Diego Martínez (41 years old, Vigo) has just landed at Espanyol wanting to build a competitive team. He promises passion and dedication, virtues with which he already excelled with Granada. After a voluntary sabbatical year, including a long stay in England, Martínez arrives with a suitcase full of ideas. Football concepts, inspiration from other sports, even gastronomy or other artistic expressions... Everything adds up if it can be applied to make Espanyol a better and more attractive team.
Before his signing was announced, he had a telematic conversation with President Chen. What did he transfer to you?
It was a contact presided over by naturalness. We talk about what can be improved, about the challenge that lies ahead, which will force us to optimize resources to the maximum... It will be like a puzzle in which we have to get each move right because we know in advance that we will not be able to do as many as you like.
What attracts you to Espanyol?
When you talk to the parakeets they transmit an intensity in the feeling they have that turns them into something different. We are talking about a historic club in a large European city. It is a very attractive site and I have liked the people, the common ideas and the shared values.
He has taken advantage of the year away from the bench to enrich himself as a coach. Did he do it because he is young and he considered that he had to improve in some way?
For that it does not matter if you are 20, 40 or 60 years old. Ferran Adrià, to give an example, is constantly learning. Restlessness and the desire to learn go with one. On the other hand, circumstances pushed me to take a year off from training. I felt that it was time to close my stage in Granada and to take a few months for my family and to dedicate some time to enrichment. I have always greatly admired Spanish basketball coaches, people who went to the US in the 1980s to learn about the NBA and university basketball and returned with a high level of training. There are the Sergio Scariolo, Joan Plaza, Aíto García Reneses, Pedro Martínez or Ettore Messina. People prepared and anxious to continue growing.
Are you more interested in the tactical aspect or knowing how to convey your idea?
I'm interested in everything. For me it is very difficult to separate tactics from management, defense from attack, good from evil, light from darkness. Julio Velasco (Argentine volleyball coach) used to say that opposites coexist. In order to implement a tactical concept you need to reach the heart and for that you need management. Alejandro Amenábar said “I want to be flexible without being breakable”. Many times you find in others things that fit with you. I try to nurture myself at all levels.
He was nurtured in England from matches up to the ninth division and shared subway cars with fans. From that three-month baggage, what was brought in the suitcase that can be implanted now?
Many things. I have always been passionate about how football is experienced in England and wanted to experience it up close. As one fan told me, “From 11 am to 7 pm on Saturday I live for my team. Sunday is for my family.” I wanted to live that culture. Another example: to complete my training in Spain I did the sports management course, of which I still have to deliver the final project. It is not my intention to be a sports director but it is a way to better understand the global concept.
He spoke of the atmosphere of the English countryside. Espanyol suffers from a certain disaffection regarding the presence of the public. What can you tell people to re-engage them?
Promising results would be a lie. But that we are going to leave our soul so that in the process the team can get contagious and be competitive, that we can promise. Then we'll see where the competition puts us. What I do have clear is that the growth of this club goes through the union with its people. Because this club is its people.
Do you like the squad that Espanyol has?
When I know what it's going to be… (smiles). The one that is for me is going to be the best in the world, or rather we will try to get the most out of the one we have. It is not only a question of mine but of the club, the team, the sports management and it is not a question of what you would like to do, but of what we can do because economically there are limits, exits, entrances...
Have you been guaranteed that Raúl de Tomás will continue?
Guaranteeing in football… the nevers and the alwayss nobody can guarantee them. I want the best in the Espanyol squad and we are going to fight for it. You have to understand the context you're in and adapt. What has brought me here is the power to build something beyond names. You have to build a team.
But the president didn't ask you for a minimum goal?
We want to build a recognizable team that is sustainable over time.
In the last season it has not been enough for the public or the club to maintain a certain slack in the First Division. That's why we still have to go further next year...
I insist, of objectives, of results it makes no sense to speak. We always want to improve, but from the process, and from there compete. We want to build a team without fear, without complexes but also without fantasies or castles in the air.
What teams do you like to watch? What technicians excite you?
I enjoy, for example, the vertigo of Liverpool, but also a positional attack of Manchester City. I think there are many ways to get excited, you can do it from energy, from possession, from a good defense... It's one thing that all that can get you excited but then you don't have to create a utopia and you do have to know what kind of game your footballers are doing well and what league you are in. What you have to do is adapt. I like to try to take the best of the best, but above all what suits us best. The most important thing is to start from the strengths of the players. We must try to enhance their characteristics and adapt to them.
He is famous for taking his players to extra-soccer activities to form a group. Where do you plan to take the Espanyol squad?
Green for now. Everything that I am explaining in this interview has to do with green, all things of external inspiration are for me but that must be transferred to the field of play later. The green in all its dimensions, the tactical, the technical, the physical and, above all, the mental.
How many hours would you like an Espanyol footballer to think about the team per day?
He can never stop being an Espanyol player 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but what matters to me is that he is fully focused on training and matches. Apart from this, that it be professional and that it has other distractions because you also have to live.
And a coach can get to disconnect?
You have to try, and over time you become better self-managed. But unconsciously my work is always there. Maybe you are watching a movie and you move it to your work or solutions come to you when you are in the car or you are distracted.
Weren't you afraid that they would forget about you for leaving for a year?
If I was afraid I would never have been a coach. If you are afraid and do not want criticism, then you have to dedicate yourself to something else. He who is afraid will always find a reason to be afraid.
Which of the players you have trained have left a special mark on you?
I 've been very lucky. I have had very good groups. I have trained cadet teams and from there and in the different categories we have achieved that cohesion. One always stays with the great leaders. I'm going to do something that I shouldn't, for not leaving anyone to me, which is quoting some. For example, Roberto Soldier, Jorge Molina, Víctor Díaz, Montoro, Oier Sanjurjo, Xisco Jiménez, Carlos Fernández or Borja Laso… players who, beyond the football aspect, made others better and fought for team cohesion.
