Anuar and Iván Sánchez during training this week. /
The winger from Jaén acknowledges that he was surprised last year when Pacheta placed him as a midfielder
It was one of the pleasant surprises of last season. And one of the keys to promotion. Iván Sánchez arrived in winter from Birmingham. Without competition rhythm after a long injury, without the fan knowing very well what a left-handed right winger painted on the team when Plata and Plano were already there and with Hervías in the chamber. Fran Sánchez justified the hiring as a market opportunity. And he was right, he was right. Now, after the ordeal, the player only thinks about the season in the First Division, for which he considers it vital that the Pucela form a united and quarrelsome block to be able to fight the battle of permanence. What Masip already pointed out, by the way.
The fact is that this decision of the sports director, endorsed by Pacheta, has changed the life of good Iván. And he is very aware of it. So much so that he gets rid of as little as he can in thanks to the club and to his teammates. For the treatment, for the reception, for the support… and for the work. Because this one that is coming is going to be the debut of the talented footballer in the First Division. Although it seems a lie seen the quality of it. Soccer stuff. No one had bet on him until now.
Total, that Sánchez faces, to begin with, his first preseason in three years. Injuries and pandemics had left him unable to physically charge his batteries, which is what work is mainly for these days. And he is delighted that he can sweat, and run, and get tired. It’s like getting his old life back.
The keys to permanence
«The First is very different from the Second, teams and players are better and that forces us to prepare well during the preseason. We must also assume that we are no longer going to be protagonists with the ball, as we were last season, and therefore we will not be in control of the game many times. That is why we have to be a strong, united, fighting block that is clear about the idea of the game it wants and remains faithful to it.
Where is Iván Sánchez going to play?
«All my life I have played as a winger on the right or as a midfielder, stepping on the area or very close to it, but when I arrived the coach told me that he also saw me as a midfielder to help in the fluidity of the game. And I was very comfortable. And I like. So this year I don’t know where I’m going to play. I have spoken with Pacheta and he has told me that he asks me the same thing as last year, so I will play wherever”.
The signing
When Sánchez’s transfer was signed, there was a clause that gave Valladolid a purchase option of around 800,000 euros for the footballer, whose market value is significantly higher. The fact is that the Pucelano club let that option pass, knowing that the player did not count for his coach in England and that after not promoting the British they had to clear salary mass. Fran Sánchez played his cards wisely and achieved a very substantial reduction in the transfer. In the tug of war the player never got nervous. «I had spoken with Fran and with my agent and told them that there was no rush. I knew that the club was counting on me and it was a matter of waiting. It is true that Birmingham was surprised when the purchase option was not executed, ”something that ended up making the operation cheaper.