Girona: when the City Football Group’s methods are a hit in Spain

Who is the most enjoyable team in La Liga this season? For many, it is Girona, which had already made an impression last season, coming close to qualifying for a European competition. This season, the team coached by Michel – not to be confused with the former OM – is still shining, and is in second place in the standings at the time of writing these lines, with the possibility of ending the day in as a leader. Quite an achievement for a team promoted last season, but which is anything but a flash in the pan or a team in temporary overdrive. The team is particularly well-established on a collective level, and can also count on high-performance individuals, like Savio, an extremely promising Brazilian left winger who is only 19 years old, but also the playmaker Aleix Garcia, already brilliant. last year, or even Victor Tsygankov.

A fiery attack – 16 goals scored in 6 matches, an average slightly lower than 3 goals per match – which delights La Liga followers. But above all, what is interesting about Girona is what happens behind the scenes. It should first be noted that in the case of Girona, and unlike Troyes or New York City FC, the City Group has “only” 47% of the club’s shares, the rest belonging in particular to Pep Guardiola’s brother , Father. The latter has been working hand in hand with the Emiratis for a while and chairs the club’s board of directors. The rest belongs to Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure, close to David Beckham. The collaboration between Girona and Manchester City dates back to before the Citizens’ entry into the club’s shareholding, in 2017. Indeed, in 2015, Manchester City then bought Ruben Sobrino, striker from Ponferradina, to loan him at the Catalan stable. Same modus operandi for Pablo Marí a year later.

Great ambitions

Unlike ESTAC, the City Football Group does not intend to make the La Liga club a simple subsidiary or satellite team where possible nuggets would pass before joining Manchester City or being resold. Certainly, the CFG, for example, made a nice capital gain by selling Taty Castellanos, loaned last year to Girona, to Lazio for 15 million euros. The former New York City FC star thus took advantage of his time in La Liga to re-evaluate himself, and the Group was able to make a good sale. But overall, the workforce remains very stable and most executives are retained. Aleix Garcia, the team’s best player, recently extended his contract despite strong interest from clubs like Atlético de Madrid. This summer, the club spent more than 22 million euros in the transfer window, which is significant on a La Liga scale, given the limitations that exist due to local financial fair play. Only six clubs have spent more money than the Catalans this summer.

The objective remains to make Girona a stronghold of football in Spain, and not just a club to place young people or undesirables, as explained above. Proof of this is that the CFG will put 25 million euros on the table to build new cutting-edge infrastructure and a sports city which will notably host the first team training center and the training center, like Valdebebas on the Madrid side. If the club is doing so well, it is also, in large part, because the CFG has relied on quality men who manage the club on a daily basis. Former Barça player Delfí Geli and sports director Quique Cárcel are thus responsible for steering this boat and they are the ones who take care of the transfer window, for example. The City Football Group can possibly place two or three players each summer, like Savio or Yan Couto last season, but it is the management in place which takes care of the bulk of the work, working hand in hand with Michel to identify the team’s needs and provide the missing pieces to the former Rayo player’s system. A perfect alchemy which may well allow Girona and its fans to experience great things in the years to come…

Troyes flirts with relegation in National

Suffice to say that the situation is much more encouraging in Catalonia than in Aube, since ESTAC is in sixteenth place in Ligue 2. Unlike the Spanish team, Troyes belongs 100% to the City Football Group. A first important point to point out, to the extent that in Girona, there are several thinking heads who could possibly oppose the CFG, which has total room for maneuver in Troyes. The French club thus lacks a Pep Guardiola, a man who knows football particularly well and acts as a sort of liaison between the CFG and the men on the ground in Girona. It is clear that the choices made by City in Troyes were particularly bad, whether in terms of the transfer window or choice of coaches. The big difference is also that ESTAC has experienced many disagreements internally, where everything seems to be going well in Girona. Last season, sporting director François Vitali was not necessarily on the same wavelength as coach Patrick Kisnorbo or technical director Erick Mombaerts. This season once again, the ESTAC is a boat that sails in troubled waters.

“People don’t know what City’s strategy is, that’s the problem. There is an expectation with a substantial budget (it went from €13 to €45 million in three years according to L’Equipe), players like Rony Lopes, Mama Baldé, Wilson Odobert… People expected easy maintenance”confided the emblematic Benjamin Nivet in comments reported by The Team at the end of last season. Trojan supporters are clearly starting to get annoyed by this lack of direction in the project, even if it should be noted that the arrival of the Emiratis in the capital of the club has made it possible to put it back into financial balance. . In the event of a bad result against ASSE this weekend, Patrick Kisnorbo could even be dismissed from his position… From the success story of Girona to the industrial failure of Troy, there is much more than one step…