, physically, mentally and tactically.”

“The club had said to me, if I can save the club (from relegation) I will be re-appointed, subject to another coach that they were talking to,” Tangalakis says.

“I think they were also waiting for a little bit of a restructure amongst the committee as well. It’s not like it was something behind the scenes. They did keep me up to date with everything. So no, it wasn’t frustrating, because the committee has always been transparent and above board with me. There have never been any hidden agendas.”

Tangalakis acknowledges that the team has an enormous amount of work to do in the pre-season in order to become competitive with the top NPL teams again. “We’ve got a lot in front of us. Because it’s one thing getting a team fit for the season. Another thing is getting a team structured for the season. So we’ve got both obstacles. We’ve got a lot of new boys coming in and together with old boys staying behind, we need to make the team jell. We need to make the team composed and we need to make the team competitive. So we’ve got a lot of work in front of us, physically, mentally and tactically. A massive pre-season for the club.”

During the week, the club announced the departure of key player, centre forward, Milos Lujic after five seasons at South during which he won five club Golden Boot awards and three NPL Golden Boot awards. Lujic now joins Epifano, Intzidis and Minatel in departing Lakeside, whilst talks continue with a number of other players.

Tangalakis expects the bulk of the senior squad will re-sign, and a number of youth players who were promoted to the senior squad last year to be a part of his squad.
Tangalakis says there’ll be close to six new players including two strikers that he’ll be signing.

South Melbourne FC President elect Nick Maikousis, speaking on SMFC.com said:

“Over the last year it’s been a challenging season with difficult circumstances. Purely on Con’s efforts alone, he has earned and deserves the opportunity to build and develop his own squad. We are grateful for the role he played last season and delivering results to avoid relegation. As we continue our progress towards 2019, we will provide Con with every resource to ensure the success of the team. He has some great strengths and we look forward to building a support team around him to deliver the demanding on field results expected from all South Melbourne stakeholders.”

Alongside Tangalakis, will be Argentine Esteban Quintas, as his assistant coach and George Apostolidis as the new strength and conditioning coach.
Quintas spent 10 years in the Spanish second division as a player before turning to coaching.

Apostolidis has spent time as a Sports Scientist and Technical Analyst with the national U 17 and U 23 teams before working as strength and conditioning coach at NPL side Green Gully last season.