Ezequiel Medrán: Eager to lead Colón back to the top flight | OneFootball

Colón’s coach spoke one-on-one with Radio Gol and expressed his enthusiasm about the possibility of staying in charge of the club for the next championship with a new squad and starting from scratch.

The truth is there were many messages from the squad, from the board. Fans, the press—it was a strange feeling, right? Because obviously we’re involved in this, we watched the final, we watched all the Sunday matches, the playoff. In the end, Gimnasia ended up consolidating and achieving promotion to Primera, which was really the plan and the idea.

We arrived last tournament mid-year, the team was wandering around mid-table, and we managed to reach a final. And there was a process, a sense of coherence in the work, in the planning of the squad, projecting depth, which ended up consolidating the group that ultimately achieved promotion this season. I think this has been in the works since the previous year.

There was an important core that stayed from the last tournament, and additions were made in a specific, targeted way, and they really came in at a good level, and well, I think Gimnasia was the rightful winner of promotion to the top flight.

No, I don’t, I can’t fully explain it, the dialogue—look, Fernando worked in a terrific way, the president as well. I felt completely fulfilled working in the city of Mendoza, I’ll say that—I said it the day I was let go and I stand by it over time, beyond the final result, because we had fluid weekly dialogue and we worked conscientiously to achieve this objective, and in the end all the situations we went through consolidated what Gimnasia ended up achieving. But I didn’t have that conversation, and I still haven’t had it. I believe that life itself, or football, will bring us together again and we’ll have that pending conversation. When we left, we were three points off the top—second place, three points from the top with a game in hand.

Yes, it’s true, I met with them—in fact, I met with them a week, two weeks after leaving Mendoza. They told me they wanted to get to know me, and later they said that if they had the chance, they’d love to start a project with me; that’s what they conveyed. And later, with time, yes, again, when I arrived here at Colón—around that time I had a meeting scheduled in Buenos Aires with the president of a Primera club. Everything was agreed; they just needed to finalize the departure of the coach who was in charge of the team. And on the calm drive back, José Luis Martín, the club’s vice president, called me, and obviously Colón is extremely enticing, and well, I naturally leaned toward making the decision to come to Colón.

Yes, when I met with Víctor and José Luis to decide to come to Colón, I asked them at that moment to discuss it, that I was willing, but I wanted there to be general consensus among the lists for me to decide whether to come or not.

Why? Because, look, I knew Colón’s situation on the sporting side was extremely complex—those of us in football know that. Obviously one thought the end of the tournament would go better, and maybe we fell a bit short, and that obviously sets off alarms in football, which is constant. I asked for that consensus. Obviously, once here, upon arriving at Colón, I saw it’s difficult—the environment is difficult; that’s what I ended up interpreting from the moment I got here.

And we’ll see. I’m convinced and extremely eager to take on a real project, with a coherent approach aligned with Colón’s plan, which is to reach the top flight. Football aside, truly with coherence in building a competitive squad prepared to navigate the Primera Nacional, which is a highly complex tournament, and be ready in every sense to take on a year with a leading role—a Colón that’s a protagonist with serious intentions of reaching the top division.

I have no doubt that we as a coaching staff feel we’re on that path. When I made the decision to come to Colón—look, here’s what’s happened to me: two years ago, we were knocked out with Rafaela in the quarterfinals despite the sporting advantage against Estudiantes de Río Cuarto.

Last year we finished one point short of playing the first final to reach the top division, which ended up being played by San Martín de Tucumán against Aldosivi. We were one point away from winning our group. Then we had to win the playoff to play the final against San Martín de San Juan, which we lost.

This year we set up a team that led the tournament and ended up achieving promotion. As a coaching staff, I have the desire to reach the top division, and I think Colón has all the tools to reach the Superliga. So beyond the immediate, when I decided to come to Colón, I didn’t decide just for—obviously the first objective is to avoid relegation—but projecting a year ahead to have a team that gives you the chance to win promotion. As Colón wanted, and as my coaching staff wanted, I think we joined forces to share the same common goals to navigate what’s coming next year. So I’m convinced of that and I’m eager; I have no doubts about that.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.