Rufete: “If one day I'm Espanyol's problem, I'll go away”

In an interview with La Grada with the participation of AS, Francisco Joaquín Pérez Rufete, sports general director, underwent a full-fledged third degree. Nervous at times before the questions and with great circumlocution, he was instead blunt about his continuity: “If one day I am the club's problem, I will leave. But there is a goal now which is to get to the First Division. I have a professional relationship with the president and I show him every day I fight and work.”

The former player, who entered as an employee in July 2018 and who assumed all powers since January 2020, has been the target of criticism after the management of the previous season, the worst in history, which ended with the fifth decline with the lowest score and a coach Rufete with also the worst data ever. “Nobody likes these situations. Sometimes things do not go the way you want. You are a professional, you have to move on and achieve success”, He commented after being shown a crossed out photo of him that circulates on Twitter among parakeet followers.

The sports director began by distancing himself from all the responsibility of the previous year, making it clear in his first answer that “There is one thing that I have not clarified: I have been for three years but in January of the previous year is where I really take the step forward“Despite the fact that in the club's statement when he was hired as Director of Professional Football, in 2018, he was presented as the head of the first team, Rufete clarified that “In the statement it has nothing to do with my responsibilities. It is like when you hire a player, it does not say that he is a leader or a captain.”

On this matter, he gave more details and gave examples of his tasks: “To be specific, I propose Vargas, like others. I propose the players, but I am not the maximum responsible. I had two CEOs above me. That structure weakened us.”. And, with Espanyol on the decline, President Chen Yansheng decides to give it the entire sports field: “In a conversation I tell him what I would do, and that is to sign to generate performance and enthusiasm”. And that argument convinced the owner of Rastar Group, who promoted him and authorized him to form his work team, even, as Rufete insisted, he assured him that he would continue at the club despite the relegation if he took the team and showed his face after deciding fire Abelardo Fernández.

From trust in Vicente Moreno to the renewal of Puado

The sports director, who acknowledged that he has not been able to speak more to the media for “lack of time” and that all the decisions he tried “take for the good of the club“He also insisted that “Rufete doesn't make all the decisions.” Somewhat exhausted at times before the questions, the sports general director valued the first team maintaining his full confidence in Vicente Moreno and venturing the configuration of the next course's squad: “We are already looking at players in case we can anticipate what happened with Keidi Bare.”

Regarding the present, he believes that the team is “climbing” and that Moreno is a long-term technician that when the promotion is consummated his skills will be enhanced. Rufete confirmed that Miguelón will continue in the club, as well as Álvaro Vadillo and Nany Dimata if promotion is achieved (3.8 million between the two), situations that “are not mortgages”, since improving a staff even in Second requires efforts. For this he gave the example of Cádiz last season: “Cádiz was mortgaged at ten million euros. We are below.”

He also defended himself against the renovations of Javi López and Dídac Vilà (“We had to put the maximum to be in First. We try to do everything. When you go down everything is a disaster”, commented on the praised renewal of the players before the descent was consummated), but it was hard with the poor performance of Matías Vargas: “He is a player who arrived, who was very good in the first games. A great investment was made and coaches went through. He works well, we are here to help him, but the baggage of minutes regarding his purchase is screwed. Right now it is a footballer who does not have the performance and the minutes we expected “. He also avoided with the expression “football things” the dismissals of the prop Jordi Pérez or Ángel Morales as an administrator of grassroots football.

On the contrary, and as positive news, he advanced that he has already made an offer to improve and extend his contract to Javi Puado, a footballer who sees that he “meets the conditions” to be one of the team's icons, since he is overflowing with “Spanishism “. Label of Spanish player and belonging to the club also imposed by Rufete, a former parakeet player between 2006 and 2009, who gave his first interview after Chen gave him full powers.