Macia: "Strong ownership and serious project were our strengths in the winter market"

At the end of the press conference for the presentation of Raimonds Krollis, Chief Football Officer Eduardo Macia and Sporting Director Stefano Melissano, stayed with the press to also take stock of the market session that has just ended: "We are satisfied with what we have done in this football market, but I want to think that there can always be room for improvement. We cannot say that everything is perfect, because our task is to grow and improve, however, I can say that we are satisfied.
We managed to do everything that on the strategic plan we would have liked to accomplish, ending the session also in the positive from a financial point of view. A positive balance that allows us to look forward to future market sessions as well.
Our departments are all balanced, we have increased the overall quality of the squad, starting with the latest arrival Shomurodov, as well as with Krollis himself. In midfield, the arrival of Cipot, Esposito and Zurkowski brought what was missing in terms of technical quality and physicality, as well as in defense with the structure of Wisniewski. Finally, the arrival of Marchetti allows us to complete the goalkeeping department, which can now also count on a lot of experience, also in light of Zoet's injury. One can always improve, as mentioned, but we are happy with the players we have.
The January market is never easy to raise the level in crucial departments like the offensive one. It is a market, however, that can present opportunities, as in our case with Shomurodov, an operation that is part of an attempt to improve the numbers in the goal-zone. Eldor was a good operation, which required a lot of effort, especially at the beginning, when the player presented a lot of demands anyway. Our will to bring the player here, however, was very very strong, we had the merit of believing in it all the way and in the end the willingness of the player to come and play here made it all come true. 
We fought hard and so now we can only feel satisfied. Shomurodov was coveted by so many teams, the beautiful thing, I repeat, is that no one pushed him to come here, but it is the boy who in the end chose Spezia, even in the face of so many other possibilities. Definitely the Spezia project made the difference, a real project and very ambitious.

Verde? He is a fundamental player for us, because of the technical and charismatic qualities he has. He is a talented player, who can make a difference, who is returning step by step to top form and whom many clubs consider very important. Our intention has always been to keep him here, because I repeat we consider him very important for the automatisms of this roster, present and future.
The market strategy has been to buy players so that we can find them again in the summer to prepare for next season. That's why I say that ours was not a repair market, but a construction market, going to reinforce from the very beginning the staff, laying the foundations for the near future of this club.
We practically from the first day of January had clear how to set our whole market strategy; negotiations are never easy, but we worked a lot even on operations that were difficult on paper since we were not the only ones who wanted the players we bought, but there were big teams behind these elements. Our strength was being able to convince the player and our belief in being able to do so, even when the difficulties in some operations seemed many.

I have always talked about identity, our goal has always been to give the team a precise identity, at the level of personality, attitude, characteristics. Each purchase is aimed at making a contribution in this respect, as players with strong personalities have arrived, and the fact that they have immediately integrated perfectly into the group proves this. Foreign players, from different countries, but all speaking the same language, the language of football. 
I can say with honesty that on Kiwior the intention was to retain the boy. But then there was the opportunity for prestige for the boy, as well as for the club, to be evaluated. The footballer has never asked to leave, he has always shown the utmost professionalism and the Ownership has always left us great autonomy, as in all other decisions, never pushing, not even for a second, for enhancement: they left us maximum freedom of action.
There was no economic necessity to divest Kiwior. We have a very solid Ownership behind us, we often repeat, the Platek family is our guarantee in times of need. With Kiwior or without Kiwior the incoming transactions would have come anyway and this is proven by the purchases made even before Arsenal's request came.
The roster has been improved in every department, in attack, in midfield, as well as in defense, where we have so many possible solutions. We have so many strong performers that we have even been able to move Ampadu to midfield, who is always ready to return to the back pack. Amian can be the third of defense, but also the fifth, then we have Nikolaou and Caldara who are growing so much. Wisniewski has arrived who has a lot of physicality and ability to set up from the bottom, there is no shortage of solutions and we are convinced of the value of our performers."