Marko Nikolic: This is not the end of something but the beginning

The Videoton manager has guided his side to a title win in his first season in charge.

Marko Nikolic:

"We turned into a real side after the winter break. We conceded four goals in thirteen games and were stable throughout. I do not want to make a big speech but say thank you to everybody who worked towards this title win. The owner Istvan Garancsi, Director of Sport, Zoltan Kovacs, to my team and those that work at the club. Naturally to my family who are even then in my mind when they are not with me. I would also like to name my two right hand men, Radoje Szmiljanics and Goran Basarics. They both followed me here to Hungary to work together with me. Finally I would like to thank the supporters who have been behind us all the way through the season. The real heroes for this result are the players! We do not only have good footballers but also people. This is one of the key things. We did not do anything differently during the week than we have until now. We did things normally. We concentrated on football during the season. There are good things happening in sport in Hungary. We would like to promote the positive side of football. The value of the title win will further increase the worth by the fact that we did not play our matches at our real home stadium. Today is not the end of something but the beginning. I dream that we will be successful in Europe and we will have to work hard for this dream in the future."

There were questions about the future of the manager and the program ahead.

"As I have said in the TV, it is not true that I will be going back to Partizan. It is also not the fact that I have signed a new contract. I came here long term and we agreed correctly that we would continue, but nothing has been signed. I would not go anywhere anyway as my contract is valid until the summer of 2019. The team will begin preparations with a medical and then spend 2 days in Fehervar. We will then travel to Austria for two weeks. We plan to play five friendly games there and the plans include games against DAC, Osijek, Rostov and Kapfenberg."

Supka Attila:

"I would like to congratulate the Videoton team for winning the title. We came here for today's game to get a point or more. It would have really helped us achieve our target. We have not lost everything but we have been suffering injuries for weeks now. We do not have one key player out, which means that it is hard to put a team together. Those that played today gave everything to try and come out of the game well. Sadly we made some mistakes and that decided the game. We did not try to play in the first half as we had planned. We were a little better in the second half and had more chances. However, another mistake sealed our fate.

Author: David Rechnitzer

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