Trebor Mahtal was back on the job hunt as bad blood with the FC Zurich president forced him to resign with the Swiss Super League trophy in his back pocket. And the 63-year-old Zambian immediately went in search of his 15th job in club management.
A couple of jobs immediately caught his eye in Dinamo Zagreb and Slavia Praha and he was beginning to think his application got lost in the post. But a month later, both offered interviews alongside one with Legia Warszawa, and all three swiftly asked for his staff changes and offered him their vacant roles. That gave Mahtal a huge decision to make as both Dinamo and Slavia had great facilities and were surprisingly rich. And Mahtal eventually chose to head to Czechia.
Who Are Slavia Praha?
Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal is a professional club based in the Czechia capital Prague. The club was founded in November 1892 by medicine students who wanted to encourage their fellow students to do more sports. It initially focused on cycling before expanding to football in 1896, playing its first game against AC Prague in March and arch rivals Sparta Prague four days later. The club kicked on thanks to former Celtic player Johnny Madden, who used new tactics and football ideas to win 134 out of his 169 matches between 1905 and 1930.
Slavia has won 18 titles since Czech Republic gained independence in 1993, making it the second most successful club behind city rivals Sparta, who’ve won 26 titles. It’s won 11 of the 24 titles during this save with Sparta winning the other 13, including last season’s title by 6 points.
Slavia plays at the 20,232-capacity Eden Arena, which was built in 2008 and is supported by a strong infrastructure of 20 youth recruitment and 17 training and youth facilities and junior coaching. The club is in a great place financially with a bank balance of £53m, transfer budget of £32m and weekly wage budget of £756k, of which it was spending £490k. Mahtal wasted no time in adding to that, selling 19 players for a profit of £16m, including a striker who scored 3 in 26 last season to Aluminij for £6m.
His late arrival meant very limited time to get a recruitment team set up. However, he splashed a new national record £8m on Brest’s exciting wonderkid midfielder William Tshibuabua and £6.5m on Universidad Católica defender Johnny Navarrete, who he’d been scouting for a while at FCZ. That pair immediately became the best two players at the club, along with centre back Lionel Ebongué, midfielder Almir Dedic, winger Jorge Silva, who’s out for five months with a cruciate injury, left back Cyril Kilama, striker Vojtech Pospech and a familiar face in Mahtal’s former Djurgardens winger André Lindstrom. But Mahtal was most excited about 21-year-old Georgian midfielder Zura Talakhadze. He initially went with a 4-2-3-1 approach that got the best out of that trio and Pospech as a poacher.
A Flying Start In Czechia
The bookies loved Mahtal’s transfer business, making Slavia 5/4 favourites for the Czech First Division, well ahead of Sparta at 15/8 and Banik Ostrava at 13/1. Interstingly, Sparta also had a new manager as their boss got poached by Al-Nassr in early July, and appointed former Dinamo boss Karlo Igor Musulin.
Mahtal’s side began the campaign with a statement win in mid-July, defeating Viktoria Plzen 3-1 away led by a Pospech hat trick. Tshibuabua thrilled his new fans with a brace inside 13 minutes of his home debut in a 3-0 win against Bohemians before Pospech bagged another hat trick in a 4-1 win at Kromeriz. Dedic got an assist hat trick in a 3-1 win at Chrudim but the winning streak ended at eight as a rotated side lost 1-0 at Banik Ostrava. Mahtal’s first Prague Derby was a pretty poor affair, but Slavia came out on top courtesy of Pospech’s penalty, moving his side 8 points clear after 13 games, which they’d increased to 15 heading into a month-long winter break.
Champions League
Slavia entered the CL in the second qualifying round against an old Mahtal foe Rosenborg and drew 1-1 in Norway before a convincing 4-1 home win. That set up a crunch game against Mahtal’s former side FC Midtjylland and they dominated the game by 22 shots to 4 and won 5-0 led by Tshibuabua scoring two and creating two more before a rotated side lost 2-1 in Denmark. That teed up a playoff round against Vitória de Guimaraes and Slavia delivered again. Pospech’s second-half brace secured a comfortable 3-0 before he bagged a hat trick in a 3-3 home draw. That sent Slavia into the league phase, which saw a mix of interesting fixtures.
The league phase began with Mahtal returning to Panathinaikos, who he left 18 years ago, and they were a little unlucky to lose 1-0. But Slavia were fantastic in their first home game, battering Leipzig by 22 shots to 9 and winning 5-2 led by Pospech’s brace and Navarrete’s first goal for the club. A 2-0 loss at Porto followed before starting really brightly at home to Barcelona, having six shots in the first 15 minutes. And they made it count as Ebongué slammed home a header from a corner on 26 minutes. The ref – obviously – awarded Barcelona a chance to score their first shot, but Elad Yerushalmi pulled off a huge save. Barca eventually equalised from their third shot as Slavia faded after the break but eventually secured a point, despite having 13 shots to 4.
