July 23, 2022, Pachuca sports city (Mexico). Jesús Martínez has been in charge of Oviedo for ten days, with the market already functioning, a previously configured squad and a coach and a sports director practically newly signed by the previous ownership. The Mexican, leader of Pachuca, is a volcano on the phone, answering messages and sending audios. The voices can be heard clearly from the office of his wife, the rector Gabriela Murguía, next to his and connected by a door. Pure intensity. Martínez is on the cell phone with Tito Blanco, then sports director. It’s not that I’m scolding him, it’s that “Chucho” is an earthquake. He drives the salary cap crazy. He despairs at not being able to bring in this or that player and gets frustrated because the squad is not his, but he has no choice but to adapt to the new reality.
A year and a half has passed since then, the current squad has little to do with that one and neither that coach nor the sports director are no longer there. Jesús Martínez, now, has managed to put his touch on the team that today and now is the priority for him. And you cannot understand how the current Oviedo works, high after the comeback against Ferrol, without knowing in depth the personality of the owner, a football obsessive, who barely sleeps and wakes up and goes to bed thinking about transfers. Since he was little he imagined making his own team and now he organizes four. Except for his family, there is nothing more important to him than the ball. It is his life and also his business, because Martínez, a shark, looks for projects that are profitable and economically beneficial so that everything flows in the Pachuca Group, a giant with more than three thousand employees that invests and reinvests to continue growing and be able to earn. money. In Oviedo, the Mexican saw a clear opportunity, with a historic complex with an imposing social mass and many possibilities to grow in Europe. That’s why he’s here. In this transfer market, the fourth since he has been in charge, he has once again demonstrated his commitment to Oviedo, configuring a very complete squad on which friends and enemies agree.
Martínez supervises each signing and gets deeply involved in the operations that he considers a priority, such as the arrival of Colombatto, the most complete player to come through Tartiere in many years. Chucho is more than an owner: he negotiates directly with the agents, talks to the player if necessary, asks for references… This is also the case of Homenchenko, in which he has high hopes. He is now supervising Luismi’s possible departure, told in detail in these pages in recent days. Chucho’s ability, according to several people he deals with, is to combine his natural instinct for signings with a work team that advises and operates from here. Martínez has the final say in everything, but he delegates and listens. For example: Leo Román and Moyano, today and now untouchables, signed for Oviedo at the insistence of Agustín Lleida and Roberto Suárez. The latter, a discreet profile, a club man who often takes the suits that do not belong to him, has managed to find his place. Martínez is the impetus, Lleida the numbers to finish the operations and Suárez studies the most advantageous additions. Above the latter two is Martín Peláez, the president, “my fat man” for Martínez and his man of utmost confidence, who in the coming days will travel to Mexico to update the owner in person.
Of course, the machine is not perfect and there are always mistakes. There is the case of Romario Ibarra, a failure. But even there, in the errors, Martínez has a virtue, which stands out compared to the stubbornness of those who were in charge – some still remain – from the previous stage. The owner of Oviedo does not stop to complain, he does not insist on a mistake out of ego and has no problem rectifying it. Romario packed his suitcase as soon as he could and Borja Sánchez also returned at the first opportunity. The new Oviedo has its own seal, that of Jesús Martínez.
2024-01-23 20:50:30
#Jesús #Martínez #owner
