Despite Heavy Financial Sacrifices, CSS Appears to be on the Right Track
La Presse — After a week in Sfax focused on physical training, the CSS entered a week-long closed training session in Djerba on Thursday, December 11. The training sessions will take place on the natural grass pitch of the Stade Mustapha Diouri in Midoun. A friendly match will be played against the UST before returning to Sfax. In the absence of Dahmen and Maâloul, who are training with the national team for the Moroccan CAN, Mohamed Kouki has compiled a list of 25 players and integrated a number of young players who will be retained in the squad for the second half of the championship. Three key players from the Espoirs team have been called up for this winter preparation: goalkeeper Malek Laraîssi and the two key players in the offensive compartment, Anis Azzouz and Boua Diarra. "These three players have deserved their place in the group for some time, and the time has come to integrate them permanently into the squad to have more variety in our choices. I'm thinking in particular of the Azzouz-Diarra duo, two reliable players who can give us more solutions in terms of offensive animation and finishing," says Mohamed Kouki, who has found an opportunity in this focus on young players to enrich his group with human and technical potential.
A Good Atmosphere
Free from the stress of a long difficult period where the results were below expectations and the supporters' discontent was at its peak, and the team had struggled in the middle of the standings for ten days before managing to climb to fourth place, Kouki is looking at the second half of the season with a much more optimistic eye. "The atmosphere in the group is now good. If the Board of Directors can lift the recruitment ban before the end of December, our satisfaction will be complete, and we can look to the future with confidence. The only thing that worries me is the doubt that still hangs over our ability to bring in valuable recruits to give more weight to the offensive compartment."
Recruiting High-Value Foreign Players
Mohamed Kouki is thinking of foreign players, especially Willy Onana, Emmanuel Ogbole, and Ammar Tayfour, who have not delivered as expected. He needs players of greater caliber to aim higher than fourth place. However, the Board of Directors is faced with the dilemma of having to make significant financial sacrifices to terminate the contracts of these three players and replace them. With the 1.8 million dinars it needs to collect to lift the ban and resolve some of the past disputes, it does not seem easy to unlock a similarly massive sum for new recruits.
