10 questions to the CEO Gardini: the balance of the 2023-24 season
The CEO of the Rosanero club Giovanni Gardini gave an account of the 2023-24 season, which recently ended.
After the elimination in the playoff semi-final, how do you judge this result compared to the initial objective?
We started the season with the aim of being competitive for Serie A, and we came close because we played in a semi-final,
Which we lost against a team who then went to the top flight and who fully deserved promotion.
This certainly guarantees obtaining a result. During the season we had too many ups and downs and were not very consistent, penalizing us in achieving our main objective.
I believe that every season, leaves regrets and regrets, the important thing is that we believe we have taken a step forward compared to the previous season.
This year we played in the playoffs and passed the preliminary round, reaching the semi-final and achieving a good result.
We are also saddened because we believe that more could and should have been done. This doesn’t mean that the season is a failure, but a better result could have been achieved.
How do you evaluate the team’s performance during the championship, considering the change of technical leadership?
We have always said that a change of coach is not the solution to all problems, but it must happen when there is a point of no return.
At a certain period of the season we were in great difficulty and the persistence of negative results and the under-performance of the team led us to change coach.
This shows that we need to find greater strength, greater cohesion, greater will, a greater search for a result all together,
Because only in this way can we think of achieving the set objective.
Is a club that wants to put everyone in the best position to carry out their duties, everyone knows what they can find,
and they have to give something more than what they have given, because there is a need for this.
The change of coach is a defeat for all of us, and we know it, but in football there comes a moment when you have to make this type of choice.
From that moment, the team also had the possibility of obtaining a sixth place, which was not the desired result.
But we were always in the playoffs throughout the entire season, so we improved, and we all have to do more, because if you don’t do more you won’t get where the others maybe can get.
Palermo next season… What is the goal for the 2024-2025 season?
The goal of the 24-25 season, like the life of each of us, is to improve ourselves. This means that we will have to be even more competitive for Serie A.
However, this does not mean that we have to worry: Palermo will arrive in Serie A. This is recognized by everyone, everyone is aware of it.
But you don’t go to Serie A because just because you are we are called Palermo or because we have a wonderful and unique group of fans in the world.
You get to Serie A with work, with sacrifice, with dedication, with the desire to achieve something truly important.
To do this we must start from a basic concept in my opinion, namely that of cohesion.
All the members, from me who represents the company to everyone else in the club, up to those who support Palermo in the city or around the world, must have a common goal.
That is, supporting the team and thinking that there are those who work every day and those who try to deserve the honor of wearing a glorious shirt like that of Palermo.
It means that difficulties exist and must be overcome. We will be able to go to Serie A when we are able to manage the negative moment positively.
If in the negative moment we are not able to manage it, or we get overwhelmed by the pressure and negativity that can surround us, we don’t go anywhere.
Being able to have regularity in the championship is fundamental in Serie B.
We cannot expect to win every match 3-0, but on the other hand we cannot leave the field without having given 100%.
When at the end of the match in Venice Brunori said that we lacked balance, he meant that we must be a united group, we must be a group inside and outside the locker room.
The group is Palermo, the one that represents Palermo in the world. So we must not look for a culprit and try to shift the responsibility for a result onto them.
We must transform pressure into energy and strength to achieve a goal that we all want and that everyone, from the shareholder to the last fans, want!
I want to reach. But to do this we need to be cohesive and work in a single direction.
This does not mean that we should not be critical but understand that there is someone, many people, working towards this goal and this goal will be achieved.
New coach and sporting director of Palermo, What will be the new features in the Club’s Sports Area?
There will obviously be some news, but first of all I would like to thank Leandro Rinaudo, who for two seasons, in a very particular moment in the history of this club, was our sporting director.
Rinaudo has been supportive in these two years, he has done an excellent job, but at a certain point we are called to make choices, and we believe we need to change.
We also want to thank Michele Mignani, together with his staff, because in just a few weeks he still managed to be appreciated both as a coach and as a person.
Furthermore, we intended to entrust the technical direction of the club to Morgan De Sanctis, a young sporting director who has vast experience as an international footballer, who has a great knowledge of football and who adapts to our characteristics.
After choosing the sporting director, the second important figure was that of the coach, and we identified Alessio Dionisi as the person who will lead us on this journey which we believe could be very special.
He is one of the young emerging technicians who have achieved greater success in recent years.
A coach who has made a significant sporting journey because he has played in all categories of football, he has already won Serie B, he was a protagonist in Serie A, but he also knows football in the lower categories.
He worked his way up and for us this is synonymous with guarantee, work, self-sacrifice, determination and attention, values that are very important for us.
Football today is no longer just the team, but it is a company, within which we must work in all areas, from the sporting one to the commercial one, passing through the organizational one and all the others.
We need to have a working group also from this point of view which, in terms not only of quality but also of quantity is present and which espouses our idea of football, that is,
The one that wants people to come to Palermo with the enthusiasm, with the desire, with the determination and competitive determination to be able to contribute to entering the history of this club.
In De Sanctis and Dionisi we have seen these tiger eyes, they are ready to try to contribute significantly to what the objective is.
Gardini talks about the Palermo stadium – Unlike Palermo CFA, Barbera still needs renovation work. What are the next steps?
We are aware that if we can express words of satisfaction for the Torretta sports center, we cannot do the same for our stadium.
From a structural point of view, it is experiencing a situation of degradation that is not adequate to the standards that a club like Palermo wants to have.
And to have this you need time, you need investments and a long-term concession with the municipal administration. Above all, there is a need for these investments to produce a certain profitability.
We have a very sincere open dialogue with the mayor, who has always shown himself to be attentive to our needs, and we are working to find an agreement.
So that the Barbera stadium can become what is necessary for a football team that must respond to certain standards, not only aesthetic but also functional.
This year we will redo the lighting system, we will have a new LED system on the sidelines, we will have a new video surveillance system.
There are other interventions to be done over time, it is a very significant and expensive plan from an economic point of view and guarantees are needed to be able to implement it.
In consideration of this we cannot forget that, even if we don’t like looking back much and much more forward, a lot has already been done.
Since we took delivery of the stadium on 4 July 2022, but already previously also with the old management since 2019,
some interventions have been made to demonstrate that there is attention on our part to make the stadium even more efficient, and we try to make it as usable as possible.
Palermo’s communication – Fans and media often ask for more statements from the club during the year.
I know it’s difficult, but it’s essential, if you want to play football professionally, that you work, that you don’t talk.
Needing to be reassured in times of difficulty means that you don’t feel safe, it means that you don’t have confidence.
Here we are experiencing a new situation, a new era, our relationship is one of trust. I trust the fans, the fans must trust me, CEO of society, they must not think that if I personally or whoever is with me does not speak, I am not addressing the problems.
But there is an in-depth analysis of everything that revolves around a football team.
The fan or anyone who expresses a judgment has a partial, limited or referred vision, which is not the real vision.
We must face the problems, know how to solve them, we must work to solve them, we must improve to solve them.
And must reduce the number of errors but by working and not by declaiming towards third parties, not because there is a lack of respect or empathy.
Furthermore, we all feel Palermo tattooed on our skin, and we demonstrate it through work and credibility.
If we look at what is said or what is being said we see that today it is called white, tomorrow black and the day after tomorrow green.
And there is no principle of credibility, we want to be credible and to do so we must be cohesive, we must be united but above all we must be a family where we trust each other.
We are not asking for a blank credit, we are saying ‘we have been here for two years, we have done this and this’ without making films, and
We will do much more together, because together, cohesive, we will get where we all want.
We have the dream of getting there and we will get there. Because Palermo deserves that and will get there.