Madelón: «Sorry, I seem like an idiot who doesn't want to win the title» | OneFootball

Leonardo Carol Madelón, head coach of Unión, spoke on the sports program “Dame Gol”, hosted by AdriánBrodsky alongside HugoSánchez. During the lengthy interview, the coach made several important remarks about the current makeup of the squad, his relationship with the club’s leadership, the departure of key players, and the growing prominence of the club’s youth prospects.

In a relaxed conversation but one full of strong statements, the Tatengue coach defended his competitive mindset against criticism over the board’s lack of investment. In that regard, he said bluntly: “Excuse me, but it seems like people think I’m some idiot who doesn’t want to win the title. Come on, guys, I’m the one who wants to be champion the most, but I also understand reality.”

The impact of Maizon Rodríguez’s departure

The head coach first addressed the impact of the sudden departure of Uruguayan defender MaizonRodríguez. Madelón saw the player as a true leader in the team’s back line despite being only 23, and revealed some behind-the-scenes details about the group: “As for Maizon Rodríguez, he was a leader in defense, right? The Uruguayan. We used to call him the little black boss, the little black boss. Only 23 years old.”

The coach admitted he was not aware of the direct negotiations beforehand and only learned of the transfer after the match had ended: “I didn’t know he was leaving, but remember how I always said, until the very end, until the very end you have to be ready? Because things can always happen. In fact, he played the match, and after the match I found out he was already on his way out.” Despite regretting the sporting loss, the coach acknowledged the benefits of the deal: “Yes, yes, we felt it. But listen, you’re my player, and we know a player left because he had to leave. Unión sold him well, let’s say, for good money, to a good country.”

Managing the locker room after departures

Beyond the tactical void left by the Uruguayan defender, Madelón stressed the importance of not showing regret or complaints to the squad after a key player leaves, explaining that the rest of the players immediately pick up on that discouragement: “The person you’re going to put in, or bring in, also senses whether you really want him or not. So you have to, automatically—you can’t spend three matches crying because the other guy who’s playing says, hey man, this guy keeps crying because that one left, and what about me? Players notice that right away. Okay, he left, what am I going to do, cry for ten minutes? Sure, I really regretted it.”

For the coach, the key to leading a locker room is beating time, mourning the one who left quickly, and giving total confidence to the direct replacement. He said the message to the player coming in has to be straightforward: “Alright, come on, now it’s your turn, Adrián, you’ve got to crush it, brother.”

The demands of the transfer market

Regarding the latest transfer window, the strategist openly admitted he would have liked to have a couple more signings to strengthen internal competition within the group, though he made clear what his role is in decision-making: “Yes, but you know what happens, Hugo? I’d be stepping into another area, into ground that isn’t really mine. I ask for players, but don’t forget that in the middle there’s also the president, there’s Santiago Zurbriggen, who’s the sporting director, I work a lot with him, and I tell him, look, we need this kind of profile, this one and this player are viable, Unión can bring them in today, and then if they can’t bring them in, well, negotiations...”

When asked again whether the squad really did need more names, Madelón answered with a firm “Yes, yes, yes. And I’m telling you, based on this... But that doesn’t affect my commitment to the squad,” making it clear that the lack of signings does not change his day-to-day commitment to his players.

The names that could not arrive

Among the elusive names he wanted to add during the transfer window, the coach mentioned specific attacking players who were on the shortlist: “There was Besozzi, at one point I wanted Sarabia, where we would’ve had to make an effort, but then Sarabia made his own decision and went elsewhere.”

To illustrate his view of the situation and the tools at his disposal, Madelón used a particular animal metaphor to show that he knows perfectly well what resources he has and what realities he must face going forward in the tournament: “If behind the window you can see the lion’s tail, the lion’s mane, and the lion’s paw, what’s behind the window? A lion. So I know that maybe it’s not the moment. But maybe one day it will be.”

Dialogue with the club president

In line with the difficulties in making signings, Madelón revealed that he has rather little football-related dialogue with Unión’s president, ruling out any deep conflict but acknowledging a mature distance: “Do you talk to the president? Yes, not much, not much. And is the dialogue about football? Very little, very little. It’s not that we get along badly, but there should be more, from both sides. There should be more, but it’s not that we get along badly.”

When asked whether this operational distance was due to differences in personality, the coach agreed: “Yes, exactly. Everyone has their own way and that has to be respected. I’m the coach, they hired me to come here and do a good job, the best job I can, and for that to produce lots of points. I’m never going to meddle in a club’s finances, never, so no.”

The economic comparison with other clubs

Madelón analyzed the current state of the local tournament and drew a parallel between the different financial realities clubs are going through, stressing that success does not always correlate with million-dollar budgets: “Look, there was... River spent a huge amount and other teams did too. Today Vélez is top of the table. It didn’t move the economic needle, right? They focused on what you could call an economical campaign.”

For Unión’s coach, this case confirms that the key to success lies in conviction and the intensity of daily preparation: “They’ve got good players, obviously. I think you have to work a lot, train, and convince. And then, if you can bring in those players I mentioned... that would be three or four more.”

Open training sessions and youth rotation

During the interview, it was highlighted that in this new institutional phase the coach has shown great openness toward the club’s environment and the press through open training sessions. When asked whether the constant inclusion of academy players was driven by circumstance or by their quality, Madelón said he was pleasantly surprised: “Yes, they need it—Aimar, you’ve got Cacciabue, the Vera boys, there are a lot of very good players. It surprises me that maybe at other times we didn’t have them, or we didn’t get to see them, when the Pittón brothers were coming through, because we used to go watch the U-20s, the U-17s, the reserves, more than we do now.”

The coach praised the performances of club-developed options who stepped up at key moments: “The players show up, because Del Blanco left and this kid appears... Ayala. Ayala. And suddenly you throw him the shirt and he responds, like when at some point you threw Vargas the shirt... And Profini. I remember Ludueña and Profini, they even wanted to loan them out so they could develop a little more at other teams, in the Primera Nacional. And yet Profini ended up becoming a starter. Ludueña, today, you can’t take him out.” He also praised the contribution of the club’s internal structure: “Now Nico Vazzoler is here, and he knows them really well too. He shortens the path for you and gives us more information... and I’m really happy for this kid, he’s 16 or 17 and he scored the goal. Rubinich. He’s got a midfielder’s map in his head.”

A bench with more solutions

To close, the coach optimistically contrasted the current state of the squad with the serious depth issues he suffered in the recent past: “It’s going to be a nice problem to have when all the injured players are available again, because in midfield, Giaccone is absolutely killing it.”

He recalled that last year, after a run of demanding fixtures, the lack of alternatives weakened the structure: “Last year we played, we won at Independiente Rivadavia and then we went to Belgrano, and when we got to Belgrano the players were tired, it had only been three days, and we looked around, you know, and there was nobody there. Today you know that if three or two get tired, they’re there.”

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