Roberto Olabe bets on keeping the block

Roberto Olabe is committed to continuity in the squad for next season. Not only because the complicated context in which soccer is going to move in general is going to force the clubs to be more prudent when it comes to going to the transfer market, but also because Real Sociedad has a group of players who still have a career within the club. And that also happens by keeping players like Willian José and Januzaj in the realistic team, that a few months ago were more outside than within the realistic club. Even for trying to make Martin Ødegaard fulfill his second season on loan in San Sebastián, something that Real understand that it is on the right track, but that must be finished off. A good league classification will undoubtedly help. In every sense.

The Real Football Director is clear that these last eleven league games will not only serve to close well what was so far a great season, but also to see the future with more optimistic eyes. “The vision we have is related to closing the season. After that we can be third, sixth or eighth, with what that entails in terms of financial impact, in a situation like this, imagine if it has more significance. Right now we have a potential group among the players we have in the first squad, the players on loan and the players who come from Sanse, which makes us feel very calm., makes us feel that we can manage ourselves next year with the potential that we have. And then we will see what happens when the season ends, “explains Olabe in an interview in Panenka magazine.

In the Real they are clear that it will not be necessary to move too much to plan the team for the next campaign. So they work to see how to fit in the many players on loan this season, and who have mostly done a good job. These are kids who belong to the Zubieta quarry, where promising 'foals' will come back up to knock on the door of the first team. “Our genesis is our development center, our training center, Zubieta. What we want is precisely that, that we are identified with the development of talent and that people who identify with it want to come from there. We believe in young people, in the strength that our own philosophy gives us. Of almost 200 players that we have in Zubieta, 80% are players from the Gipuzkoan territory. But the made in Guipúzcoa is also related to those who come from outside, with that 20% that will come to improve us, to comply with the succession line system that we have, “says Olabe. For Real it will not be a problem to have than to look at its quarry because of the contraction of the football market, as it is something that comes with doing a lifetime.

Because the top boss of Zubieta recognizes that soccer has stopped during these months and it will be difficult to reactivate it, due to the budgetary adjustment that the clubs will be obliged to make due to the reduction in income. “In general everything has stopped a little bit. The seasons end on June 30 but the championships usually end in mid-May and many times the teams already have their goals or not in early May, so right now everything has slowed down. We are in a scenario of some uncertainty. We are going to end the season at the end of July and we don't know exactly when the player registration markets will open, but we are trying to work on the margins of all this. Has the market slowed down, the general timing of football? Yes, definitely. Could the management model change globally for the coming season? Yes, we think without a doubt. But Based on our strengths, we will continue working along the same lines, nothing that is happening with respect to the model we represent will change too much “, sentence.