After the words on the season and the change of direction between D’Aversa and Gotti, Saverio Sticchi Damiani once again expresses satisfaction for having combined Lecce’s economic-financial sustainability with the sporting result: “From a management point of view I am satisfied: the lowest salary in Serie A and targeted investments in players on a permanent basis, we don’t like taking players on loan, training them and then having them come back. We prefer to invest in footballers by keeping the wages low and having savings and benefits. Investments must be made in players outright. The double economic and sporting result was excellent.”
Now it will be transfer market time: “In this sense we have a technical area led by Raven who does not lack experience and competence, he was the architect of a great journey, the club does not need transfers for energy from the outgoing market. We must make logical, right and conscious choices. Cwhoever satisfies us technically and has the fire to achieve the third salvation in Serie A with Lecce can stay with us, if there are others who believe their level is higher than that of Lecce, there is no point in keeping them, it would result in double economic and technical damage. However, Lecce’s requests must be satisfied for them too. If these conditions do not exist, everyone can stay to achieve the third salvation and must stay with us. Hjulmand last year? We invested the proceeds from his sale entirely to buy Falcone, Pongracic, Ramadani, Krstovic and others. With that sale we permanently signed players who did well. The same thing applies to this year, we will not retain kids unless they have legitimate ambitions, will and a relevant offer. Otherwise we can stay as we are.”
On Gotti’s confirmation, Sticchi Damiani speaks of decisive moments for an announced yes: “The waltz of the benches in A? We don’t care. I’d say we’re good. We had a great 60 days with Gotti, we got along perfectly, it’s clear that before starting the season there will be a discussion on the technical aspect and within the technical area I imagine that Gotti, Corvino and Trinchera will compete in the next few hours. I don’t imagine any particular surprises.”
The president of Lecce then responds to an explicit question on Salernitanarelegated after an unfortunate year: “Iervolino is a friend and an excellent entrepreneur. He has a bad year, but he has the intelligence, culture and foresight to start again. He has made many sacrifices and they cannot be canceled out by a current negative result.”
The discussion then moves on to words of Empoli’s first manager Fabrizio Corsi. The phrase ‘even my maid knew the result of Lecce-Udinese in advance’ did not go down well with Saverio Sticchi Damiani who nevertheless maintains profound analysis and diplomacy: “I read your words. She surprised me, I know Corsi and we have good relations, I imagine it was a moment of particular stress which didn’t help him to be clear-headed. These are serious statements which, in addition to personal regret, must entail our reporting to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. We did it this morning. These issues cannot be played with. I reassure him by telling him that when I discovered Lecce-Udinese on Monday, instead of rejoicing, I called the League saying that in my opinion it wasn’t a good idea to play it like this and it would have been better to play it at the same time. I did it in unsuspecting times and I’m not afraid of being proven wrong. I didn’t want to use the objective advantage over the others and I asked to backdate it. With Udinese the team did its thing, some players keep the tension high, others a little less, otherwise we would have to review every result between teams in the running and teams outside the objectives. Corsi’s imprudent statements, however, must be brought back to reality.”
Lecce fans await news on the improvements that will affect the stadium Via del Mare, affected by funds for the Mediterranean Games: “I am optimistic, we have obtained the first tranche of funding thanks to the current Government for a first step of work and we are in the running for a second tranche which would allow us to cover it. By June we will know if the Via del Mare, in a very short time given that the interventions will be completed by September 2026, will have coverage”.
