FOOTBALL “From Primera we want to be the tractor of the province”

Manuel Torres, 49 years old. Born in Huesca. Opposition lawyer five years for judge. Seven years at the club where he started as a lawyer. From the world of basketball (top coach). Barcelonista from birth when Huesca does not play, he takes the floor. “For the club I was recruited, like almost everyone, Petón, who is a man of the Renaissance. Multifaceted. He never told me why he called me. Our operation is simple. The main shareholder is the Alcoraz Foundation with 66 percent, the Bahía company has a 14 and the rest of the shareholders are distributed without any significant participation that exceeds five percent. Our management model is the one that governs the new football. We are a company-business that has a Board of Directors behind and deals with to differentiate itself in the sentimental-emotional element that it treasures. We have a general director, José Luis Ortas, the man orchestra in the internal functioning “.

“Our main assets are the fans and our territory. We want to be the tractor of the province of Huesca off the field and a team on the field SUV middle class that is consolidated in First. Our project has three legs. We want to unite our companies, our institutions and our people around football. That is the philosophy. We have managed to convey a sense of belonging to the spectacular province. Almost tribal. We are the fire, the meeting point, without forgetting, of course, that our main purpose is football and we are linked to the ball entering. Once it's in, that's when we try to do everything else. “

“Our budget is close to 47 million euros. Our strategy is to spend one euro less than what is entered. Right now we have money in the box. We are profitable and we are up to date with payments in everything. This year with the promotion bonus Maybe the expected surplus will not be met, but we are delighted to be in the First Division, of course. The strength of our club at all levels has been supported by how everything has been handled after the case Oikos, upgrade included. That complaint, those investigations that are still open were a shock that generated many difficulties for us. No player wanted to come at first. The conviction that the club had done things well gives you strength and allows you to mark a line, which is where we are. It's a pellet we have on our wing. Hopefully we will be dismissed but let's not forget that it has affected an important man in the club such as President Lasaosa, as well as our doctor. “

The current Huesca could not be understood without him. José Antonio Martín Otín, “Petón”. Born in Madrid but a citizen of his Castle of Leres (Aragon). Veteran who does not look his age. Footballer, journalist and designer of a future project then that today lives in the First Division. Legend has it that it all started on the team bus when he was still a player. “I must have been 36 years old and it would be my last year at Huesca. Yes, it is true that one day, returning from a very long trip, I began to tell my colleagues what I had in mind that could be done with our club. Later on. I exposed it publicly as a journalist and wrote it in a magazine, four corners. “

“I had come to that club fifteen years before, I knew the situation and I knew that Huesca had sufficient capacity to manage well instead of poorly. The first thing I had to do was to distance two categories from the other clubs in the province. Huesca of the future could not be understood without being the team of the entire province and at that time Binefar, Barbastro, Sabiñánigo … played in the same categories as us. It was what happened two years after arriving at the club. The first The promotion to Second has already been played and the second was promoted “.

“The teammates looked at me impressed, even if I told them bullshit. More than anything because the captain was talking to them. But what I was telling them was not a chimera. I always say that I am a Huesca player to death and a fan of Atlético de Madrid to death. 16 years ago, at a veterans' assembly, I presented the project of joining the club. I had talked about it a lot with Agustín Lasaosa, who lived in Huesca, had a great career as technical secretary and had and has an ability to watch football that rarely I've seen. A few veterans joined in, very few. That was full of skepticism. They even called me close friends, reminding me how inhospitable and ungrateful the territory of Huesca was in football. They told me that it was only going to be suffering, that I was not put in, but I told them there was no going back. Decision made. “

“From then on, the help of Bahia was fundamental. He took advantage of his experience, his contacts and at the beginning many players were represented by Bahia, they were Aragonese or had played for Huesca. We took advantage of a key moment in the history of the sport of Aragon. had been left without professional sports: Zaragoza had dropped to Second; CAI had disappeared; Peñas had sold the license to Fuenlabrada; there was no handball. A water polo team was made because if a provincial capital had one they would put you in the division of honor. There was no elite sport. There were grants for professional sports and Huesca took advantage of them very well. “

“When we arrived we had just passed a relegation promotion to Third against the Canarian Castle. And we went up to the second year, after staying at the gates the first against Córdoba. We would have a budget of 800,000 euros that allowed us to pay the previous debt, order the club from moderation, which has been our watchword and seeking new horizons. So for the players, going to Huesca was something unusual. Huesca? they told me. There were those who stepped forward, like Rodri, Sorrribas Camacho … a seasoned coach like Manolo Villanova. We made a good team for Second B. That's how it all came about. “

