The CEO of GenoaAndres Blazquezspoke to the microphones of Caught Offside to whom he gave a long interview where various topics were touched on: “We are in the home of the oldest club in Italy, a 16th century palace and a wonderful place to work, because you are inspired by the history and challenges of this fantastic city. We have a very big responsibility, the club and the city are very ambitious. We must do our best to bring the club back to the height of its history”.
The rossoblú CEO returns to the period of first months at the helm of the Grifone: “When we arrived here it was a little nightmare, the club was close to falling apart if you look at the numbers. We had excess costs of 70 million, we had four coaches on the payroll. We had other costs of 20/25 million between loans, agents and other things. We went to Serie B, probably partly due to our mistakes. We prepared Serie B very carefully by building a winning team and we did well to obtain promotion while we were reducing structural costs. We worked to have great support from the sponsors, the city and the fans. We are among those who have the most subscribers in Italy, between A and B. This is a great result for us. We had some of the highest attendances when we were in Serie B. This year we worked and I saw that we are third in the standings in terms of salary-points ratio in Serie A. We have the highest stadium filling percentage in Serie A, around 98%. in all matches. We had the highest percentage of season tickets sold in the city’s history. We are in contact with schools, with young people, with local and global music stars. We had Kanye West at one of our home games, Rita Ora doing a collaboration with us. In general we have a lot of people who come to the stadium to see what happens. All these things in general lead us to want to become sustainable in the next season”.
How do you carry out the selection?
“We have a youth sector that is traditionally one of the best in Italy in bringing young Under 14s to professionalism, we have one of the highest percentages in Italy for footballers who have become professionals among all categories with minimal structures. We want to improve the structures and staff and we believe we can become even more competitive in selecting young people throughout Italy. In fact, the success of the first team increases our ability to attract new talent”.
On the benefits of owning multiple clubs: “First is the support of high-quality staff. We have top-notch scouts, top-notch technical directors and top-notch data teams. We can work in the commercial development of companies, it may take some time. When I see a footballer, I first share it with our sporting director, Marco Ottolini. Then we send it to our team to evaluate the scout reports, the data. There are very few players for whom we don’t have scout reports and data. This is a great benefit of having more than one club. Then it offers us the opportunity to let our talents play. We have the 17-year-old Seydou Fini at Standard Liège, a great talent, who due to his form would not have been able to play here, but who at Standard is playing and is maturing and improving as a footballer”.
After touching on topics such as the purchase of Everton, for which the green light is awaited from the Premier League, and relations with the clubs of the English top division, the focus shifts to Radu’s January transfer Dragusin: “We knew its potential. His career wasn’t taking the right direction, when he arrived here we told him that he would become a starter from day one, that he would grow. He made some mistakes at the beginning, but he is a very intelligent footballer and corrected everything straight away. We had a fantastic talent, the idea was not to sell him and he didn’t want to leave in January because he was very attached to the team. He wanted to make sure Genoa reached their season goal. He also told me to let him stay until the end of January, but it wasn’t possible because there was a lot of pressure from Bayern, Tottenham and other teams. The last hours of the negotiation? We believe we want to treat our employees and our players differently. Bayern’s offer was much higher. But I told Radu that it was his career and that it would therefore be his choice. We want to cooperate with our players to make sure they are happy both in life and professionally. There was a lot of pressure from the two teams, Radu had already committed to Tottenham who were good at convincing him to move there”.
Then the conversation moves on Gudmunssonon the offers that arrived in January and on those that could arrive in the future: “We have already had several interests in Albert in recent weeks. We have a very close relationship, it’s like a family to us. We know what his priorities are and we will find an agreement to sell him or keep him that can satisfy both parties. We increased his salary significantly to get him to consider us an option. We know he’s fine. In the end a lot depends on his personal goals. He feels great at Genoa, in the city and is one of the most loved players on the team. It will be a personal decision, we’ll see what happens. What if the price will rise above 30 million? We will have to find the right balance between what Albert wants and what we want. As in the case of Radu, not the situation with the highest price but the one that guarantees the best conditions for all parties. We don’t want to impose anything on anyone. We certainly talked about a price. We have had interest from at least three in the top leagues who have expressed interest in Albert, but not just Albert but other players in the group”.
What are the objectives for the next few years?
“I think context is important. In Italy it is difficult to enter the top 10. Every season there are teams like Milan, Inter, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina, Atalanta and others who compete for European competitions. It’s not simple, there is a gap in the budget between our club and these. From the start of next season it is essential to be in competition and be on the doorstep of Europe. In two seasons from now we will have a realistic chance of qualifying for Europe. This is our goal. I have never had the goal of saving myself in Serie A, because it is a fact that you have to aim for the other. This is the philosophy of the team, the coach and all the people around. We must do our best and aim higher and higher and this must be for all parts of the club and society. We must be ambitious and always compete for Europe”.
Tags: Genoa Blazquez sustainable season
