A few days before the start of preparation for the next Serie A3 Credem Banca championship, which will begin on Wednesday 16 August, we draw up an assessment of the important work carried out in recent months with Valdemaro Gustinelli, sporting director of ErmGroup Pallavolo San Giustino.
You moved in advance to build a competitive team by snatching more than one athlete from the competition of other teams: will ErmGroup therefore be at least a high-ranking one?
“We had the opportunity to move in advance, thanks to the fact that at the end of March the company had already given me a rough budget to work on. All this has facilitated – and not a little – my work, allowing me to move independently without necessarily having to deal with the property every time. Some negotiations were a little more complex, but in general it was a linear market, in agreement with the coaching staff; once the objectives were set, we went straight to the names we were looking for and that happened. On the objectives it is difficult to be able to unbalance at this moment; however, we can make some considerations: the first is that we have made a precise choice, that of including some players with proven experience for the category in the squad, in such a way as to raise our level of competitiveness; the second, always in complete agreement with the technical staff, was to change the setter-opposite diagonal. A bet? In our opinion, no! Both Biffi and Marzolla both come from two excellent seasons (for Marzolla even splendid!) and we focus a lot on their “fire inside”. Around, we have arranged some elements of proven experience and trust (Troiani, Skuodis and Stoppelli) and then a handful of young hopefuls who will have to give continuous life to the project. The goal is to become a top-ranking company.”
Except Fano and Macerata, all new opponents: in addition to the geography of the championship, what can change on a technical level with inclusion in the Blue group?
“First of all, it will be a championship that will put us to the test: we will all have to grow a bit, us as a club, the technical staff and also the boys. For everyone, or almost everyone, it will be the first time we’ll have to face away games of thousands of kilometers and conditioning every Sunday won’t be easy. But I am very happy with this. Do we want to grow? So you grow up fast…
