Speaker 5: Welcome to this podcast.

Speaker 1: Get the insights.

Speaker 1: This podcast episode is presented to you by the Perfect Goalie Academy powered by Mieze, your partner for targeted and individual goalkeeper training. Check out the website www.theperfectgoalie.com for more information. so I can't you So welcome again. So we are live right now. I think I mentioned before that work is maybe some minutes late, but I think to at least start the discussion at the moment. maybe from your side, how is the situation in Greece or also in London regarding to water polo at the moment? You want me to start with Greece? As I told you, now we are in most important month. All the women and men's will arrive at the end of next month. have the play-off. Every year is the most important month for the clubs, for the titles.

Speaker 3: Also for me as a coach of Olympiakos, we have to fight this season for two titles, for championship and for the Greek Cup. And then we have also the challenge to participate one more time in Belgrade for the final eight. So, until 5-6 June, we have a full 30 days and it's really interesting because before I was really worried. only training, training, training, practices and not very often gaming. now it's really, we enjoy it. Yeah, so you enjoy it and you are really in front of the busy months than with May. So Sean, we are not really, yeah, months maybe in front of us. I should have gone first because it's not as exciting as Greece. no, look like for anybody over 18, nothing happened yet for water polo. Obviously anything outdoor is completely different, you know, so things like football and rugby and cricket are all fine and you can play. But certainly from a water polo perspective, things haven't... haven't restarted yet and to be honest, I'm not sure how long it will be till we have a situation where we can think about playing our National League.

Speaker 1: Yeah, so we have quite the same situation also in Germany. So we are not really able to play or to train at least for the for the normal clubs. So the the professionals are able to train and able to play the the first league or the Bundesliga and so on. So they are able to train but the rest is really, yeah. we have another another participant. Good evening. Sorry that I'm So you're not the last one, because I already mentioned... practice. expected the British and German to be on time, but I didn't expect the Lachos.

Speaker 3: You see? You're thinking, yes. So surprise, surprise. Sorry, just on the pool I drive like a maniac and okay, three minutes late. Yeah, so you stay on the pool today. So, is also on the pool today because he is in Potsdam this weekend, but the pool is near to the hotel. So, he will join us from the hotel, in some ways. we are already discussing the situation in each location or country at the moment. So, when you were saying you're coming directly from the pool, driving like a maniac, so what is the situation on your side today? Also at the moment.

Speaker 5: Well, I... the situation is getting a little bit better, especially in our area. we have some tourists last two weeks and the entrance regime is eased up because of the vaccine and everything. But still, it's not like in normal times. Finally, we have a nice weather because this was, I don't know, very bad winter, very bad winter. Today was... So the next one with the good weather here, think. Unbelievable. In many cases, you're in better position than us, I think. You have the best weather, you are able to train, you have tourists, so there's nothing more. I mentioned before that we are in Germany not really able to train. But when you say also you mentioned the final eight coming up in the next couple of weeks, is there any or are there any preparations for show running at the moment? So you're doing really the final things maybe. Maybe you can tell us about the final preparation for the final eight.

Speaker 2: You're asking me or what?

Speaker 2: Give the mic to the more experienced one. So, the door is... Okay. For me it's very simple. On Wednesday we start the play-off and we have to play every two days. The semi-final, final probably, if we qualify for the final. then immediately we have the final eight of the Cup. And then after the eight of the Greek Cup, just one week to arrive in Belgrade. So we will not have... time to have a special preparation for the final eight. We will use these games, the play-off, to have a really better rhythm and better condition and then to rest one week to prepare some details, especially for the first game because we don't know if we will have the next game but the first game is really always the most important and that's all. We don't plan something more. Okay, so there's nothing special, let's say that way. Yeah. So you play every two days. So, you know, each, each game is a final at least you mentioned. So from, your perspective, at least simple one.

Speaker 3: We don't

Speaker 3: Yes, we expect to arrive to the final but we never know. This season is not like previous seasons. don't have a much stronger team in Greece and the other clubs, William and Apollon, are more close to our team. So I believe that we will play really very interesting games and very close games. So I hope that we will win again. You never know. You're in the frame, friend of Eiko Koglianis Bouliagemeni is waiting for us to kill us. Yeah.

Speaker 3: We two Croatian players in Vula Kmeni, you know. Always we have some Croatian stories to be involved with the Olympiakos and the Greek water polo. Always we have. It's just, you know, destiny. It's destiny to be con... Destiny. Bravo. Destiny. But we are really connected. you know, last five, ten years, really, you know, there is a great connection between the Croatian and Greek water polo. But good one, I think good one. And so, very similar. So what is the preparation for you then, Jekko, at the moment?

Speaker 2: Well, it's mostly the same. In one week time, we have finals of the championship. We're supposed to play today in the semi-finals, but in quarter-finals, the two teams that one of those teams should come to face us, well, they have corona cases, so they postponed their game. Quite the same, maybe.

