The headline of this interview may sound like a reproach, but nothing could be further from the truth. Unlike. Nobility has been, is and will be a characteristic of Kuko Ziganda (Larraintzar, 1-10-1966). The now coach of Oviedo talks to football MD from the Carbayona and Rojilla perspective, but especially Rojiblanca. Come and read.
Are you still in Oviedo?
I am still in Oviedo. Happy to be able to continue in football with high professional competition and because without having great sporting results they have been able to appreciate the work we have done, something that is not usual in the world of football in the rush that there is with everything.
Well, the one from Oviedo was an electric bench in recent years!
It is a team that everyone remembers at the end of the 90s in the First Division and playing in Europe, but then it came to be in the Third. We took it a year and a half ago in a very, very delicate situation and we were able to get it out.
And this year?
We started with great enthusiasm because we finished well, but it took us a lot to get good results to get on top.
The same continues because he always beats Sporting!
We have played three derbies and we have won all three (laughing), but you have to be there to experience what the derby is. When you are close, you realize the real rivalry that exists in the Asturian derby.
How do you rate having been thirteenth in the table?
We have been thirteenth, but our year has been to be tenth. We have had some very strange results. We have not been able to beat any of the top nine, taking away Sporting. The first seven, Ponferradina and Mirandés have been better than us. We have drawn a lot, 19 games, similar to Athletic, and we have that feeling of wanting and not being able to. We are where we need to be by game.
What a bad thing about Arnau!
Tremendous. The relationship was very direct, daily. An inexplicable blow. No matter how many laps you give it … You wonder how, why, if it could have done something … Very hard.
Amorebieta, Eibar, Sanse … Next year we are going to see him a lot around here.
We always say that around here, in the north, things are done calmly and calmly. Hence there are important teams in First and now in Second as well. Sanse has a lot of merit in climbing, the Amorebieta is a sports miracle and Eibar will be in another step than the rest.
Too bad about Bilbao Athletic!
I have followed them and I know the kids. Bilbao Athletic is a training team whatever we get and the first objective is to train. In a final phase of such a level, perhaps he lacked experience, that residue, and not having been first in the group, something that could have been decisive.
To be in Second and that they give him the same treatment that they gave to his Bilbao Athletic after climbing …
For a subsidiary, this year's League is going to be very demanding and tougher than the Second B of last year. With the aim of preparing young kids and raising them up, I think it will be more than enough. Being in Second requires another approach and you cannot go on to say “well, he trained them and the result does not matter.” No. If you make a fair, young team that finds it difficult to get results, the year in Segunda is tough.
Do you miss Lezama?
No. They were incredible years both personally and professionally. I've never felt like it was going to work. When you spend eight or ten hours there and enjoy watching players so much, doing what you like the most and believe it …
Very different from your year on the Athletic bench?
That is another story. That did become more work and then things did not turn out as one could imagine. That way, it does make you harder, really … Then we had to change the chip and we have been doing things, traveling, seeing and training and we are lucky to be in Oviedo.
Since Valverde, in addition to no longer entering Europe, there have already been four coaches at Athletic.
Ernesto hurt us all a lot. He spent four years achieving impressive results, with a great block and a great job. All that he achieved while in Europe seemed easy. Maintaining that cycle in clubs like Athletic is not easy and now the team is in one more cycle of peaks.
Moment of the players with Valverde
Can you be more explicit?
He has moments in the Cup in which he has been very good, in the League it is costing him a little more … Irregular. It is clear that nowadays with the demands that exist, people are needed in very good physical, mental and mental condition, people of competence in what is a squad.
Y?
Well, in Athletic it is not easy to maintain that degree of demand permanently.
Why not?
Because it is not easy, no matter how much one wants to renew, to have all the players always one hundred percent both physically and mentally. It is not easy to maintain that competitiveness in a group like Athletic.
What if you have a full Aduriz like the one Valverde had?
It is not the subject of just one. Ernesto we know the coach that he is, the group that formed and evidently coincided with an Aduriz who had spectacular years and who in many moments was very decisive. Then there was a block at a great age and at another time mentally, physically and sportingly and he was able to get the most out of it.
With a team where your top scorer has scored eight goals, can you aspire to a lot?
Vacuum if you can. The feeling it gives is that the team has given everything in the Cups. There he has been able to be very involved and focused on the competition. In the League it has cost him more that regularity and he has scored the goals, if you look at it, in terms of his final classification.
There are those who suspend Athletic for their season.
In football there is no middle ground. If you are able to beat Real in the final, your story changes. You don't beat Real and you don't change anything. The year at Athletic has not been bad, it has been normal and there have been no problems either. There have been no audiences, nor have there been spectacular streaks either for or against … It has been a year of moving forward.
One year, yes, with a change of coach.
It was all very strange. In a short space of time there were a lot of changes and then waves that come and go. The change of coach was a shock. After beating Elche, Marcelino enters, wins the Super Cup and it seemed that everything was going smoothly and in straight football there is nothing. Things do not happen by chance. Neither the good nor the bad. Everyone must be very psyched, coordinated and do things very, very well so that they come out like in the Super Cup. A point of courage, of daring, a point of everything. The team looked loose in everything; But from what has been seen, it has not been easy to give continuity to those two months of Marcelino. That's what soccer teams are. Over time it will be seen if he is able to give continuity to those first two months or if he stays in those last months.
What is your opinion of Marcelino?
He is a great coach. There are his trajectory and his results.
And the current Athletic?
Template there, things as they are. In order to achieve goals, everyone who is there needs to be able to have the best year of their lives. Either you get better or you get worse. Improving every year is not easy, but there is no turning back in a professional and demanding world in which all the teams that surround you are reinforced. When the other teams do not improve, they quickly change to one, two, three, four or five and bring people to sprint and people to lead and pull the peloton. In Athletic it is not easy to do that.
So what can be done at Athletic?
Everyone who is there has to be mentally strong enough to know that either you get better or you get worse. And what's more: if you stay as you are, you get worse.