One of the speakers at the talk organised yesterday by the Corazón de María school (CODEMA) in which Miguel Ángel Ramírez took part was the former Real Sporting de Gijón footballer, and currently a member of the coaching staff of Sporting Atlético, Nacho Cases. The player from Gijón shared the message of the coach from Gran Canaria about expectations, with the example of the last promotion of Sporting of the ‘Guajes’, and left a reflection on his experience, as a father, in youth football.
“Regarding expectations, in the last year that we were promoted, in 2015, we started from a lower expectation, it was practically not to be relegated at the beginning. When we saw that we didn’t lose, we thought ‘well, let’s get the necessary points and see how far we get’. But it’s true that in the dressing room there was what you say (Ramírez); I called it unity between us, we can put a thousand meanings to what we felt. But what happened was that we were quiet, prepared for the worst, but from the inside we were so united that in the end success also came from within. We were setting our objectives from within, but we were sending messages to the outside that were a little lower than what we felt inside. This union of low expectations on the outside and high expectations on the inside made people feel an excitement that they hadn’t been able to experience until this year”.
In this regard, when asked about how to deal with and manage the frustration generated by the expectations surrounding a professional football team, Ramírez had responded as follows: “My mentality for managing frustration based on expectations is based on a phrase that I apply as a life motto: expect the best, prepare for the worst and accept whatever comes”. A phrase that Cases shares and refers to.
He also had words of praise and recognition for the work of the current squad and coaching staff, with the excitement generated and the parallels with the last promotion: “I’m telling you directly (to Ramírez), you are generating excitement among the people from within with your work, and it’s important to appreciate how you are managing it. All this from the inside and outside. People are experiencing an excitement that they haven’t experienced for 6 or 7 years. I say this from the bottom of my heart and I acknowledge in public what you are generating. Then you can get whatever results you want, but what you are generating for the people is a climate of confidence. On Saturday the stadium will be full. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard people talking about Sporting and you’re generating that from a union amongst yourselves that I don’t enjoy very much being at Sporting Atlético, but I feel it too, and I’m grateful for the excitement you’re generating amongst the people”.
Finally, among other interventions, Nacho reflected on the behaviour of parents in youth football and a worrying drift: “I agree that there is a circumstance in youth football that worries me. A drift that I’ve been seeing since I’ve been here and that I haven’t seen for a few years. That was the behaviour of parents at youth football matches. My son plays in the third division, he’s played five games and I’ve seen things that I didn’t see when I was a player, but I think that a climate of tension is being generated, of over-competition and wanting to win on the part of us parents, which I don’t think is good for the kids”.