Speaker 2: and we still do not know if we're going to play the semi-final and if we're going to play only one game, probably on Tuesday. But maybe we will not play because the situation is unclear. We expect to go into the finals, although this season is very difficult for us. Especially after Rotterdam and the Olympic qualification, we have a really hard time for, let's say, more than one month and we lost some games against the teams that were certainly below our quality. So we cannot be sure about going into the final but we expect and hope that we will. So we are mostly now focused on the domestic championship and preparing ourselves for that as we didn't have any time preparation since December. So we spent the last three weeks, the last four weeks preparing ourselves mentally and physically. And when we finished with Croatian Championship, then we will start preparing for our opponent on the Champions League. Although this is certainly the most significant tournament of the year for everybody who participates. really don't have any time now to focus on that. So 95 % we are in domestic championship. Yeah. So when I understand it correctly, really in Croatia and maybe in Greece, is similar situation that the other teams in the league are really closer to your teams as in the last couple of years, right? So I think, Vlachos, you mentioned that during our discussion also, that it's maybe also an advantage that the Champions League is, or the Champions.

Speaker 1: Champions Chip is really closed or closer this year. So in terms of quality, maybe also for the national team. Yes, really. It's much better because you have to prepare for every game, you have to be ready, the players, the coaches, everybody has to expect any result. this is much better for the players. I believe that it's really much better for the national coach of the nation. Thanks. your case, you are really both positions in one place. Of course. I remember previous years that we won every season the real championship 3-0 and easy so we never prepared for any final so this is not good and we're waiting just to play to the Champions League but you know we needed to have some special preparation before to arrive for to go to the...

Speaker 3: or Genoa or Hannover or somewhere else. But now I believe that we can use these games for a very, very good strong preparation. So, Sean, maybe the question for you, so you're not really preparing a national team or a Champions League team or whatever. So what is your preparation or your main area or main focus at the moment? So in school areas maybe with your boys and girls.

Speaker 1: So keep the final secrets maybe for you. Yeah, sport. expected that. Last piece. For us, it's literally just getting sport up and running again. I think everybody in the room, I think the same for Vieco and for Theodore, the impact, the financial impact on all sport. We may not know it yet, but it's been big. There are so many sports and clubs and we don't know if they'll return. For us, it is very much baby steps of What these guys are preparing for is like a dream for me, for the country, for us it's baby steps of just getting back into sport and I think we'll all agree to just get this period behind us. Can I ask those guys a question Andreas? Sorry, I've started anyway. I think I know the answer but how... Yes, sure.

Speaker 4: What's it meant for you guys? know that you would be meticulous of your preparation, not potentially playing tomorrow, Vieco, not playing till Tuesday. How have you coped with that? in what you ordinarily wouldn't face that, you would have a set, fixed a list, things changing all the time. Have you found, are you a better coach as a result of it or are you hoping that we never have to do it again? That's a good question. That's a good question. Okay, so this is very difficult season for everybody. Not only not two seasons now, the ending of the last season and the whole this season is very difficult. And there are some things that we are facing that and that I faced and the team faced that I never experienced before. So I have to tell that mentality of the team is not the same because there is great uncertainty about everything. There is no calendar like it used to be. had quarantine for a few times during the season and on top of that we had a qualification tournament for the Olympic Games which always, always is a very difficult tournament, but this season I think that the level of difficulty is raised even further. And certainly it was not the ordinary season. It's very difficult to have the plans of your physical and mental preparation, especially physical. because we changed the final four of our cup, we are changing the schedule of our games and this is the season where we mostly play on tournaments rather than in the league format of competition.

Speaker 2: absolutely difficult to prepare the team for all the challenges, especially if you are not the team that has 14 players on the same level and if you have one injury or anything. I really hope that we're going to be better coaches after this season, if we survive this season, if we survive all these challenges that we have. Certainly I would like to get things back into normal shape. The calendar, Champions League, we teach around separately. Champions League was absolutely devastating for most of the teams. And you could see the results. Maybe it's good for the public. to see some results that they didn't expect. It was very hard to prepare the team and to go on this type of competition. You know, for me it was a really different, much different situation because, especially for this season, okay, last season after what happened in March, suddenly stopped everything and we didn't know what would happen because three months we stayed at home and without any practice. But in the summer we started to think that, to believe that this season that we are now we're going to play everything in normal way again like many years ago but finally it was not like this. But for me and for my players, most of the players in the Olympiakos are members of national teams so we had really a big goal this season, a big target for qualification for the Olympic Games and you when you have in your mind that you're thinking something

Speaker 3: that was going to happen in February and you live for this moment. believe everything was much better for me, much easier for me to control the players, to practice with them, to be ready not only physically but also in the mentality. the difficult for me was to have a normal preparation without games. games in the Greek league, different way of Champions League in the bubbles, one or two games every month. I had to find some really good solutions to prepare them and to make them to be ready in February for Rotterdam. But as I told you at the beginning, the the goal was very, very, very big and sometimes when your players do everything you are telling them, so it's easier to have a good result. Yes, that was the first step and then now we have again, talking to you now as a national coach, most of players... nine players of Olympiakos are members of national team so it's much easier for me. And I have also two Americans and also they are members of the team and also we can everybody now is thinking Tokyo so it's much easier I believe that you understand me. The only thing that I had to find solution find out some ways to change my practice, to find another type of practice to prepare them in a different way. Only this. But was really a difficult season and we didn't play any game with fans, with our fans because it's hard to play without fans. You don't enjoy the game. The results are good but you are alone.

