Sampdoria coach Dejan Stankovic admits he is distraught by the death of good friend Sinisa Mihajlovic and isn’t sure he will ever recover. ‘I feel this immense void within me.’
The two Serbians were firm friends and former teammates at both Lazio and then Inter, as well as at international level.
Ex-Bologna coach Mihajlovic succumbed to leukaemia on December 16, over three years since he was initially diagnosed, at the age of just 53.
Stankovic was one of the pall-bearers at the funeral in Rome.
“Sinisa’s death has left me without words,” Stankovic told Il Secolo XIX newspaper.
“I feel this immense void within me that I never felt before. I am still young and fortunately still have all my closest family with me.
“However, everything I had feels like it has gone with him. I am left with the memories and the great pride of having been a part of his life. We all saw what kind of a man Sinisa Mihajlovic was.”
Miha had also spent time at Sampdoria, both as a player and a coach, so was pleased to see his good friend on their bench trying to turn around a dire situation, sitting in penultimate place with six points from 15 rounds.
“In hindsight, I regret some things I said after the games with Torino and Lecce, but I don’t want to disrespect anyone, especially our fans. I want to find the right words to not irritate anyone and at this moment I just don’t have those words.
“We deserved to be criticised and jeered, but the past is just that, now a new mini-season begins and we had a good training camp in Turkey.”
The situation is also worrying because Sampdoria as a club is all at sea, in negotiations for a takeover, but effectively without any fresh funds, who cannot purchase players without selling first.
“When I arrived, it felt like being thrown into a blender, but now I’ve had the necessary time to work on tactics and learn more about the players at my disposal, trying to put them all in their best positions.
“I also made a mistake with the way I tried to fire up the squad and put too much pressure on them instead, so I feel bad about that and take the blame. What I can tell the fans is that I will fight.”