TMW Radio
We would hardly have seen Peter Mendes in Serie C, and here is the official note yesterday: Ascoli has sold the talented striker to Modena, in Serie Bdiscovered and brought to Italy by the former Juventus Sporting Director Mark Valentini. Who spoke during the morning meeting of All Ctransmission of TMW Radio dedicated to the world of Serie C, precisely to talk about this heavy loss for the Marche team: “When I brought him to Ascoli we were in Serie B, but I think the boy has growth prospects even in a higher category. He arrived in Italy as a young man because he played minutes, but I saw in him serious Serie A prospects, given the wide margins for improvement he has. He also wants to improve, he is proactive, he never misses a training session, and I think that all this, combined with his technique, will take him far”.
Surely a good booty for Ascoli, his transfer. But how did the idea of bringing him to Italy come about?
“The thing started strategically in January 2022, as part of my work I had started to look at the players whose contracts were expiring not only in 2022 but also in 2023. This didn’t just concern Pedro Mendes, I had a list of about twenty players, and in March I organised a trip for my trusted scout, because I believe that the boys should be seen live, and in reality for another striker and a central defender: Mendes’ representative, however, contacted me, I knew that he wouldn’t renew with Sporting, and so my scout went to observe him. There were positive reports on all the boys, but in June we started negotiations with Sporting: initially the request was very high, but we negotiated until August, and at that point the boy’s will was also decisive. We took him for 400 thousand euros with a percentage on the future resale”.
Mendes was part of that playing time so dear to Serie C. But when can this rule perhaps penalize players?
“In Ascoli, by input from the owners, we had to get minutes, so it was easy for me to do it, but I don’t divide the players into ‘young’ and ‘old’, but into ‘good’ and ‘not good’. I have no objection to including them, beyond the rules, but you must clearly be aware of the fact that the young player, over the course of a championship, may not give you continuity of performance, but this is part of the normal growth of a player, and it should not worry you. In fact, I want to add one thing: our youth national teams are winning a lot, the mechanism jams when the boys reach professionalism, due to a cultural problem. Directors and coaches are precarious workers, and they are often terrified of betting on the young because there is more risk: if the coach loses 3-4 games he is immediately put in the dock, he becomes a donkey, the DS doesn’t understand anything, the social media goes wild and a negative mechanism is triggered that leads to bankruptcy, because most of the time things change for the worse. In Italy, unfortunately, you can’t lose matches, it really doesn’t take much to be pilloried. Owners should be more courageous, because the key words in football should be patience and balance, especially when dealing with young players and their growth.”
On the growth of young people, can Under23 teams be an opportunity?
“I am absolutely in favor of the U23s, the young players are competing in a context that is already more complicated from a psychological, emotional, physical and tactical point of view. In England, for example, the U23 championship is very tough, but it shows that the sooner a young player leaves the youth sector to compete with tougher realities, the sooner his growth path is shortened”.
Do you think other teams could follow the example of Juventus, Atalanta and Milan?
“Juve and Atalanta are cutting-edge clubs, they were the first, Milan is following suit and I predict someone else will do the same, but everything needs to be organised well, structures and management are needed. They need to be done but they need to be done well, we need to structure ourselves to do everything in the best possible way. In any case, over the next three years, I think there will be 2-3 new Serie B teams”.