Speaker 3: in the pool and you go, you are alone and you go again, you go out of the pool and again you are alone. this is what I had to answer you, believe, I don't know if you are with what I told you. More than satisfied. So maybe this could make me really asking another question. So, Sean, in the first part of the podcast, we're discussing your special moment from your Olympic Games in London, where we are talking about exactly this kind of situation or question. So the Olympic Games or Olympic Games without audiences, without the fans and so on. So it's not really quite the same, but Your answer to that was there's a gold medal at the end. There's nothing written on the medal saying, okay, you win this medal without any audiences. Maybe what is the feedback or the opinion from both of you, Vjako and Theodore, regarding the game in the Olympic? Cool. It's not quite the same game, so without the fans. But at the end, are medals too. It has to be delivered, let's say it that way. It's not really quite the same because, Sean, maybe at the beginning you describe please your special moment for you in London. So maybe to make it a little bit clearer what I mean.

Speaker 4: Yeah, my special moment was the first time we walked out. And Vieco will remember it, I'm sure, the double doors that opened before you entered the poolside. And look, I think I said on the last podcast that, Theodore, in the UK, I'm used to being watched by a man and his dog in the crowd. We don't get a crowd. My mum and dad are there, but otherwise there's not many people. So... When we stepped out to 5,000 people, was just incredible. Six. Six. When Croatia were playing, there were 6,000. My special moment was that walking out. This moment was as a boy that lives in London, grew up in London and was playing at home Olympics in London. This was my... It's worse.

Speaker 1: you

Speaker 4: real special moment, know, and a very emotional moment. Not playing at all, not opening ceremony, not closing ceremony, but that one moment. Yeah. Yes, maybe from the echo, Sean mentioned that you are maybe knowing this situation. What is your opinion on that? So it's different, but at the end you are the Olympic champion when you won the gold medal match, or each match. Regarding the public on the pool and playing without the public, first of all I think that we are all happy that we can play anyway. We finished our championship last summer which was a great benefit for us and even with the public. But after that we are playing every game without public. Most of the games are on broadcast on the television or via live stream. So maybe we have even more spectators or public watching us, but certainly the situation is not normal. At the beginning, you are very happy that you can play. Later in the season, my feeling was that somehow it all is losing some kind of the sense and especially, know, For example, you get the Olympiakos are the clubs that heavily rely on fans and public. And you really miss someone, at least one person to be on the stands and shouting something to you, bad or good. So you miss these things, absolutely. Regarding the Olympics, I'm sure that it will be on the highest possible level and that we will enjoy it in our homes watching this.

Speaker 2: Mr. Vlachos will sweat every game. But certainly without the public it will not be the same. This moment from the Olympics, I played on three Olympics and participated as assistant coach on the fourth one. For example, in Atlanta we played the finals against Spain and we have like I think 10,000 spectators on the pool. They were not close to the pool so really you didn't have a feeling of so many audience but there was 10,000 spectators on the pool. In London the organisation was perfect and I remember those double doors and we played the first game of the tournament in the morning against Greece and our head coach Mr Rudic was suspended for that game and Fatowicz was the head coach, was the second coach and we really didn't expect, know, we're gonna take from your salary, this is like 30... Hi. I will

Speaker 1: So. Sorry about that. So you have the salary. So this was, you know, stepping up in nine, third in the morning and seeing 6,000 spectators cheering for you. That's awesome feeling. basically this is why you play this. So, you know, you're losing the core of why are you playing this. But anyway, this will end hopefully on from the September or from from the next season. from the next year, we will have a situation that we will have public on our polls. During this Corona crisis, it seems to me that, at least on a club level, that Water Polo survived. And regarding the major countries in Water Polo, I think that we went through Corona at this level, at this moment.

Speaker 2: better than we all expected. And we didn't lose our grip from the sponsors or from the public, from our share of the cake, of someone who is watching us. Hopefully it will stay like this or even better. I really hope so. But for us, I think that I said this on last podcast. Water polo is in Corona for 80 years. So for us, this situation is not so difficult to go through. Yeah, yeah. So really going a step backwards from the Olympic Games back to the Champions League. maybe the Champions League or the final eight should be hosted in Hanover this year. It was really based on this coronavirus, gave them back to the place it will happening right now. are there any or did you have any problems or difficulties in the organization on the preparation for the? for the final eight because the location was changed? Maybe not. Quite the same. we didn't.

