By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
There is a reason Fenerbahce has 1-5 as a record in Euroleague. “We have a problem with our self-confidence”. And there is a reason Simone Pianigiani doesn’t even think of quitting as he said to Eurohoops. “I like challenges. I like to put pressure on myself. It’s always nice to have motives to fight for important things. And we have millions of fans who want us to live up to the expectations. To give them reasons to celebrate. Our players know that and they respect our fans’ needs. We have guys who have always played under pressure, who have always fought hard to succeed. For example, at Siena, the 10% of the residents were on the stands in every one of our games. So, be sure we know all about pressure”. It’s one think to know something and another to… act like you really know something.
So, why Fener’s playes cannot be competitive? “It’s obvious we want our fans to be proud of the way we are playing and for some games now we weren’t able to give them what they want. For example, against Maccabi we allowed 30 points, during the last period. It’s unacceptable to quit before the end of a game”. And why they don’t play like they are supposed to with the talent and the experience they have on their roster? “We have a problem with our self confidence. But we are working on it and Ι have reasons to believe that very soon our fans will be proud of us. Don’t forget we are a new team and we still trying to figure out which is the best possible way to play our game. We are looking for a big victory. I don’t know when we will get it, but this is what we need to get our self-confidence to the right level”.
And if you are asking him about the game against Olympiacos “I think we played good. We fought till the end and keep in mind we didn’t have Preldzic and Onan, plus we lost Sato and we got into a big trouble with our rotation. But like Olympiacos, we played with pride till the end”.
We asked from our colleague Gökhan German (fanatik.com.tr) to let us know how Fenerbahce’s fans react to everything that’s going on with their team this year, due to the fact that the administration spent around 25.000.000 euros for the roster. “They don’t like what they see. And they let everybody to know, by singing “Pianigiani go home” and by booing the players. They don’t like that the Turkish players don’t have actual impact on the team, cause Simone Pianigiani doesn’t trust them. And he lost them. It’s clear that without the help of the native players, who play their hearts out and they are trully passionated, after they represent their country in Europe, you can’t get titles. Check on last year’s example with Olympiacos”.
German wrote that Pianigiani and Kemal Dincer (Fener’s GM) should resign “after they weren’t able to make something good with the tons of money they had to spend. And now it’s too late, at least for Euroleague”. And don’t expect that something will change “after the administration tried to end Pianigiani’s and Batiste’s contracts, which are for 1.5 mil. euros and for 1.9 mil. euros, but they are guaranteed”. Which means they have to give all the money to set them free. So, they decided to stick with them “obviously cause they compromised with the idea they already lost this season. So, Ι guess the title of “the champion of transfers” is the only one Fenerbahce will get this year”.
In his opinion, it was a mistake “to invest on players like Batiste and Andersen who are not exactly at the prime of their careers. In fact they are at the sunset of their careers and they don’t have the passion or the motives they had when they were younger and they had bigger hunger for success. Pianigiani mostly trusts the guys who followed him from Italy and to be able to play mostly with them, he uses undersized starting five. For example, Preldzic plays as a power forward! Now you can understand why they are the team with the worst record on rebounds, in Euroleague. Another thing is there is a problem with the point guards. McCalebb isn’t a real point guard, since he prefers to score than to make his team’s play better. And Fener’s offense just doesn’t click. Behind him is Baris Ermis and that’s it. But when they decided to get a player on December, they picked Tripkovic who plays in the position you can also find Preldzic, Sato, Onan and Bogdanovic. It doesn’t make any sense”.
Again, is there any chance to make some adjustment, before it’s too late? “No. They tried, they failed and now they are waiting for next summer”.