Francis Cagigao says of Juan Carlos Carcedo: “Meticulous, intense, ultra-professional, winner… and, as you not only have to have talent, for me a very good person. He meets all those conditions.” Juan Carlos Carcedo says of Francis Cagigao: “A phenomenon. The truth is that we have personal friendship and as football people. Thanks to him we have come here to Moscow. We work together at Arsenal, we have followed our respective trajectories and he is a top professional who supports me from the first moment and with which one feels very comfortable.”
It was in January when Spartak’s sports director finally got his way, enlisting the coach. It is in May when both celebrate their first conquest together, that Cup raised to the Moscow sky last Sunday (and later rotated by the Argentine Pablo Solari). The meeting with MARCA takes place shortly after certifying the title, in the residential area of the Russian capital that also makes them neighbors. “When he contacted me at the beginning, it wasn’t that we didn’t pay attention to him,” remembers Carcedo, “but that we were at a very important moment in the season, with Pafos in the Champions League and also fighting for the League. We really felt loved in Cyprus and at first we didn’t consider it, but they insisted and in the end it was a difficult decision… but the right one.”.
With small tweaks we have the potential to do great things
And, from Galatasaray, Cagigao had arrived a year earlier, in the 24-25 winter market. “To execute certain things that one has in mind, it is very necessary to enjoy the trust of the people of the club. Logically, winning increases that trust in the project. When I signed there were things to change and we have been doing it progressivelybut without a doubt the biggest change has been the arrival of Juan Carlos.”
By allusions, the coach intervenes: “We came to a team that was eager to find unity, to have stability with the results, because it is true that there was a good squad, but also that they did not occupy the position for which we considered they had potential. We have managed to give them enough maturity so that they believe that they were better players than what they had shown and that we could and had to surpass what had been done in the first part of the season.”
.
And that maturity took shape in the final against Krasnodar. “In games like these, with penalties afterwards, everything goes through your head. We were just discussing with Juan that Sometimes football hangs by a thread, you can play very well, like we did, but sometimes you don’t win the prize. This time I think the football was fair to us,” says Cagigao, with whom Carcedo agrees: “The shootout at the end has part of fortune and a lottery, as they say, but I think we were better in the game. “We had chances and in my opinion we deserved the victory.”
There he drew from humility, as so many other times, because his intervention was decisive regarding the fateful point. After the 90th minute, the coach decided to change the goalkeeper and include Dmitriyev, who took and scored Spartak’s first penalty: “We were clear that if we arrived, one of the options was to put Pomázun, who is a very good goalkeeper, a specialist in penalties, and, at the same time, as there was the possibility of making another change, we replaced another player who was not going to take“And how does the goalkeeper who is replaced take that? “Well, in the end we coaches are here to make decisions. “He doesn’t like it, because in fact Maksimenko was having a very good competition and had played a great game, but we considered that it was the best for the team.”
Now they are going to ask us to win the League… and that is how it should be
Spartak had not played metal for a long time, but they are one of the most successful teams in Russia. So the demand grows again for the next year. “And so it should be,” Cagigao certifies. “We don’t have to hide from the responsibility that exists in a big club. We know that in the end only one can win, but we have to be involved in the fight and I am confident that this will be the case, because we have a very good squad, a coach and a staff that are top and, with some pieces that we can add this summer, we hope to be there next season,” he explains. “We will take a few days of respite, because I think we need it, and, from there, preparation like every coach does for pre-season, possible incorporations and see what improvements we can implement. I think that with small tweaks this team has the potential for great things,” adds Carcedo.
The sports director is clear in that sense: “I have a very long summer ahead of me.” Because, if the work itself is complicated, even more so now when there are numerous markets that cannot be accessed from Russia. “Yes, there are these absurd sanctions in my opinion, but we can do little against the policy. We cannot sign certain footballers from certain countries because of them, but we do our best where we can. The truth is that we have already been working on these ‘targets’ for several months.. It’s not easy, but we’re going to achieve it.” And how do you convince a footballer right now to go to Russia? “By talking a lot and showing passion. We have players in the current squad who at first had many doubts, but when you insist and show them first that it is a big club with the possibility of winning titles, second that Moscow is a fabulous place to work and live safely, and third you imbue that passion and ambition, they also enjoy winning and in the end in many cases you manage to convince them.
Sebas Corona, Juan Carlos Carcedo, Sergi Domínguez, Nacho Torres and Amador Sánchez.
