Time to take stock at the Diavoli Rosa house. A 360° in-depth analysis, from Serie A to the youth sector, passing through the public, growth and future projects, in the interview given by our General Director Danilo Durand.
Durand, let’s start straight away from Serie A. What was the first half of the season like? It was definitely a positive first part. Although we have changed a large part of the initial sextet, as well as the technical staff, we have always been convinced that we have made choices that could lead us to obtain a better result than last year and at this moment we are certainly in line with expectations. If we want to nitpick, we are missing the three points lost in Parma but as a partial justification in that match we were unable to take advantage of our opposite. The balance becomes more and more positive if I think that we have, like every year, launched new youngsters into the Serie A scene like Selleri (now engaged with the Italian under-20 national team) and valorised players who didn’t play much on the pitch last year like Ichino , Mancini and Carpita, also in the national team now. For the umpteenth year, the team, and this is not trivial, is made up of 12 out of 14 players who come from our youth sector and between the Super League, A2 and A3 we are the only ones to boast this result just as we are unique in fielding the youngest squad of all the Serie A Volleyball League championships.
Before this stop we won four consecutive victories. How much can this influence in terms of performance, considering that we have two hot weeks ahead of us between races already on the calendar and midweek recoveries? This break certainly doesn’t favor us and will force us into a tour de force with midweek recoveries. But if this is the price to pay for having kids in the national team, so be it. We certainly won’t have to create alibis because the desire is to face the return round like the first leg.
You have trained most of the kids and you know many others directly as almost all of them are from our youth sector. What team is this? Without a doubt it is a team that is a symbol of the work that is done at the Pink Devils and fully embodies all our qualities which are dedication to work, putting enthusiasm into it at any time, a team that never gives up and continues to work to improve. All factors that have always distinguished us in the youth sector.