Speaker 3: No, no, no. the same. Okay, cool. So everything okay in Potsdam. Yeah, we are in preparation for under-15 boys. We are prepared for European games and for qualification. They're going to start, think, in end of May in Croatia, in Szibanyk. Yeah, it was first training, first practice. It was nice to see so many boys. I'm excited to see what's happened in the next two days.

Speaker 1: Yes, at least you have the opportunity to see so many boys in the pool and in water. Sean, are there any special questions you have? Maybe I would hand it over to you. I've got one actually for Theodore. obviously you may have discussed this before on your last podcast, but do you ever get any time off as Olympiakos and the Greek coach? Obviously it must be the busiest man in water polo. You play every championship with the club and then you're No, no, no. Do you get a chance to wind down? Do you get the opportunity to step away from polo? Not really, no. I've this situation since 2015 with both teams, Olympiakos and national team. As you know, when I finish with Olympiakos, immediately after three or four days we start every summer preparation with national team. Every summer we have something very important, some important games for the championship or European or Olympic games.

Speaker 3: I don't have any time. I need more time, double time to follow the teams or the clubs or the national teams in the weekends and just to prepare some things. But this is my life now, the last five years and I don't know what's going to happen if I will stop from one team. I will have really a lot of time and I don't know how I will spend this time. What should I do with all my time then? Okay, just every year after the summer big tournament with national team I have probably 20 days in August, you know to have some holidays with my family because my daughter is for me, know, like crazy to go to the Greek islands. So this is my rest and then I start again with the but okay, really enjoyed and really Still full of energy, really. you

Speaker 5: Vlachos, you come from Wallis, right? You know more details? I know that you like us. I know that's I like Molas. It's a really nice place. It's a small city but I think it's really nice. Good luck, guys.

Speaker 3: It's in the middle of Greece, know, around you have a sea and really a big mountain. You can ski, you can ski and see the view is the sea, know, it's really amazing. Vjeko doesn't have this problem I think so he is more in Montenegro he lives in Montenegro than in Croatia but you know they don't have nowhere to go skiing but it's okay Yes.

Speaker 3: Yes, Viko is from Zagreb, he lives in... Yeah

Speaker 5: Who knows? I'm a city boy. Yeah, city boy went to village.

Speaker 2: Mr. Vlahos, I understood your point that we are all invited to Volos. I got that. Let's book tickets, okay? Askewuk is a really beautiful town. It's beautiful. Really, Yeah, Vlahos, I know you can eat really good. You can swim good. Skiathos is two hours, I so, from the...

Speaker 3: Yes, three hours from Athens and from Stalonecki in the midweek. But okay, also I was born there but I live in Athens for the 30 years. So I live more years in Athens than in Volos. But my parents are there, so I visit them very often. So this was that we make the next next live talk then face to face or what? Yeah.

Speaker 5: Yeah Of course. I thought water polo podcast, but this is a touristic podcast. Bravo! Yeah, so we are trying to cover all the interests of the audiences here. So we are also able to give some tips and tricks for traveling. So at least when we're able to travel again. At the moment it's maybe not so easy.

Speaker 5: Sometimes when I watch Greek players, how to take the ball in the water and all the stuff with the ball, it looks amazing. think so. You have better players, right-handers on the right side. We have come back to the topic, yes Wuk.

Speaker 5: than much left-handers in the world. I think it's amazing to see how, for example, Milo Nakis, for me, of the players on the right side, they took the ball really nice and how they scored, it was really amazing. Can you explain us something about that? How they are... train for these moments. First of all, we don't like left-handers. You Okay, so this is the wrong information for me.

Speaker 3: We don't need left-handers. We like to play only with right-handers. We push them, we force them to use their right hand better than left-handers. We don't do something special, something extraordinary or something that is a secret. But it's important for us you don't have a left-hander to have a really better technique and to do more more exercises and more time in this part of you know in the practice about the technique so nothing more but i see i believe that one player when he's a right-hander plays he used to plays in this position he tries more he he forces himself to to improve more and to be ready. All these things are not easy. I was very lucky that I worked many years with Milanakis and Plachopoulos and now I'm still working with Gennidouniass. They are great players and they can play both sides. I believe we'll come younger players because still we don't have any left-hander really. Really. Also in the younger ages we don't have. We have a joke. We have a young boy now, this is a joke. In our club he plays for another club, for Chios, but he started from Olympiakos. He is not really a good player. But okay. You're not asking for them.

Speaker 3: we let him to practice with us. He is left-hander, he is left-hander and the way that he make passes and shoot, you know, one of my player told me, really, he is not left, he is right-hander player and now he is trying to use his left hand. It's amazing, we laughing because we have only one and he is very bad, you know, very bad. You Do you speak English? You But okay, not something special. have all the coaches at this level, we try to improve the technique of the players but one right-hander, his position must try more so I believe that this is the secret.