As a footballer (goalkeeper) he was Rubén Martin. As Huesca sports director, he is Rubén García, but he responds to the two identities as if they were only one. Born in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo). 40 years. A crazy of football that seeks its medicinal formula in new technologies and that has landed in LaLiga after a personal and non-transferable pilgrimage. “I hate losing more than I like winning” is his motto. “I arrived at Huesca last season and without intending to, I became the sports director who signed the most players in all of Spanish football: 23. An entire squad plus the coaching staff with Míchel at the helm. Everything that comes from now on me it's going to seem like a blessing and we still have to keep signing. The case Oikos I caught myself as soon as I landed in Huesca and there were players who did not want to come and representatives who did not want to speak. They were afraid of the possible instability of the club. They could come and a month later be in Second B due to an administrative decline. So there was a lot of confusion. It took a lot to build the squad. We had dropped and we had to maintain a competitive squad for Second and be very careful not to fall down, as happened to Deportivo. With calm and hours and hours we were taking operations. The signings of Juan Carlos Real and Mosquera change the market for me. People saw that the Huesca project was taking shape. “

“I was a professional soccer player for 14 years. I played for Atlético, Albacete, Murcia City … When I retired I went to the United States. I wanted to continue in soccer and learn the language. I studied Criminology. With my resume, I received an offer to work with the US team. I was director of scouting of the entire North Side, from Boston down. It recruited footballers for the U-17 and U-20 teams. Then I went to New York City, which is the City Group franchise. I was director of goalkeepers at the Academy and continued with the national teams. Then the mythical goalkeeper Friedel calls me, who signed for an MLS team, the New England Revolution, the Patriots football franchise. It was like going to work at Real Madrid. The most winning club in American football. And I was there until Petón called me to sign for Huesca “.

“He tells me that he wants to modernize the club in all areas and he knew that I was handling the new technologies applied to football. I made up my mind and signed. I organize the sports management with six assistants and we have a tool, big data, that I use more to filter signings to make them as such. It helps me with the final decision. I try to transport the player I want to our idea of ​​the game and that's where the comparison with other players comes into play. I look for and filter what I need for us. I know that Many do not finish seeing this application of football data but they cannot turn their backs. It gives us a lot of data. For example, last year Huesca was the team that ran the most. It is not by chance. You buy speed, You buy kilometers… and if you can take advantage of the data to sign in, why not do it “.

“From the point of view of the sports director, it does change life having to make a team for First than for Second. The requirement in First is maximum. LaLiga is one of the two best championships in the world. The second can be the fifth, the sixth … The quality jump is as if you go up five steps. You don't go step by step. Fights against ocean liners. You have to set your goal and budget well. Know who my League is against and you make the team knowing that you will be among the bottom ten if everything goes well. In Second there are 14 teams that can go up and ten that fight not to go down. Everything is very even. We are the only ones who have gone up after going down. “

With his experience on the Rayo bench, in Second and First, Míchel Sánchez, from Madrid, 44 years old, doubted just enough when the recently demoted Huesca knocked on his door. “When I signed for Huesca last season I had another offer, but I was struck by the insistence that both Rubén and Petón had. They showed total confidence in me, in my way of understanding football. I saw Huesca, even if I had dropped, As a project for the future, a club with projection, with a good structure. I saw myself reflected. I am also a young coach, who just started four years ago and wants to continue growing. I thought that the circumstances were here and that both We would benefit and so far it has been. We went up to First and I'm happy. “

“Upon arrival the case arises Oikos. The next day. He had not even signed. I did not back down. They explained to me that the club was within the law, that it had not done anything and was going to prove itself. I was scared at the moment, but they calmed me down and I pulled forward even though we could be on everyone's lips. As they told me, they noticed me because of the style of play I was betting on and because it led to the ultimate consequences. They wanted a coach of this profile. They were convinced of my philosophy and they liked that it never changed, that it didn't lurch “.

“With our well-defined style, the club tries to sign players who fit into that model. All the footballers that we bring are based on that idea of ​​the game. They can go well or badly, but they all have to enter into the marked style. We are not going to change In First, but we have to know that in Second we were closer to our way of understanding the game, of being protagonists and that in First we will depend more on the rival because there are many teams trained to do the same thing that we want, but we will to try “.

“In the First Division you can play better, but the truth is in the areas. And there the teams are very strong in both. That is where we have to become strong. It will be useless to play well if we do not get good results. It is the whiting that bites its tail. We will have to be very competitive and to be so we have to dominate the areas. In First, the occasions are not forgiven. The level of the players in First is higher because the clubs have bigger budgets, including us. We can reach players with a higher profile than in the past. We will try to be protagonists within our style, but we will have to find solutions. “