The new Neptunes coach, Zoran Mustur, will be starting his preliminary duties with the Malta champions in mid-January when he is due to make a familiarisation visit and prepare the senior team’s pre-season work-outs.

The unexpected departure of former coach Sergey Markoch, who moved to Kazakhstan as national team coach, necessitated a replacement of a man of quality whose task will be to maintain the team’s trail of five successive championship titles.

After recommendations from one of the club’s foreign acquaintances, the choice fell on Mustur from Montenegro, a well-known figure in waterpolo circles who reached his peak as a player in 1980 when he helped Yugoslavia to a silver medal in the Moscow Olympic Games.

That year he played alongside great players such as Ratko Rudic, Milivoj Bebic, Bosko Lozica, Zoran Copcevic and others, all of whom went on to win gold in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

As coach of top standing, having also been in charge of several top clubs, Mustur comes from a breed of disciplinarians, with a no-nonsense approach.

Neptunes can thus aspire to have the right man to steer their team as from April when he is expected to be back in Malta until the end of the summer season.