Speaker 5: Okay. So the secret is, there's no secret. No secret, yes there is no secret. So it's not really a practice tip then.

Speaker 2: the Don't pick any left-handers book. It's the way forward. So I told you that it's the right information for me personally, right? So when Vukka is not picking any left-handers, so I have a problem. So at least not from my perspective, so my personally. it's, I think you know what I mean. So maybe coming back to the topic, so are there any other things? Yep.

Speaker 1: you have a question on or so because we are not receiving really any question from externally, some from Facebook or YouTube or whatever. So Sean, maybe you have another one. This is a difficult one for Theodore because obviously he's involved. I guess I'd be interested to know who yourself, Vuk and Vieko feel perhaps has the best chance of winning in Tokyo. Obviously, like I said, it's a gold medal and the gold medal is not going to say that nobody was there to watch it. I imagine that the level, like Vieko said, the games are going to be... at the highest level, I'd be interested who they think may well go that extra to secure the medal. Huh, for me, can answer your question. I'm not on the Viejo's position or Vlachos's, but I think so. I believe in Greece, every time I believe in Greece, but I don't know, it's like every year or every Olympic Games there three teams there and I think we need some changes. Because Serbia and Croatia, every time on the top you saw the games. Croatia played really bad at this qualification tournament. They had a little bit of on the penalties. But I think they are more in Greece. But I don't know if it's NaToki or really...

Speaker 5: good moment or it's Paris. believe in Greece. Every year I believe in Greece. The style of playing and everything is really nice. I think so at the moment maybe I give to Spain and then maybe I don't know what's the final game. But for me it's now Spain is one of the most prepared teams in the world. That's for me. I don't know the vehicle's meaning. Yes, I agree. Viejo knows that I have a tenuous link to Mr. Munares in that I played with Alberto when he was a 17-year-old boy. So I guess I have a bit of a soft spot for Spain. But I like the way the Spanish... My tip would be Spain, but still, I still think you can't rule out Serbia, Hungary, Italy, Greece, you know, like the list goes on. You know, and I think on the podcast I did last week, said that, yeah, look, Croatia, Croatia was was poor in the qualification tournament, but you cannot rule them out. You cannot you cannot say for sure that they will not be in amongst Vietco. Come on then. Who's going to win it? Easy question. Tell her.

Speaker 3: Tell us, Vicky, tell us. on places. It's really for me to speak about it. It's really not so easy. I'm really bad at predictions anyway, but I'm hoping for a good tournament. I don't think that all the teams will come from the same spot. For example, know that Australia will probably go directly to Japan. and without any or without too many games before. And they didn't have a championship, they didn't have a chance to meet for last one year, more than one year. United States is, you know, throughout whole Europe and they will also have, you know, different... way to prepare themselves for the Olympics. Maybe it is better for both of these teams, this change, or maybe they will produce a better result. But they are coming certainly in not the way they would like to. European teams will probably and hopefully come after good preparations.

Speaker 2: When we speak about European teams and the ones that can take the medal in Greece, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, it's all different style of playing, basically. And you need many things to come into line, to reach the finals, to reach the gold. And certainly there is experience, there is the hunger for for the medal, you need have strong goalkeeping and very strong defence and you have to have a good counter-attack and then you have to have least one or two good centres to build up your… This is Greece, know? This is closest to Greece. But this is all the things that you need to have. Yeah.

Speaker 3: What?

Speaker 2: One other thing will also be crucial and this is the style of the refereeing because the style of the refereeing in the Champions League and on the qualification tournament is not the same. It was much softer in Rotterdam if I saw it correctly during the broadcasting of the game. So this is also a very important thing and the teams will adjust themselves to the So I think that every European country that I mentioned has good and solid foundation to go for gold medals and let's sit down and enjoy the show. Wow, with a beard.

Speaker 3: will fight in Tokyo and you will enjoy it with the team.

Speaker 2: I'm a coach of under-20, junior team. I will work, but not like you. When you had the question about two positions, I really admire all you coaches that can guide the national team and the club. Any club. stronger the club is, the job is more difficult. for you, Gojkovic, Savic when he was doing this, I'm really admiring you guys that you can be focused because this is two different programmes, two different lines of calendar, mentality and everything and from one to the other is very difficult, believe me, because I have problem focusing on junior team, which I need to lead this summer. This is extremely difficult and only the best ones can do it. That's my honest opinion. So what is the one saying in the round here who's doing this kind of job with two teams? the coach from Olympiakos I think. But yes, we are very, you know, rich sports, so we have many, many assistants, so you know, basically they are doing the job and the head coach just comes from the school.

Speaker 1: You

Speaker 5: Yeah, maybe. We will see. In Germany it's the same situation. We preparing for the other 15 but it was difficult to organize everything. We have a whole medical team here to prepare everything, to give us the to go to the... So the head coach is joining the podcast. So maybe in the meantime, we have received a question maybe for both of you. than ever before.

