PRESS CONFERENCE: SPORTING DIRECTOR FABIO ARTICO

This morning, at the press room of Orogel Stadium, Dino Manuzzi, Sporting Director Fabio Artico met with the journalists present to answer their questions about the summer transfer market that ended on Friday, August 30.

"The results of this market will be seen in 10 months. I am very happy and satisfied with the market we managed to make: it was long and complex because the dynamics of a market that lasts two months lead you to have difficulties in the inbound and outbound negotiations, to have balance both economically and in the squad. The goals I had and we had as a society have been achieved, and now the good stuff begins, and we will see what it will say."

"I thank the club that allowed me to work freely from the beginning of the market without considering how many players were coming in and how many were going out. It is obvious that a club, however, cannot expose itself by bringing in too many players and waiting for the decisions of some outgoing ones. That's the difficulty of the modern soccer market, a very long session with a league that started with six official matches already played." 

"Let's not forget that there is a new coach, technical staff, and ten players who arrived here in the summer. This team still needs to work on building its own strong identity, although I must say that we carry with us from last year a mentality that has remained with us this season as well. These first games played have provided some data, including the fact that when we get the games dirty, we have to learn to get a little dirtier ourselves. Still, these are steps that a team has to take to improve and then arrive at its completeness throughout the championship. We are all aware that we put on a good display of soccer, showing that we can play with anyone, after that to get to close games we have to put something more on the field, which I am sure will come."

"Tavsan is a name that came out in the last few days, but he is a profile that both Milanetto and I had already been eyeing in the past and is, therefore, a player we know well. When the possibility of having him with us came out, we closed it because we were looking for a player with those characteristics. Mendicino is a profile we followed closely throughout last season both live and via video, and he is a player we needed: a dynamic midfielder with good ball handling who can give us more energy."

"In defense, technical evaluations were made because Serie B imposes a different structure and physicality, so we preferred to keep Piacentini with us. He is a versatile player and predisposed to be a defensive midfielder. In attack, in my opinion, there are no young or experienced players, only strong players, and these four games confirm this: if players are strong, they have to play regardless of age. There is a young line, but if they go on like this, I will continue to put in even more youngsters on the pitch. They are guys who boost you, have healthy competition, and raise the level of competitiveness during the week. If they lose the competition one day, they start again even stronger the next day.

"Van Hooijdonk arrived very charged but started late with the preparation because he did not participate in Bologna's preseason. He started, then, from the first days of August and had a small muscular setback, which forced him to stop for about ten days, so he is definitely behind. One difficulty in today's market is precisely the fact that lately, some teams do not bring their boys to training camp with them and do not make them train: therefore, the players placed in the first days of August may be behind their teammates, who have prepared in the previous month. This creates inevitable difficulties, and one must be patient and calm in their insertion. It is no coincidence that Antonucci and van Hooijdonk had some muscle problems, but now there is the break that can be valuable to allow them to work and catch up with their teammates."

"I am satisfied with the market and what I have now, but I am also satisfied with the response the boys and the coach gave me. Thanks to the coach's work in this first month and a half, we can already see an identity and an ability to read matches that I am very happy with. He worked very hard, and it was not easy."

The entire press conference is available on Cesena FC's YouTube channel: