As soon as Nadia called me I knew I had to accept. He offered me a blank page on a privileged speaker. An oasis of these times. And it has been a fantastic trip. We have gone without a map, but with direction, choosing the stops from the responsibility and sensitivity that each moment inspired in me. We have talked about the F League, the management of a locker room, methodology, injuries, emotions, and the thousand and one doubts that haunt the coach-person and that the fever for results often dilutes.
I have told you a lot about myself. In each of these pieces I have poured my concerns and my interests around this football that is so high-profile, so complex, so polarized, so directed, so fascinating, as if knowing that on the other side there would be someone reading me gave me a little peace. It gave some meaning to my reflections. I don’t know if we have gone from less to more or from more to less, if sometimes I have left a text that is too technical or too personal. I don’t know if you were interested or if, at least, I made you think. I don’t know if you expected anything else.
I have enjoyed it very much. I have always liked to write. It has been and is a kind of balm in which I get messy without filters until I find that luminous thread that, in silence, brings everything together again. You breathe better after scribbling or typing. This has been these texts: a path between San Sebastián and a diffuse horizon; an opportunity to exchange messages with former players and colleagues and open stimulating debates from our new place. An intense search process. My journey.
Now I have a new stop on the way: Birmingham. A new League, the English WSL. A new club, Aston Villa. A gigantic challenge personally and professionally that I face with great enthusiasm, convinced that I can do it well, but also, and I confess, with respect and a little bit of vertigo. There is no leap forward that does not stir the stomach. Blessed and longed for adrenaline.
And I could now write a text about how the arrival to a team is supposed to be managed with the season underway. Your first time with your new staff. Your first message to the staff. Shake, empower, observe. Give yourself some time to make the group’s routine your own, without a total revolution, but leaving your mark from the first second. You come to change things. Many can change and it is not preseason. Few would waste the impact that is sought with your entry. Adapt to the environment and transform it for the better. And do it quickly. That’s the challenge.
I am clear that, at the end of January, the results-project balance wants to weigh more in one direction, but the challenge is that no qualifying urgency leads us to not firmly build the pillars of our football identity. What we leave behind today will not return. I prescribe myself to trust my intuition, be clear in my instructions, listen a lot, hug well and encourage doing. And smile during the process.
I have been imagining things for months and there is no greater creative force than that of what we do not yet know is not possible. I won’t tell you how it’s going because my texts end here today, but after several Fridays sharing each other, you will know how to read me between the lines to see if my player 12 contributes, if my team flows or waits, if the first victory catapults us.
Traveling alone is a pleasure, but doing it well accompanied will be a thousand times better. Somehow, you will be on the other side. Thank you and until next time.