Speaker 2: I see it, yeah. Okay, so I can go first one. Well, it's, know, I wouldn't comment too much during, because the season still didn't end. there are lots of rumours last two months regarding the transfers. And so at this point of season, when we go to crucial games, you know, really, qualification tournament but really believe me it was really difficult what the good thing in Germany you can you can have a practice just like normal and if you are if you are in if you have training in in some I know how to name Stuttpunkt Andreas can you can you help me if you are I don't think it would be wise to comment on these speculations because there lots of speculations. There is smoke, there is fire, but again there is a of speculation. What I can say is that there are many, many players from Olympiakos that I would like to lead and have in my team. Yeah, doesn't matter which one, but if you are a player, you're playing in this team, can have just normal practice. this is, I think, for these boys really good during Corona. They are trained every day, two times a day, and they have online schooling. I think so it's... Regarding everything else, the transfer market is going wild in the two months. During last summer also the situation was better than we expected and now the transfer, this gossip around the transfers are starting to heat up. So I think this is good for water polo but I think that we need to wait until the end of the season.

Speaker 5: It's better than just like normal time when they're going to school. So, but we don't have any games and the kids didn't play some games about two years, one and half. This is I think the biggest problem. Yeah, we're losing generations. We don't have school learning, swim learning and all this stuff, you know, and... to see what will end and who will go where. Yeah, so it's maybe not possible or not fair to comment any or give any comments on these kind of rumors you mentioned. Without that we will have a really big problem in a few years. I can say that for example for one Greek player that is in you for last three seasons Papa Anastasio that he's an excellent player that he the book mentioned that about the technical things of Greek players and he really is absolutely educated extraordinary for and this is what what we saw from many many Greek players all the Greek players that are close to the national team

Speaker 2: The Zipwrap Yes, so we are losing. He's not able to comment on anything, so he's left the room. So hopefully it's only a networking connection. Sean, maybe you're really working with kids in WaterPolo or only with kids? So what are you saying to them really? So we are also discussing this. Yeah.

Speaker 1: during the podcast giving the vision to them or to give them some advice for the future. Yeah, I guess, like we said on the podcast, we got some money. So UK Sport gave us some funding and the rules have sort of changed a little bit in the UK as well. So many, many clubs. I guess I know a little bit about Jürg, obviously, in having been and spoken to Vieco at length. I know bits about what happens in Germany. But certainly in the UK, kids didn't start to play water polo till they were 11. Sean.

Speaker 4: And now basically the rules allow for kids as young as seven to basically be insured as players, which it doesn't sound that extravagant in a much more powerful country, but for us obviously to start to have younger, much younger kids playing. What's really encouraging, I'm going a little bit off your question I think, but... lot there are several different people now that starting. Swim schools are incredibly popular in every country. You know I've seen the swim school in York, you know it's full of kids you know. We now there are people that are starting to create water polo swim schools so you learn to swim and then you learn to play water polo which I think is a massive thing for the future of the sport in this country. So that's a really positive thing but For the juniors, think that I remember talking to Vieco and him saying exactly that about us living with coronavirus for our entire life. And I really feared what would happen to water polo full stop, not just in a small country like mine. From my end, things have actually been really positive. But... but I'm very fortunate that my school has a pool and the kids have been able to access it and for the majority that hasn't been the case. it's, yeah, the idea of games and fixtures and I mean I'm so jealous of VUK that Germany's under-15s are together and they're starting to prepare. know, this was our dream was to have an under-15 team competing now. You know, it's probably not going to happen in this country to have a Brit team. Everything is delayed until November or something like that. But I think it's a really good experience for your boy. I'm a big fan of this type of player changes. To come to another country, to learn another language, to another culture and everything.

Speaker 4: So yeah, mean, it's still very much a case of hopefully the future looks brighter for us. But for now, the disparity in what people have been able to do in this period as men is going to take a long time for us to be back to any sort of normality in the sport. And when Vuk sends me back my player, hopefully my team's results will be better than they are. I've got to wait for him to send me to play there and have friends there. think it's really good opportunity for everyone in their young ages and then you need to come back and play for your team. I think now for your player it's really good. He has a lot of friends here and a good family and goes to school. He speaks really good German and you will see.

Speaker 1: Yeah. So, and as you mentioned, it's really only a small number of players or kids who are able to train in these kinds of centers in the area. So any other kid or any other club is not able to train. And then you do not have really also no competition. So you only have to practice, practice, practice. And this is, I think we already mentioned this at the very beginning, it's very boring at some time. So it's not really this... not the easiest situation, at least for kids to train without any target. Any target for themselves, target for the club, target for the team, so you name it. Which is the same situation also for professional players. It's not only for kids, I think for kids it's really an extraordinary difficult situation. But I think you really both, Sean and Vuk, you already had mentioned the connection between Hanover and London. So maybe you can tell us a little bit more about this connection. Vuk's nodded at me so I think I better go. Essentially, as I said last week, one of the guys that is from my school is obviously with Vuk this season, having been with Vieco, via Vieco we'll say. So first stop Dubrovnik, second stop Hanover. So it's third stop London.

