Di Matteo vows to banish blues

MATTEO 17 DH 1 New Albion boss Roberto Di Matteo today pledged to reverse the Baggies’ losing culture as he prepared to wind up the summer training camp in Slovenia.

The head coach promised to turn around the mood at The Hawthorns as he earmarked psychology as a key part of his Albion mission.

Di Matteo predicted six weeks of steady activity in the transfer market before the summer window closes at the end of August.

But the Italian believes putting smiles back on the faces of his existing players could be his most important task in the weeks ahead.

“We’ll have to deal with the big disappointment of last season,” admitted Di Matteo.

“When a team gets relegated, they obviously lose a lot of games. We’ll have to address the psychological side of it and restore a winning mentality and belief and help them forget about last year.”

Di Matteo confirmed he wants ‘two or three’ new faces before the end of August and admitted he could lose some squad members before the transfer window closes.

But he remains determined to hold on to as many as possible of his key squad members.

Paul Robinson has already departed for Bolton while captain Jonathan Greening has submitted a transfer request, but Di Matteo remains confident of keeping other stars.

“I am very confident we will keep the bulk of the team,” said the 39-year-old.

“We will lose some players by the end of the transfer window but we’ll hopefully bring one or two more in to strengthen the team.”

Albion will play the second and last game of their Slovenian trip when they cross the border into Croatia tonight to take on NK Varteks in Varazdin.

Robert Koren, Filipe Teixeira, Craig Beattie and Gianni Zuiverloon played a full part in training last night and could figure.

But Simon Cox has a minor ankle problem and might miss out while Graham Dorrans is still not ready to play as he completes his rehabilitation from a broken foot.

Scott Carson is braced for his first taste of pre-season action against the Croatian top division outfit.

See Also:

This article was posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 1:27 pm.