We sat down to talk to Marko Nikolic just days after the end of the league season. The manager started to talk even before a question had been asked. He wanted to thank everybody once again who played a role in Vidi winning their third league title. 

"I would like to thank everybody who played a part in winning the league title. Each person played their role. Owner Istvan Garancsi, Director of Football Zoltan Kovacs and the coaching team, who worked with me each day together with the team. Naturally we must not forget the supporters either who were behind us throughout. However, the biggest praise must go to the players. A year ago when I sat down to talk with the owner and director of football, we agreed that winning the league would be the most important. We achieved this target. We were in first place already in the autumn, but slipped to second. We made some difficult decisions in the winter, which meant that we would have a better team for the spring. We were stable mentally and played well. We performed best when it was the most important to. I am satisfied and this was my first year in Hungary. I managed to win what I came here to do and we are the champions."

The most important period for Marko Nikolic during the season and the moment when he decided to play with a rarely seen formation.

"I always believed in winning the league. If I had not felt this, how could I expect this from the others? I was confident as I could see the work that had been done. At the end of August, the winter break and the final matches were all important periods. We came out of all of these well. The most important perhaps is that the pre-season during the winter went well and it helped us in the second half of the season. The games, or rather the majority of periods in the season saw us perform well. The formation is not the main thing, but rather how we carry things out. We switched to the so called diamond formation in midfield during the season. I do not think that a team has done this in Hungary. This caused some of our opponents a surprise, and we also have suitable players to play in this system. We also played the classical 4-4-2 as well quite a lot during the season. This does not mean that we will play like this looking ahead in to the future. We need to be ready for each game so that we can make the needed changes."

We often heard how the team were together and that it was one of the key things to being successful. We were curious about why this was.

"One of the most important things in the life of a team is the atmosphere within the dressing room. There is no use having a great squad in quality if things do not click as you will get nowhere. We have really good people at our club. Many of them have been here a long time now. They have ties to the football club. We are strong mentally and we have a good group. We have experience in Roland Juhasz, Szabolcs Huszti and Danko. Behind them are those that are experienced within Hungarian and foreign football. They balance out each other really well and also the talented group of youngsters. It is important that if we bring in new players, they should not only be good players but also find their place within the dressing room. For me - but not only me - if we look at the squads of top clubs, it does not count who is what age or from what country they are from. The quality and mentality is the most important."

"Nikolic returns to Partizan!" "Danko goes home" "Nego will continue in Belgrade" "Nikolic has already signed a new deal with Vidi" - are just some of the titles from the press in Serbia. The Hungarian media have also taken these rumours on to cause a storm. 

"It is hard to say things about this (laughter - editor). Perhaps you should ask those that spread these news. We have an honest and direct communication within the club. They cannot distract us as a result. We concentrated throughout on the football and our targets. We worked professionally in each training session, which deserves extra praise from my coaching team. I always tell my players to not focus on these things and to switch off their mobiles and not deal with the rumours. They must only concentrate on one thing - football. I have not worried about these things. They pay me so that Vidi can be successful. I do not want to talk about other clubs or managers."

You said after the game with DVTK in the press conference that the teams that will be competing in Europe will have very little time to prepare.

"It is a difficult task within the time to have a pre-season and with such a little break. I kindly ask that those who decide on the competition calender to think about this better in the future to make things easier. They need to take into consideration the players interests. The players on international duty can only be given three-four days rest. This is not just the problem of Vidi, but all of the Hungarian sides that wish to be successful in Europe. This is in the interest of Hungarian football. It is virtually impossible to be in good form from the summer to the middle of December. We are not looking for excuses but to somehow sort things out."