24 Nov 2005(Thu)

I once remember Manchester United being relegated from the English top flight in the 1970s, but they came back stronger and just grew and grew.

The ironic thing for Vissel, though, is that they have been relegated in the second season of funding by Hiroshi Mikitani.

With all that investment you'd have expected Vissel to be stronger with the "Rakuten Golden Eagle" behind them.

But it's been the opposite. The signing of Ilhan Mansiz was a great publicity vehicle, but the player was not fit and it turned out to be an expensive disaster as he returned home, no doubt extremely wealthy from his brief Japanese sojourn.

Patrick Mboma was not fit, either, and this also seemed a strange signing. Vissel were clearly going for "name"value, or star quality, and it backfired on them twice in that first season.

Much better was the signing of Atsu Miura, who succeeded Kazu Miura as captain midway through this season, but his leadership could not save the team after a brief honeymoon period.

To be fair to Vissel they made some useful mid-season signings, such as Endo from Marinos and Kaneko from Antlers, plus the Czech players brought in by Rehak, the team's third coach of the season.

The fact that Vissel failed to stay up speaks volumes for the growing quality of the J.League. There is much more strength in depth these days, and teams need to keep winning, like Oita, to pull clear of the relegation zone and then stay clear.

It's no good winning two or three and then going into another slump, as the teams below can also hit a patch of good form and take over.

As I said, these will be depressing days at Kobe, especially for Mikitani as he is genuinely trying to build a team the city will be proud of.

His words, following relegation on Sunday, were reassuring, as he said Vissel would be back after one season in J2, and that his continued aim was to make a top-class team.

Vissel will have 44 matches next season, so can afford to be patient on the coaching front, and it gives them a chance to rebuild.

Let's hope Mikitani, despite his problematic start, will stick with football and stick with Vissel Kobe, and that the fans do, too.

ends