The president of C.D. Leganés, Jeff Luhnow, the director of football, Andrés Pardo, and the former coach, Borja Jiménez, appeared this Monday at a press conference at the Butarque Stadium in which the coach from Avila said goodbye to the club where he has been for the last two seasons.
The president began his address in this way: "We are here to assess the season and talk a little about the future. I want to start with the feeling that I had on Saturday and that all the players, the fans and the people of the club had, which is pain. It hurts a lot when you try to reach a goal for a whole year and you don't get there. It happens in life, but it also happens in sports. It's part of the reason we're involved in the sport. There are beautiful moments, but also very difficult ones. That pain has to be felt and lived, because it's part of what we do here. Hopefully we can get through that pain and think of things for the future that can help us. Without that pain, those moments would never feel so good.
Luhnow wanted to "apologize to the fans for the relegation. Our fans are the best in LALIGA and one of the best in the world. They have supported us in everything, away from home, in home games we have filled the stadium all year. What touched us very strongly was how they responded on Saturday after a result that relegated us. They thanked us for the effort of the players on the pitch, and you don't see that in many places. As the person in charge, I want to apologize to the fans for not achieving our goal this year. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror, see what decisions we made and reflect on what mistakes we made, and correct them for the future".
"Things hurt, but I have a lot of illusion and ambition for this club. It hurts what happened, but I have optimistic and positive energy."
Regarding his management, the president acknowledged that "there are things I can do better in the future, mistakes I made thinking it was the best thing to do at the time. When I think about where we are today compared to two years ago, when we had to change the coach at the end of the season and we were saved from relegation to the First Federation, we are a bigger, stronger club. We have not forgotten where we came from, we will soon be 100 years old and we want to continue growing. The resources of each club are what they are, you can try to increase them, but you can never reach the biggest ones. We have to take advantage of our advantages. We have grown a lot in many aspects, we deserve to be there again and that is going to be our goal, to return as soon as possible".
As for the future, he believes that they have incorporated "a new leader in sports with Andrés Pardo. He has been working here for two months starting to plan for next season. We are in a good position to start the summer market. Sometimes, when teams are relegated, there are complications with contracts that have to be dealt with. We have a lot of work to do, take what we have and build on that. I'm very confident in the resources we have. We will have a higher salary cap than when we were promoted, young impact players in the squad, others who are coming back. We are going to add players that are going to help us compete, not just at the end of the market, but from day one. We have to start the season in a very strong way".
Jeff said he is "an optimistic person. Things hurt me, but I have a lot of illusion and ambition for this club. It hurts what happened, but I have optimistic and positive energy. That is what is appropriate and what we are all going to have. Beyond sports, we have done many interesting things to be able to grow. We had works in the stadium before signing the concession, we remodeled several areas to improve the fan experience. This summer we are going to advance new projects in the stadium, we are going to install two new First Division video scoreboards and other issues".
"The summer market was good, but the winter market was not our best market. I have to admit fault."
Regarding the club's future plans, the president revealed that "we still need to obtain the concession for the Butarque Sports Facility. We are working with the City Council to achieve that. We need to continue investing in facilities, we have our sights set on being a sub-host of the 2030 World Cup. We are going to do a pre-season tour in the United States, something that makes me very happy. We have two opponents already confirmed, a third to be confirmed and a fourth with whom we are negotiating. We are going to continue to grow the Leganés brand around the world. Last summer in England helped us to grow and to talk about what Leganés is. We are going to launch the membership campaign soon and announce the new kits, I think you will be very happy with them. We also have a new digitalization process to improve the experience of our fans. The work continues, the results are what they are, but we have to return to the Second Division and try to bring this organization back to the First Division".
As for the new coach, he stated that he likes "to have an opinion, but I will never make a decision with which Andrés does not agree. Director of soccer and coach have to be aligned. We haven't started the process yet, but this is going to change very soon. We are going to coordinate it well, but Andrés is going to be the person who will make the decision."
Asked about the markets of the recently completed season, he acknowledged that he had to "admit guilt. The summer market was an 8 for me. Bringing in a player like Haller, others like Rosier, were very good points. Haller didn't work out the way we wanted, it's the risk of something that comes up at the last moment. In the winter, the score was much lower. We had departures and injuries. Several of the players we were following were not available or did not want to come. We ended up with two signings and unfortunately one of them got injured after eight minutes. Duk came in without much time to show what he has. It wasn't our best market, that's clear."
“We are going to be very aggressive from the beginning of the market.”
On the possible continuity of Borja Jiménez, he commented that he had spoken to Borja "two months ago. We met, I told him that I supported him and that I was not going to do anything until the end of the season. We wanted to decide together whether we achieved salvation or not. We didn't make him a written offer, but we told his agent that we wanted to talk, and we decided that the time was right after the end of the season. It was yesterday and today, we were open to continue, but both parties have to be quite comfortable. You can't convince someone who is not 100% convinced. It was an honest conversation about how we see our future in the Second Division."
Jeff said he has confidence in his working group: "We are a group that makes decisions. I am not an expert on signing players, on renewals, on legal issues. I am the one who has to manage the experts. It's possible that we would have dealt with some renewals before last summer, I'm still getting used to the times. I am going to learn from that. Regarding Txema's departure, he asked me to let him know our decision when we had made it. It was leaked before a game, possibly it was a mistake and the situation got complicated. Since we appointed Andres we have scored points, I don't think it affected the results or the motivation of the players. They gave their all on the pitch, it was a complicated situation, but I don't think it affected".
As for the next squad, he commented that "it depends on how the squad is, but there are always going to be opportunities at the end of the market that don't appear before. But we are going to be very aggressive from the beginning, leaving a couple of gaps for things that can happen at the end. Players want to go to the bigger teams. Our first signing was Dani Raba, who has given us three great years. You can find good players early in the market. We will have four games at the beginning of July and we will need to have an assembled team. We have three loan players coming back and players under contract. We will decide which of the remaining free players we want to keep. We will talk to them, although there are some who will have opportunities elsewhere.
“The goal going forward is to return to the First Division as quickly as possible.”
And about the goal for the 2025/26 season, he said, "It's clear. In our first year it was to learn and survive. In the first eight rounds we had four points and permanence seemed complicated. We were saved after changing coaches and it was difficult. In the second season the goal was to fight for the playoffs and finish in the top ten, and we achieved much more than that. This year the goal was permanence and we didn't achieve it. In other seasons we would have done it with 40 points, but it was not the case. The goal going forward is to return to the First Division as quickly as possible. We have a good squad and we will build on that with a new leader in the sports management. I am hopeful that this will be the case.
Luhnow was joined by club vice-president Eduardo Cosín and general manager Martín Ortega. Cosín assured that the club is "defining the policy we want in the membership campaign. We know what the historical demands of the fans are. Our idea is that the club and the fans are First Division. Two new video scoreboards will be installed. We know that another demand is the roofing of the stadium, but we have given priority to this issue and we hope they will be ready at the beginning of the season. We do not rule out a slight increase in capacity even if we are in the Second Division. We already have 12,000 supporters, including season ticket holders and members, and we are analyzing whether or not it would make sense. There are going to be improvements inside and outside the stadium, but there are bureaucratic issues that have delayed these matters a bit. We are in the final phase of that refinement to do bigger projects. There will be more improvements.
When asked about the club's policy on refereeing decisions, Martín Ortega stated that the club has no doubts "about the professionalism of the refereeing corps. They are people and they do their job to the best of their ability. There has been no inactivity, they have been communicated in the way we have considered most appropriate and respectful".