FlashFocus: Girona to reinvent themselves for the Champions League
Do you know the story of Asterix and Obelix, the little Gaulish village that time and again resisted the invading attacks of the mighty Romans thanks to a magic potion concocted by Panoramix? Well, don't panic if we tell you that this story could be extrapolated to football.
Girona, a club with almost no history in LaLiga, in a Catalan city that forms the border between Spain and France, always in the shadow of the brilliant Barcelona, received a huge financial boost when City's owners invested in them. Suddenly, they were competing head-to-head, even coming out on top at times, against the two greatest sides of Spanish football, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
The problem is that success makes other more powerful clubs knock on your door with the interest of taking your best players. Such has been the case with Dovbyk (Roma), Savinho (Manchester City), Aleix Garcia (Bayer Leverkusen), Eric Garcia (Barcelona) and Yan Couto (Borussia Dortmund). And they are at risk of losing Tsygankov too.
Reinforcing the squad
With so many losses, the board has not yet had time to complete the squad for the 2024/25 season. Michel, now that LaLiga has started, expects at least three or four more signings to compensate for the obvious loss of quality in his ranks.
He has already brought in national products with the signings of Pau Lopez, Bryan Gil and Abel Ruiz, as well as signing players yet to be discovered in big leagues like Ladislav Krejci and Bojan Miovski. Finally the purchase of Donny van de Beek shows the intent to give people a fresh start.
But they are still looking for players who can make a difference in a huge season ahead.
They have money, (even if they didn't make any for selling Savinho, Couto or Eric Garcia who were all on loan) but they have to know how to spend it. And even more so now that they do not have, at least on paper, the City Football Group to support them.
No umbrella due to UEFA rules
UEFA has many rules, some better and some worse understood. One of them is the one that prohibits two clubs with the same owners, investors or shareholders from playing in the same European competition. That happened with Girona and Manchester City, just as it happened with Manchester United and Nice in the Europa League. It also happened recently with RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig.
So the conglomerate controlled by Mansour bin Zayed had to reduce its stake in one of the two. The obvious decision was to cease to have real control of Girona, to lower the number of shares - it was 47% - to expel from the board of directors the members who also had a presence in the English club - Ingo Bank, John MacBeath and Simon Cliff - and even to allow UEFA itself to supervise the management to some extent to ensure that there is indeed no hidden timeshare.
More far-reaching changes
Competing in Europe, especially for a club that has never done so in its 94-year history, is a prize to be enjoyed to the full.
Girona are about to make their debut, at the party of parties, the Champions League and happiness spreads to the farthest reaches of the city.
But even that entails sacrifices.
For example, Montilivi, Girona's fortress, was deemed originally not suitable for the Champions League. After multiple visits and several corrections and revisions by UEFA technicians, the stadium was finally given the go-ahead. However, of its 14,500 seats, only 9,500 will be available for each European match. Additional stands are prohibited in order to increase the capacity and sell more tickets.
The president, Delfi Geli, and the members of the board of directors had no choice but to accept the conditions. In return, the sacrifice is not a bad one: they will earn more than 18 million euros just for participating.
The risk of dying of success
The dream of any footballer is to play in the best stadiums, in the best environments, against the best players. The Champions League offers all that and much more. But the demands of playing in the Champions League are coupled with the obligation to also perform well in domestic competition. And LaLiga is one of the toughest leagues there is and it doesn't allow you to lower your level, even if the motivation isn't the same.
It wouldn't be the first time, and maybe not the last, that a team not used to combining both tournaments suffers a brutal drop in performance that could even endanger its survival in the elite.
Just look at Villarreal, Celta Vigo and Real Betis, who ended up relegated to the second division the same year they were rubbing shoulders with the big boys in Europe.
That's why Michel 'Asterix' Sanchez believes there is a need to bring in more players before the tranfer window closes. Players who can play a key role and help Girona continue to win in this new and exciting season.