Talakhadze’s early goal was enough to defeat Europa League winners SK Rapid before winger Pascal Elvedahl scored twice to earn a thrilling 3-2 victory at Nice. However, they had four players at the African Nations, including both left backs, for the final two games against Napoli, which they lost 3-0, before somehow holding Man City to a 1-1 at the Etihad courtesy of Pospech’s late header. And that saw them finish in a respectable 16th place.
Slavia took on Lyon in the playoff round and Tshibuabua earned a 1-1 in France before tearing them apart 5-1 at home. They probably got the friendliest last-16 draw against Napoli, which was still very tough given they have 16 players earning over £100k per week. Tshibuabua’s brace earned a fairly fortunate 2-2 at home before a solid defensive effort resulted in only a 1-0 defeat in Naples.
Smashing The National Transfer Records
Slavia’s strong form saw derogatory bids for their best players, who then got unhappy. Mahtal was eventually forced to sell Lindstrom to Shabab Al-Ahli for £17m, captain Ebongué to Porto for a massive club record £30m, and 31-year-old Kimala to Lyon for £13m. Those sales, plus some inept work from his recruitment team, forced Mahtal into a player hunt and a bit of a transfer spree.
He’d been trailing his FCZ superstar Blazenko Sprajcer since he left the club, and finally got his man for another new national record £16.25m, as Sprajcer rejected Milan to reunite with Mahtal. He was joined by striker Maël Briançon for £11.5m from Rennes, winger Leonardo Augusto for £5.75m from Gremio, centre backs Juan Diego Bueno Preito for £15m from Real Madrid and Mathías Alvarado for £2.3m from Colo-Colo, another former FCZ man Marco Mäder for £2.6m and goalkeeper Petr Matousek for £6.5m from Banik Ostrava. That took Mahtal’s transfer business in six months to £81m in sales and £67m in signings.
Those signings gave Mahtal arguably the most exciting team he’d ever put together. He moved Tshibuabua up front to cater for Sprajcer, which worked nicely as the former scored the opener, the latter scored twice and fellow debutant Augusto scored one and made one as Slavia began 2048 with a 4-1 win at Karviná. That was backed up by easing past bottom-side Chrudim 3-0 with Sprajcer and Augusto scoring again, a 6-1 destruction of Brno with a Sprajcer brace and Tshibuabua hat trick. And even rotated sides maintained the momentum as 17-year-old homegrown Scottish midfielder George Reid scored twice on debut in a 3-0 win over Vysehrad and Talakhadze bagged a hat trick in a 3-2 win at Slovacko.
Slavia moved them 17 points clear heading into a top-two clash with Baník Ostrava in mid-March. They hit the bar three times in the first half, two of which were Tshibuabua free kicks, before Baník scored against the run of play. But Tshibuabua immediately equalise and had two goals disallowed before left back Mohamed Azzaoui chose a good time to score his first senior goal with a 30-yard screamer.
That result meant the title was virtually secure, given Slavia moved 20 points clear with 10 to play. And Slavia did secure their 19th title and Mahtal’s 16th with five games remaining, before the so-called Championship Group began. They went on to smash Sparta’s all-time record of 86 points, set back in 2022, as they finished on 96 points after 31 wins, 3 draws and just the 1 defeat, to finish a massive 31 points clear of Baník. They scored 95, just 3 short of their own record of 98, and only conceded 27.
Tshibuabua was the league’s top scorer with 20 goals and winger Pascal Elvedahl the lead assister with 13. But they had the best five performers in the league led by Sprajcer’s 7.51 followed by Elvedahl, Tsbibuabua, Talakhadze and Augusto (7.48, 7.44, 7.37 and 7.36).
Mahtal’s Most Exciting Squad
Mahtal firmly believed this was the most exciting squad he’d ever compiled. Tshibuabua flourished as the striker, leading the way with 27 goals after he surpassed Pospech, who Mahtal froze out of the side when he decided to leave, followed by Talakhadze and Elvedahl (12), Sprajcer (11 in 20) and Augusto (8 in 15). Elvedahl led the way with 17 assists, even though he didn’t get any after mid-February, followed by Tshibuabua (12), Talakhadze and Dedic (11), Rocha (10) and full backs Azzaoui and Martin Yanchev (6).
Normally, Mahtal would jump ship after winning a title. But he loved this exciting attacking team he’d put together so much and had another talent to add to it in the summer, so he decided to have at least another year in Czechia.
Could Slavia Praha become even better in Mahtal’s second season? Join us on Wednesday to find out!
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