The big news on the last market day was not a signing, but a dismissal. Racing told Jordi Figueras in the absence of a few hours to close the window that he did not have him, that he was going to pay him what was left of his contract but that he did not return for La Albericia. The Catalan received the news in a bad way not because those responsible for putting together the sports project considered that he had no place in the team, but because he told him at the last minute and with a good part of the templates already closed. Even more so, when the decision was not even caused by the hiring at the last minute of a center-back who needed a free card, since the club is still looking for a replacement. This means that he could have been fired on January 20 in the same way that he ended up doing on February 1.
The day after what happened, Figueras went through several radio stations and, in turn, said goodbye with an emotional letter broadcast on his social media accounts, from which he received the multiple expressions of support from racing fans. In an extensive interview in Tiro al Arco, on Arco FM, the former defender from Verdiblanco claimed to leave “disappointed with Amorrortu and Pedro Menéndez, not with the club.” “I am touched and hurt, but there is no choice but to move on and focus on the new challenge that comes when I play,” he said. Just a few minutes after the decision of Racing to no longer count on him, he received an offer of interest to which he has not yet responded because before he has to reorder his life and know what he wants to do, since he has his family here and making the change of housing, with the children enrolled in Cantabria and others, is an added problem.
From the beginning there was no good harmony between Figueras and Amorrortu, since the center-back had interesting offers, even of a higher category, to have left Racing in the summer and he, who at all times prioritized continuing in Santander, tried, together with his representative, extend the contract that joined him to the Verdiblanco club for some more season until June 30. He offered a renewal “of one more year for individual or collective purposes”, but was “denied from the first moment.” “Amorrotu did not want to make longer contracts for veterans,” recalled the Catalan. In that sense, there was also some clash with Cejudo, but both redirected the situation and focused because the decision of the sports management was “respectable” and they could say little.
Make amends. “All I wanted was to make up for the bad year before,” said Figueras. This, visibly annoyed with Amorrortu and Menéndez, did not cut himself yesterday when it came to blaming both of them a certain lack of ambition. “I never heard them talk about promotion. That ambition has not been publicly transferred and that could affect, since the dressing room always had the desire to be able to go up, “he explained. The defender understands that he has not performed at his best and that, deep down, you could smell what happened to him. What happens is that the days passed, nobody told him anything and everything happened, suddenly, on the last day of the market: «I have seen strange things, of course. I have already had to live situations of this type and that is why it has not caught me completely by surprise, but I did not see it as feasible. That it was done this way … »
Figueras has immediately received the support of his colleagues. He admitted that they had taken it badly because they had a good relationship. “There are forms and forms and they did not expect it,” he pointed out. “I have always abided by the decisions that have been made without saying a word, I have been and am a professional who likes to work on a day-to-day basis and that is why it does not seem fair to do things like that,” stressed the defender from Lleida. Figueras leaves after two and a half seasons with a promotion and a relegation. Obviously, he is clear that the best was the first year but he goes further, since he assured that it was “the best” of his sports career “because of the atmosphere that was generated from day one.” What is clear is that he leaves with a very clear conscience for having given everything of himself at all times, He recognized that the contractual issue had affected him in preseason but that, once the championship began, he already had all his senses in the team.
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