Speaker 4: that's yeah hopefully hopefully he'll come back. He's French just to throw it in the mix his his parents are both French so he's It's also a question of budget, money and so on. Yeah, I haven't got any money so we can't afford to bring him back. But yeah, no, so obviously, when did this happen, Vuk? This happened sort of last summer, didn't it? Towards the end of, no, the start of the summer. Vuk, having met him in Dubrovnik, they happened to be at the same time. I think you contacted his parents, didn't you Vuk? And asked if it was possible. And so mum... Mum rang me and the boy was really worried what I was going to say. He was like, he was fearful that I was going to be like, absolutely not. You're not going, which was quite the opposite. And then obviously at the school, had to, we had to put everything in place to enable and in some ways because of Covid, he's been able to learn virtually. He's basically joined school here and attended school in Germany. I think I think his head of year told me that his grades have gone up since he's been away, which is absolutely remarkable. yeah, no, that's the sort of connection. yeah, as I said before, obviously, I'm very grateful to a youth book that he's given him such a good experience in what has been, as we've already mentioned, a very unusual year. He went hoping he was going to play in the German Championship for that age and it was cancelled and then delayed.

Speaker 4: So I've got nothing but positive feeling, you know, that's such a good experience.

Speaker 1: So this sounds goes in the direction he's coming back. the Yeah Cool. I think we so many times mentioned these kind of networking around the world during the active career, which is really helpful then also after the end or after the active career. So you really then took also the advantage for your player then. So are there any things you can tell us? Give us some insights maybe from Greece. Anything special, anything happened right now? So you already mentioned that you're starting the preparation next week. Cool.

Speaker 2: Mr Blasos On behalf of him. The question before for players, the moment you said you want all the players of Olympiakos, everything stopped in my home. You destroyed everything. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 2: You better be! thought the network was shocked, yeah. My laptop is on fire now. I agree with you, it's not time to speak about all these rumours because usually last season, after Christmas, January to March, April, in all of Europe we have many transfers, many players go around. OK, there are rumours, probably some of them will be true, now all the clubs are in the last very important month for the titles, to finish the season in the best way. So I don't think that I want to say something about this. Of course, we're working to... prepare the team for the next season because we have to it now. If we will not do it now, will be late in summer. But now we have our mind only for the rest of the season, for just this month and half. that's all. Really, I don't want to mention something more and I agree with Vekko.

Speaker 1: Yeah, so you mentioned during our discussion that there's, we already mentioned this at beginning of the live talk, that the last season really based on Corona and financial crisis and so on was really a different one. Do you expect also for next season and a similar situation that it's again very difficult, not mainly related financials, but also We expect better days because the financial of our club doesn't have only one sport, it has 16 sports. It has many many sports, all amateur sports except football and basketball.

Speaker 3: the financial of the football. So if the fans will come to start again to buy tickets, season tickets for the football and the next season will be as we know and as we have some information will be normal in Greece for the football. we will be Water Polo because we speak about Water Polo, the club of Water Polo really will be in a better financial situation. So we hope that we live back all this half and two seasons and we will have better days and of course without problems, all this about money. Any big issues? Yeah, so what is the situation in Croatia then? Yes, of course.

Speaker 2: What thoughts on season? above expectations but certainly the danger is still not gone and we cannot know what will happen financially speaking after the summer. Next season for the clubs and for the national teams. I think so, it's hard to say now. But what I see and what's happened, of course, it's okay, it's not so good. But it's okay, we have just two teams. And in both teams there are many players from other countries. And I think this is not a problem. This is a really good thing in these clubs. will be difficult because we have a world championship very soon. think it's in May or something like that. And we still do not have a club calendar for next season, European or domestic one. And certainly we will need to go with the preparation very soon after the Olympic Games and then see if we can all I think they need to have more kids on the first team, more kids from this club. And not every time to take some new one, new one, new one and there's no place for any other kids from Germany. all other teams, are level three or four under the... So.

Speaker 2: fit in this shorter period for competition. We have a Champions League, have of course a national championship, we have a national cup and we still have a regional league which will be very strong next season. There are some propositions about the format of competition but it will be very difficult and there is a last few seasons really this inflation of the games, maybe too many games. All the Champions League teams are going over 50 games per season and this is without national teams which gives us let's say a headache sometimes and maybe this is something that we need to talk about in the upcoming seasons, maybe to reduce some. It was good, it was not so bad. The players played until 2010-11 and that's it. Now it's stopped. You don't have so strong players in coming times. don't know where is the problem now. We don't go to Olympics game for the third time in a row and I think it would be to keep it around 40 games during the season. We are still not a sport that has so many games.

