Mirabelli: “My Padova is asserting itself. But the pressure is all on Vicenza”

TMW Radio

During today’s live broadcast of To All Cregistered transmission TMW Radio and dedicated to the world of Serie C, intervened the Sports Director of Padova Massimiliano Mirabelli. Who spoke in the week in which the biancoscudati will observe an obligatory rest, since the match of the 15th day against Atalanta U23 was postponed due to the national team break: “History teaches us that when you are in a positive trend you must continue, but we want to take this forced break as an opportunity, without feeling sorry for ourselves and working as best as the team is doing, to present ourselves in the best possible condition for the match on 23 November against Lecco, a rather difficult team: against the Blucelesti we would like to confirm that to be a strong team. We believe in this but we know that we have to work and always stay on top of things.”

Mister Andreoletti was very clear about the postponement, raising the doubt of requesting it in case of a different opponent. Strong words or reality?
“His words were perhaps misinterpreted. We know that there is a regulation that must be respected, but it is sad to see that during the two previous international breaks Atalanta never asked for a postponement, requesting it only on this occasion. We are forced to make a forced break which will then complicate our future path, we would have three matches in a week and also the Italian Cup round, significant commitments until the end of the year, but we must absolutely not think that it is a negative step: when certain things happen, a strong team that wants to win the championship must take it as an opportunity.”

Speaking of Second Teams, do you think they brought something different and qualitatively important to the Serie C championship?
“I am very much in favor of the Second Teams, I would like to remind those who don’t know that when they were introduced I was at Milan, and with Juve we fought to have them: the path was paved to make all this happen. Milan then changed ownership, we left and the managers at the time decided not to support Juve. I am however happy that, even if it is late, Milan has its U23 team: I am sure that others will emerge. This is a positive fact for both the clubs they have them than for those in Serie C, because those who have them give the young players the opportunity to face a championship of a certain level, while the third series clubs have the possibility of facing young but extremely valuable teams. After all, it must be considered that these second teams have the largest budgets, with clubs that make large investments and recruit the best young players in Europe, this experiment can only bring advantages to the football system, both on one side and the other.”

According to the championship, could Vicenza be a real danger for you?
“At the beginning of the season the two teams to beat, who aimed to win the championship by a landslide, were Vicenza and Triestina. The halberds are lagging behind, even in last place in the table despite investments that are even higher than those of Vicenza, so I would say that Lane remains the team to beat. It is an important team followed by a very large audience, the ownership has invested a lot. At the moment we are asserting ourselves, and we hope to do so until the end, but I repeat that the pressure of the team to beat remains. Vicenza: we’ll see if in the end we can succeed with all our means.”

We mentioned him before, let’s go back to him, mister Andreoletti. Did you expect this extraordinary performance from every point of view?
“We were lucky enough to take advantage of the not entirely positive moment of his experience at Benevento, otherwise Padova perhaps would not have been able to afford him. We are talking about the youngest professional coach, very well prepared, whose human qualities we knew and techniques: he is leading a group that has been working together for two years, is doing extraordinary things, and I am sure he will be a coach who will make people talk about himself, with all the characteristics and qualities to be an important coach for the future, but at the moment we are enjoying it and we hope to achieve with him the dream of reaching Serie B. We have been planning all this for at least two years, with smaller budgets than our opponents, but the ambition and the dream remain: and then we hope to being able to play B with him.”

Championship aside, the transfer market is getting closer: should we expect movement from Padova?
“We are satisfied with this group, at the moment we haven’t seen any particular needs or things to do, but clearly anything can happen between now and January, even though we don’t believe we need to adjust the squad: when a group works, the less you do and the fewer mistakes Maybe at the end of December we will make evaluations, but I don’t think the personnel will be affected. Do we work with a type of philosophy that wants the individual to be available to the group, and here, regardless of who plays more or more? less, it’s the collective that makes the difference. We won’t treat anyone, if someone wants to leave we will take it into account and evaluate what to do, but we want to reward everyone, even in the future, maintaining a backbone of the group even in the event of Serie B. We therefore count on everyone. Even if, I repeat, the market is always unpredictable.”