Jesús Martínez spends his first few hours in Oviedo with an agenda full of commitments. This is how he happens every time he steps on Asturian soil. This afternoon, he spoke to the media to express his first impressions of the club’s current affairs.
Your first impressions
“I am very proud of what the Hall of Fame team has done. Also of the Mayor, of the people of Oviedo: it is a worldwide event and I am excited to bring it here. It is a big party, the celebration will be in Miami or Los Angeles. My hope is that the inauguration in later years will be here in Oviedo. It will be a great generation because there are emblematic figures”.
the oviedo
“We have renewed Calvo, we think that there has to be a team structure. We have played hard on the offensive end, but we don’t support very well at the back. We are talking with Costas, with Luismi, with Lucas… We want to keep the back and then bring in 3 or 4 very high-level reinforcements to continue with the project. We have to give confidence to the team and the coach, it’s a project that doesn’t go from one day to the next. We have a big debt with our fans, who deserve a team that fights for the first places. We have made an effort but we have to work more. We will continue investing.
beer
I like it a lot. He is very professional. They have to see the structure to be a more offensive team. The balance behind is very good but we lack variants up top to score goals. Matches are won with goals. I always tell them that. How is it possible that we can’t score 2 goals?
The Tartiere and its improvements
We are investing in video markers, on the screen, in static advertising… I have had my architects in Oviedo for four days to see what the next improvements are.
The sports city
“We are looking for the best option. That’s why I also come here, to check the two or three projects we have on the land. We haven’t stopped working. It’s my third visit in six months but I’m in daily contact. We’re going to have to keep working very hard. We need a sports city that is essential for a modern team, which has ambitious goals. That’s what we’re here for, to continue investing in this city that has given us so much.”
“We want to advance in the decision of the sports city. On another occasion we had an option and when the price goes up, it has to help us in that aspect, because the sellers change the price. If we could fix it it would be sensational. To already have the property and make the contract, it will be difficult in this visit but I hope that progress is 70 or 80%”
The season
“It’s difficult, we have to regain confidence by winning a game. We have a bitter taste, this last defeat hurt me. I didn’t see a solid defense in the first half, they came to us many times and in the second half we reacted due to character and pride. We need to have more football. The teacher (Cervera) knows it. He is self-critical, and a great professional. Hopefully we will close the tournament well to have more income from the position”.
Latores, the desired option
Oviedo really likes the option of Latores for several factors. One of them, essential in all this, is the good location of it. The land is two minutes by car from Tensi and about five from Carlos Tartiere. The accesses are much better than those so precarious of El Requexón. And it is located very close to the Cristo university campus, much to the liking of Pachuca, who always has training in mind in his projects.
The club’s idea would also involve moving its offices to the future complex, so that the new sports city would be the nerve center of Oviedo, where the entity’s leaders, coaching staff and employees would meet every day. It would be the bunker of the carbayones. Currently, the blue managers work in the Tartiere offices and the coaching staff does so in El Requexón. The idea is to unify everything. Pachuca takes the blue fans into account in its plans and in the “Latores project” there is space for the sports city to be the home of Oviedism.
The land in Latores where the complex would be located is divided into two, separated by a path and a small enclosure in which there is a building. At this time, the entire estate is one large “prao”, where animals often graze. It is flat at the beginning, although it is somewhat inclined at the end, where it delimits with several single-family homes. The construction of a sports city is the pending issue of Oviedo. The different leaders studied various fields and possibilities. In the first years of Carso, for example, it was considered to build it in El Asturcón, something that finally did not germinate. There were more options that were studied since the promotion, in 2015, but the last step was never taken.
One that was always on the table was expanding El Requexón. Even Pachuca studied on the ground the farm adjacent to the current sports city, where the old disused Guisasola Ceramics factory is located. This option was not entirely convincing due to its complexity, since the buildings are Historical Heritage and should be restored for their new use. The blue club also had offers to settle in Siero, on some land in Paredes belonging to the City Council that is located just behind the shopping center. Carso was close to completing that operation, which did not prosper, although Pachuca also valued it. The Mexican group saw much more land, but most of it was discarded because it had few hectares.
Going back to more than a year ago, with Carso in command, the blue council negotiated in Madrid for a farm located in La Lloral (San Claudio), of about 150,000 square meters and belonging to an investment fund. The option, which ultimately depended on Arturo Elías, the largest shareholder at the time, did not prosper either, although it was the one that had the most strength due to the commitment of advice. Now, the most advanced option is that of Latores. It depends on Jesus Martinez.