Speaker 5: problem in our federation but yeah I'm a coach what I can tell you I teach my kids to play a good water polo so I think so that one day when they're going to play for the first team that it would be in a short period of time. Yeah, I think that this is more or less similar to other sports like football or whatever. when they are coming new competitions and a new league and a Euroleague and a Champions League and local league and whatever. So there are so many competitions coming up and the organization is trying to push this into the calendar of each club. that has to be. They're going to be good players. This is just my work, but I don't know what's happened with the league.

Speaker 1: reduced. At the end, it's really the player who's striking at some time in the future. Maybe you mentioned the closed league in Croatia. Maybe this is something we have to work on in Germany because the league is not so close. Maybe in this case, when we would have a closer league in Germany, we have maybe also a stronger national team at the end. I don't know if there's any connection between these kinds of things. but I would imagine that there's a connection between these two. It would be certainly easier to make a good national team if you have a stronger league. I don't think if we spoke about this on the last podcast, but I said this many times on these occasions in the last 10, maybe 15 years. I think that the national team level of competitions is usually very, high. We had some... tournaments that were not really up to the quality and the standard of what we need. But we mentioned the Olympic Games in London, they were excellent. had great European championships in Hungary and in Serbia and in Spain, world championships. So the national team level was, let's say, a higher level. No.

Speaker 2: But somewhere along the way we forget about the clubs and club competition. European and domestic ones. And certainly we need more good leagues around Europe. Leagues that will produce quality and uncertainty of who will win. For example, French league from this season or last season that invested in... let's say in new players reinforcements and they have an excellent league. if we would have Mr Vlachos said about the Greek league this season and this is something what we all need on the national level and also on the international level you know to invest to have some kind of plan for the clubs and again I'm speaking on the national level for example in Croatia we need to think about it. but also on the international level. To raise the level of, for example, Champions League and to find a way to invest in those clubs and not creating the gap between the good ones from the Champions League and the other ones. For us to be the club from the Champions League like someone who will drag all the teams behind it and help them. in some way. So, Wuk, maybe you are aware of the situation in Germany more than we are. So, what is the situation in Germany? Are there any plans or any strategies maybe to get the league closer together? So, you're working mainly with the younger kids, but they are also forcing them maybe somewhere in the future into the teams of Wasburg, Spandau, whatever.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Speaker 1: Yes, I think we discussed this so several times during the last couple of weeks and months, saying that there are really two aspects. Yes, so that you have to be in the Champions League like Waspo and Spandau and this is maybe not happening or you're not able to reach these targets only with German players. And on the other hand, when you have the chance to play maybe in the young ages for two clubs at one time, for both clubs, you're able to train with these kind of stars, for example, or very good players. So there are definitely some advantages or good points for the development for the teams. But as you mentioned, it's not easy when you have each time or for the next three years, something in front of you. we are not able to get his position. We are talking about over one hour at least at the moment. Really to give you some time back, and it's Friday evening, just to let you go into the weekend. I don't want to waste your time here anymore. Are there any last words? It's maybe not the right sentences, but... Are there any last informations, any last info from you on your side? Any last comments for the audiences? No. Silence. Thanks everyone for watching us, if there is any who watched us.

Speaker 1: So, have at least, I see the number of 10 live visitors. So, it shows the past that more of the people are really looking this not on demand or not live. So, they are able to watch this on Facebook and YouTube each time in the future they want. So, the number is hopefully increasing over the weekend. At least also the number of podcasts downloads. So we reached 10,000 downloads last couple of weeks. So it's really a big number, at least for me personally. So I'm not really imagined that I reached these kind of numbers one year ago. So when I started the podcast. Great, congratulations to you and thank you for inviting us. Yeah, so thanks for coming. So this is not at least, I'm only the organizer of these kinds of stuff. So I'm happy to do it again. Thank you because you gave us free summer in Volos. So thank you very much.

Speaker 3: This is where I... presents, we're gonna bring presents but we have a free vacation in Greece. So it was my pleasure to be here. You are really welcome to to Volos any time, but all together, not one by one. All together we have to meet each other. You will see that Mourinho has the right. He knows everything. At least when we're able to travel again next week, hopefully next year, we can share least from Hanover the car. So we only have to use one car, maybe in this case. It's getting cheaper. Again, thanks for your time. I wish you best. You're thinking of a weekend. Thanks.

Speaker 1: to the UK, to Croatia, to Greece and to Potsdam. You have Each time again, so you're welcome. I will schedule something again, yeah, maybe. Yeah. Cool. So I wish you a nice weekend and talk to you soon. Anything you

Speaker 2: Bye bye, bye everybody. Bye. This podcast episode is presented to you by the Perfect Goalie Academy, powered by Mieze, your partner for targeted and individual goalkeeper training. Check out the website www.theperfectgoalie.com for more information.