Under normal conditions, the Cup is equivalent to a place in the next Europa League. But Russian clubs, until further notice, remain excluded from continental competitions. “Hopefully the entire political issue will be resolved first, which I think is the most important thing. And from there we would like to, there is certain information, but it is not 100% certain. I hope we can return, because that will mean that the conflicts that exist today have been resolved,” Carcedo wishes, before Cagigao goes even further: “There have been movements and they have told me that this is how it will be, but we don’t know if this next season or the next one.. It is absurd that countries like Israel are not sanctioned while Russia is.”
And, changing the third, this Spartak of the Barco, Ugalde, Marquinhos, Litvinov… what level would it have included, for example, in Spanish football? “As we had in Paphos, perhaps even better,” Carcedo begins, and at this point it is worth insisting that he included the Cypriot team among the 36 best on the continent and that, once there, they defeated Villarreal, for example. “I think that in a medium-high zone we could compete in the First Division, because there is a good level. The first four or five clubs have economic potential, Zenit, Krasnodar, CSKA… and from there they are teams with players followed by many teams that want to sign them.”
The penalty shootout? Even if you don’t like it, the coach is there to make decisions
Spartak’s identity, in any case, is built on local footballers. The tenant of the bench was committed to that from day one and for this he has the approval of his sports director. “A football team must first have its own traditions, then its culture, and third comes the ideology, which is more linked to the sporting bond. But we have a very important core not only of established players but of young players. It is very important for the club to admit them progressively and gradually.because in fact it was one of the missions that was entrusted to me when I arrived.”
Football doesn’t stop and a whole Champions League final is coming. Which will be special for our protagonists. Both once enjoyed a bond with Arsenal… which in Carcedo’s case is added to the one he also had with PSG: “I’m looking forward to the match, because they are two teams with two great coaches, very organized with their own way of conceiving football and being successful. Both have won their corresponding leagues and I think it’s going to be a really exciting final. As a professional and as a coach, there will also be a very interesting tactical battle.” Cagigao gets wet: “I hope it turns out better than the last time I was with Arsenal in Paris, when we lost in 2004. I think it will be a complicated game, because, this is a simple way to explain it, but we can say that it is the best defense in Europe against the best attack in Europe. The finals are to be won and in the end few people remember what happened during the 90 minutes… but I believe that Arsenal has its options.”
The Spartak players, with the newly won trophy.
In the case of the coach, all that belongs to his extensive period as Unai Emery’s second… who had won a title with Aston Villa days before Juan Carlos did it with Spartak: “Yes, the truth is that fortunately we have both had a good year. It’s not just about Unai, but about his entire coaching staff. I know how they work and what they are achieving throughout their career is totally deserved. Fortunately we have been able to enjoy all of them a lot and currently we can each demonstrate our ability in their respective teams.”
Carcedo has set up his own staff these years (“I have to be grateful that they also accompanied me here, it must not have been easy”), which on the other hand has been growing since arriving at Spartak. Therefore it is worth insisting on the work of six other Spaniards (Sebas Corona, Sergi Domínguez, Nacho Torres, Amador Sánchez and Ander Carbajo). “In the end it is clear that you have to surround yourself with people who have the same idea as you, but even so here there is also a very large technical and medical staff. And Working in different countries makes you know that coordinating all those people is one of the important thingsbecause in the end you have to adapt by creating a good team and creating an atmosphere.”
It is absurd that Russia continues to be sanctioned and countries like Israel are not
Cagigao has not worked in Spain since his own time as a footballer. And to the teams mentioned so far, his stay in Chile must be added: “I think you get a little enriched from each experience. Working for so many years in a very big Premier club, moving on to another facet in South America, which is that of a national team, having been in a big club in Turkey with all the volatility but at the same time incredible passion for football there, coming now to Russia… You really have to be very stupid not to take advantage of that situation and grow as a professional and as a person. I am Spanish, I am Galician and at the same time a Londoner (from an emigrant family, he was born and spent his first years there), but right now I only contemplate the day to day. “I feel fulfilled here.”
Conclude the conversation. “I feel calm… and happy. For the club, for the players, for the coach, for the staff, for the owners, for all the families… and for seeing the fans enjoy themselves as they did,” Cagigao reviews. “Very proud of the months we have been here, of the team and the environment that I believe we have created, and with that emotion of seeing that we have been able to give joy to people who were longing for it. Seeing Luzhniki in red and white, with almost 75,000 people, was something incredible“But there is still work ahead,” Carcedo adds. Two Spaniards, two champions. With MARCA. In Russia.
