The president of C.D. Leganés, Jeff Luhnow, held a press conference this Tuesday at the Estadio Municipal Butarque to take stock of the recently completed 2022/23 season, which was his first campaign since his arrival at the club last summer.
The president wanted to begin his appearance by "thanking the fans, supporters clubs, season ticket holders, sponsors, employees, press... All those who have spent time thinking about this club in the last year. It's been a year since we arrived and our adventure here began, and I'm happy to see that we are making progress in several areas. We are very excited about this project and the future of this club."
"We have worked a lot on the matter of the coach, and we are going to announce very soon who it will be. We are very grateful for everything Carlos Martinez did to help us at the end of the season, but he is not going to be our coach next season. I spoke to him yesterday, he is one of us, and we have offered him the opportunity to continue at the club. What he did we will always remember and we will always support him."
"We are dissatisfied with this year's sporting results and we want to improve them next year."
About last season, for Jeff "it was a very interesting year. We didn't start fast, we were bottom after eight rounds, but we were patient and we saw that the results didn't reflect the quality of the team. It was appropriate at the time and then we had a very long unbeaten streak, we slept one night in a playoff position. Rescuing the team from where we were was a great effort by the players and the coaching staff. Then came a bad streak, things that happen in the world of soccer. It was not easy for anyone, but we decided to make a change to save the situation as quickly as possible. Carlos changed the dynamic and it benefited us, things improved and we were saved. That has to be the club's first goal, but we are dissatisfied with this year's sporting results and we want to improve them next year."
Regarding last season's signings, "there were several that helped us during the season, also those in January. We had many good players in this category. We have to look to the future and we have two to three months to put together the squad. We are starting with a strong group, plus the youth players. I am confident that we will start the season with a squad that will give us the option to compete in every game. This is the most competitive seventh division in the world."
"The fans supported us in the worst of times, and hopefully this season we will show them success on the pitch."
"Last year we started the summer not knowing what our salary cap was going to be. We were able to increase it. This year we have more flexibility than last year to go out on the market. We have an opportunity to increase it with sponsor integration and other things. We're in a good financial situation to add assets to the squad, and we're going to do that."
Regarding the economic situation, he revealed that "last year we had losses, this year also, we are going to assume them and try to reach a situation where there are none. We have to increase income, and that comes from what is generated in the matches, player sales, generating more with the stadium... And that comes from part of the concession that we have pending after the elections. It is very important for us. We need the concession to be able to invest, we are willing to work fast on this and hopefully this summer we can start investing once we have the long-term agreements."
Internally, he commented that "in organization, we have grown by 20% in number of employees. It is a club with a lot of potential, we are integrating people in the areas of marketing, sponsorship, sports... We have a great group with Txema Indias, Jorge Broto and the rest of the team that supports them. We wanted to add more people to this area, and we have integrated Hugo Blanco and Jeff Vetere, and other people that are going to help us grow the club. In the next few weeks we will be launching the season ticket campaign, I think it's going to be very interesting. We will also launch the new kits, I am very excited about the success of the campaign. I hope we reach 8,000 season ticket holders. The fans supported us in the worst of times, and hopefully this season we will show them success on the pitch."
"We have to build something that feels like a new team while keeping the good things from the old one."
After a year at the helm of the club, Luhnow said they are "very happy with this investment. I feel like I'm part of the community here. The fans have received me very well and I am very comfortable. We believe the club has a lot of potential, and we are still very excited. Every year in sports, there are complications. If you think you're going to come in and win right away, it's not realistic. We knew we were going to have to work hard, and this league is different, it has a lot of competition. We have resources to invest, but we want to be successful in the long term: to develop the youth academy, to integrate the players who come in. I am satisfied with that. I hope that every year the results can back it up".
The president assured that "every year, the goal is to win, whether you are a player, coach, president... Any team can win. Every year that you don't go up, it gets a little more complicated, because you don't have the resources of a relegated team. Everything is possible in this league, but we will never win by investing more money, but by having the best players. This comes with a good coaching staff and a good group of players. I always dream of winning, but the goals change every season depending on the results. We have to be flexible, because the same goal we have is going to be the same for the rest of the teams. Every year our goal is going to be to win, that's why we are in the sport."
Regarding the next squad, he stated that the team "needs everything. We have players in several positions, but there are holes. We can fill them with players who finish their contracts, but they also want to evaluate their options. There are several players who have been here for several years and we thank them for their contribution. We have to build something that feels like a new team while keeping the good things from the old one. Cissé is going to be a Leganés player next year. His value is going to continue to increase, but he is going to continue with us. So far we have no offers for any of our players, we are not counting on sales to help us this year."
"I'm never going to hide if we have bad results. We will be here through thick and thin."
The president commented that "this year we have been able to be close to the fans, and they have welcomed me as part of the family. I already feel part of this community. Any fan is going to complain if the team doesn't win, we received the message that they wanted something to improve. I will never hide if we have bad results, it is one of the things that other groups have done. We will be here through thick and thin. The effort is always there."
"All investors are not the same," he continued. "Our bet is for the long term. We want to manage the club in a modern way that integrates technology, finding players elsewhere, innovation... If we make fewer bad decisions than others in our league we will have options. Foreign investment is key in any league; if there are opportunities to attract resources from abroad, the league itself benefits".
Finally, he commented that "ideally we would like to have the squad closed by mid-August. We prefer not to wait until the end, but the market is open until August 31 and sometimes decisions are not made until the end. We hope to close it earlier than last year".
