ESEM - Part of your team

What a year that was?!

After a busy summer for ESEM, it’s hard to believe that the new football season is already up and running.  Training camps in Spain, Austria and Turkey have come and gone and having already worked with several clubs in European competition, we’ve hardly had time to relax and reflect on what has been another successful year.

The 2010-11 season was one of many incredible highs and lows right across Europe and while Barcelona and FC Porto won the major trophies in contrasting European finals, there was a lot to be excited about with some phenomenal games lighting up both competitions. The hope now is that a season which will culminate in the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, can provide similar excitement.  
 
Ahead of that, we can reflect on a year which all started with successive Champions League qualifying games with Dynamo Kiev that saw them come up against Belgian side Ghent and Ajax of Amsterdam.  Unfortunately, defeat against the famous Dutch club brought Dynamo’s Champions League adventure to an end but that pitched the club into what would prove to be a memorable Europa League campaign.  
 
Among many other highlights have been looking after the likes of Partizan Belgrade, Sparta Prague and Red Bull Salzburg.  Partizan came to Arsenal in December and despite scoring a great equalising goal through Brazilian striker, Cleo, they were eventually beaten 3-1.  
 
Sparta visited Anfield in February and after drawing the first leg 0-0 in Prague, they were unfortunate to lose the second leg 1-0 to Kenny Dalglish’s resurgent Liverpool side.  
 
Red Bull visited Manchester City in early December only to lose 3-0 and in-so-doing, go out of the Europa League.  However, we later welcomed Dynamo Kiev to our ‘home’ city and despite losing the game 1-0, a 2-0 first leg victory saw Kiev through on a sensational night for the club.  
 
One of the most important projects of the season came we organised Kiev’s mid-season training camp in Marbella.  The club’s first challenge after the break was a couple of crucial Europa League games against Turkish side Besiktas of Istanbul which with the first leg taking place in Istanbul on 17th February, looked a difficult challenge. 
 
The camp provided the players with the ideal preparation and they subsequently brushed Besiktas aside with a 4-1 away leg victory before finishing the job with a 4-0 victory in the second game.  
 
Off the pitch, two years after launching our Marbella office, we have continued to grow our Spanish business and we have also relocated our UK operation, making the short move to some outstanding new premises at the Tower Business Park in Didsbury, Manchester. 
 
In late March, we were also proud to exhibit at the two-day Soccerex European Forum at Manchester Central.  Our presence there allowed us to become more visible to numerous key decision-makers in the game and to introduce ourselves to a number of high-profile contacts.  
 
Having completed several pre-season training camps against the backdrop of some glorious Austrian scenery, the new season was very quickly upon us and since the big kick off, we have worked with Hajduk Split, FC Thun, Bayer 04 Leverkusen as well as handling matches in Bulgaria and Israel with Dynamo Kiev.  
 
Thanks to the draw for the Group Stages of the Champions League, we can now look forward to working with German Champions Dortmund in London in November, as well as returning to Istanbul and organising a number of winter training camps in Spain, Portugal and Turkey.