Alonso on ADN Gol: “This position lets us dream” | OneFootball

José Alonso Cartier spoke with ADN Gol six months after taking office as president of Colón, enjoying the current moment of the first team in the Primera Nacional, and he also highlighted the club’s current institutional situation.

“I believe that, when it comes to ideals and personal ambitions, you always want the maximum, especially when you live in that somewhat competitive world with yourself, trying to break barriers and keep moving forward.”

And of course, being in the position Colón is in today from a sporting standpoint gives us a great deal of peace of mind and allows us to dream a little that we can achieve even more, and that dream is what keeps guiding us toward where we want to go. So there is real satisfaction, but even more satisfying is having built an interactive human group, both in the professional staff that supports us today and in the squad as well. There is an interesting cohesion; nothing can be achieved without cohesion, if there are clashes, if there is harshness, if there are responsibilities that are not shared. So all of that is what binds things together, what brings peace of mind, right? That’s what one thinks, even though there are always setbacks, as there are in football, right? You get knocked down and get back up. What you have to keep is the perspective of where you’re headed, and whether the train you’re on is moving toward a good destination, and whether the people in the carriage are with you and enjoying the moment.”

“I think that’s part of the satisfaction, and I agree, as you say, that one imagines wanting to be there, but today it is a reality and we have to take great care of it, like crystal, that’s how it is.”

As for meetings, for example, with Diego or with Ezequiel, we are always in constant communication about everything, we talk about everything and openly about what each of us thinks. So when someone asks me, ‘And what do you see that’s wrong?’ No, no, no, it would be improper and disrespectful to talk about certain things involving the coaches. To make public something that is private.

To make public something that is private. Because you all know that in Argentina we are all coaches, we are all players, we are all directors, sitting at a café table, eating with friends, that’s how it is. And the only real thing in football is that when we all agree on one single thing, that’s when reality is there, because otherwise it would just be a bit of what I think.

What I liked most is that I like to act quickly and decisively, and to do that you have to be analytical and know where you are headed. What I liked most is that things more or less responded to my idea of doing them quickly and with concrete solutions.

“Not getting into forward-looking analysis of what I’m going to do, what business I’ll pursue—no, no, no—making quick decisions, and I think it showed, I think it showed because we came into a club that, honestly, from an administrative and financial standpoint, was devastated, and we had to take on commitments, as I just said, from the financial side, because Colón had to get out of that mess, out of that difficult situation it was in. And I think that is what I value most because it is the idiosyncrasy I have for conducting my life, and well, in that respect I humbly believe we did well with that change. And the other question, what hurt me the most, was facing financial situations that were left to us after our management had been heavily criticized, when that was not the case, because when we left Colón, Colón was in a good situation, it had no bank debt, no tax debt, no bounced checks, all the players were paid, there were no lawsuits from players, there were no lawsuits from coaches. In other words, we found a completely different picture from the one that had been left at that time. So that hurt me, it hurt me a lot because we are all Colón people, we all make mistakes. Sometimes silence does not mean approval but respect, and above all respect for the institution. Colón needs common energy, in the good times and the bad, as we all say at the stadium. That common energy will allow the club to grow. If we start distorting things and tearing each other apart, I think at some point you said, this is self-mutilation, or don’t you think?... Yes, it is self-destructive, it is self-destructive. I remember that phrase because you said it, and you are absolutely right. Colón, sometimes when confusion sets in—confusion over results, over this or that—that distribution of blame begins, that search as if throwing punches to see what you can point out with your finger, and people don’t think that the club has to move forward because there are always problems, there are always things, situations, but we have to cooperate. I think today the cooperation of the people is very positive. I truly congratulate them, I am grateful, and I have nothing but recognition, as always, for everything that concerns Colón’s member-supporters, who have responded as they always do, with that unbreakable passion that makes them unique nationally and that they have also shown internationally. That helps a lot, and also, of course, their financial support by being members and keeping up with their dues despite the economic difficulties that exist today. So I think that’s also what I liked most: the speed with which we were able to solve problems. And what hurt me the most is that sometimes we found ourselves in complex situations and the club’s identity has to be respected, even though there may once have been some charitable activity.”

There were many, many, many, and many that throw you off balance in the moment. You’re doing well and then suddenly an issue appears that throws off your working capital or financial flow and leaves you a bit upside down, right? For example, the effort we made with Nacho Lago.

“That effort has many connotations, but that’s not the point right now. I’m happy because Nacho is with us and represents us the way he does, and he is a key person and a star both on and off the field. But I’m telling you about situations that sometimes hit you like a slap and you have to get back up again, a bit dizzy, straighten yourself out, get back up, and nothing happened, because that’s the way things are, right? So those are the things that impact the most, those sudden situations you have to resolve and that create an economic imbalance, you understand? Because sometimes you have planned expenditures in order, and suddenly they take you into a somewhat uncomfortable situation. Do you understand or not?”

“What is relevant to say is that if Nacho had become a free agent, we would have had to bear a multimillion cost in foreign currency that would practically have been a crushing bankruptcy, right? And then everything we had done before would have been nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing.”

“So first we had to try to repair the injustice committed against him through absurd, deceitful, and false promises. And second, of course, to assume the commitment of updating his contract as he deserves and earned, so that he can feel duly compensated for everything he has done at Colón. And then there was this somewhat difficult situation, which was practically overwhelming, I would say.”

“No, no, no, now I understand you. No, no, no. We are talking with Platense, and the problem with Platense fundamentally is not what they owe us—they have paid us a tiny bit of what they owe us from the transfer—but rather the issue of the player’s sale. And on that point we are in a strictly, absolutely legal situation and handling it through the proper channels for claims, as it should be, right? Not just going out and saying anything. We are going to file the claim, and we are doing it as it should be, with a fully, let’s say, organized claim, if that’s the term. Organized. You make your claim in an orderly way, and that is the path. The other path is theatrics, going out in the press saying you did this to me, you didn’t do that to me—I don’t know where that gets you. I don’t do that. But I do have the arguments and I do have the communicative backing and all the necessary documentation to prove what I want to prove, and with that we move forward, as we did with Neris.”

“The explanation is very simple, guys. Neris had to report here on January 1 because his contract with City Torque ended on the 31st, and he did not show up. He appeared on the 26th. In between there were three formal telegrams from Colón telling him he had to report. He did not show up. He arrived here on the 26th, and by then the coach was already in preseason with the full squad. He told him, ‘Look, you have to do separate training.’ That was only logical. He had gone about a month and a half, two months, without playing. Besides that, the fitness coach was assigned to give him instructions, and that’s when he started saying he had arguments, that we mistreated him, that we made him stay at the hotel—there at the hotel where he was until his situation was sorted out. The agent kept stirring things up, saying stupid things, irresponsibly, as that person always did, known in Uruguay for that trait, because I spoke with people from River in Uruguay and they spoke very badly of him, and so did many Uruguayan directors I know. And he was looking to do what he always does, which is to take players away from clubs—that’s always this kind of person’s style. I mean the agent. So what happened? On the 16th he showed up with a notary, saying this and that, that they weren’t giving him this, that they treated him badly, that they told him things. He spent 15 days claiming wages. I don’t know what wages, if he had appeared on the 26th in an illegal way, not doing what he was supposed to do. And on February 16 he leaves, without taking into account the federative rights. The federative rights, right? Beyond the financial issue, those rights were still in force. Neri is under them, Neri is currently under those operative rights. What does he do? They go to Ecuador and register him there with Emelec. And what did we do? We claimed the federative rights, because he could not do that, and we sent a lot of documentation saying that even…”

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