After the decision of not be able to participate in the Maschineseeker EHF Champions League this season, Vardar 1961 decided to make some roster changes giving up on some planned foreign reinforcements. That however did not lower the ambitions of the five-time SEHA - Gazprom League champions to fight for another SEHA Final 4 tournament appearance. 
 
One of Vardar’s goals for the season is already fulfilled as they managed to finish the group stage of the Macedonian national championship without a single defeat once again proving to be one of the main favourites for the title. Despite of having only three internationals in their team with Cuni Morales, Jan Czuwara, and Andrej Dobrkovic, ‘Red&Blacks’ once again have a respectable team. Serbian international Darko Djukic is also expected to come back to the squad as he is still recovering from an injury. Vardar was also active on the transfer market in December securing the arrival of Brazilian left-back Leonardo Dutra - the third Brazilian player ever to wear the red and black jersey after Rogerio Moraes and Toledo. Dutra arrived as a replacement for Ante Gadza who will continue his career in Saudi Arabia which means Vardar had to react in order to bring a reinforcement that will help Martin Karapalevski and Filip Taleski in taking care of full-back duties. Before the start of the season, Vardar also lost Timur Dibirov to PPD Zagreb while David Davis decided not to sign a contract extension. As a result of that, the club decided to bring back experienced international Dejan Manaskov from Telekom Veszprem. The new coach is Vlado Nedanovski – former assistant to Stevce Alushovski, Veselin Vujovic, and David Davis as well as a member of Vardar’s golden generation that conquered Europe. Nedanovski started well winning all 14 national championship matches so far. 
 
Goalkeepers for the season are Macedonian national team goalie Martin Tomovski and young Vasil Gogov. Borko Ristovski is still in Skopje however his main role will this season be coaching Tomovski and Gogov. Dejan Manaskov and Polish national team player Jan Czuwara are in charge of the left wing duties as well as young Mario Stojanovski who is a new product of Vardar’s handball school. On the right-hand side, in the absence of Darko Djukic, Goce Georgievski and Alen Kjosevski will have to carry the position. Stojance Stoilov is playing his last season with the ‘Red&Blacks’ but he still remains the first choice on the line with Stefan Atanaskovski and Milan Lazarevski jumping in whenever needed. 
 
Coach Vlado Nedanovski will have to direct his main focus toward getting the back line to work well together as that is the part of the team with which Macedonians appear to be struggling the most at the moment. The number one choice on the left is still Filip Taleski with Marko Mishevski assisting him. Martin Karapalevski and Andrej Dobrkovic are, along with Leonardo Dutra, taking care of playmaking with Cuni Morales, and Macedonian national team call-up David Savrevski taking care of duties on the right side. 
 
Despite not having as many options in every position as they had back in the years when they were conquering Europe, Vardar 1961 still has that special something that makes them a tough opponent for everyone. Coach Nedanovski surely knows what it takes to win, and his goal will certainly be to bring the five-time champions back to the SEHA Final 4 tournament.