First team

CASTRO: "WITHOUT HIGH STANDARDS WE WOULDN'T ACHIEVE BUT WE'VE GOT TO ENJOY WAHT WE'VE DONE"

The president discussed Sevilla's fortunes this season at a supporters club event in Parque Amate

Sevilla president José Castro believes that the 2016/17 season will go down as a success for Sevilla FC, with a third consecutive Champions League campaign confirmed. Los Nervionenses go into the last game of the season against Osasuna on Saturday with fourth place wrapped up and victory would secure a second-highest points total in the club’s history. “We’re nearing the end of the season and I know that we’re not totally happy, perhaps because of the demands that we put on ourselves to achieve our objectives in recent years,” he said at a Sevilla supporters club event in Parque Amate. “Without these demands obviously we might not have been able to achieve what we have in recent years against much bigger teams than us, but we’ve also got to value the seasons that we’ve had. “From the 37 matchdays to date, we’ve been in the Champions League positions for 34 for of them, many of them in third place, and we’ve had a season fighting against the big teams who have naturally-higher aspirations than us. “I think we’ve got to place a lot of importance to the fourth place finish because of the level of competition that there is in the Spanish league. “We’ve got to value the season that we’ve had… We’ve been in the Champions League positions for 34 of the 37 matchdays” “The season has been quite good. Obviously things can always be better, we’ll keep evaluating ourselves, but we won’t be confused by that.

“Let’s not think that we can do things that are out of our reach, however much we try. We’ve got to enjoy what we’ve achieved. “Fourth place is very much deserved because we’ve been up there all season. We’ve got to enjoy what we’ve achieved, we’ve achieved a lot.” This season’s success has come despite a major overhaul at the club last summer, which saw Jorge Sampaoli replace Unai Emery as manager alongside a large turnover of players. “The reality is that Sevilla functions on solid foundations,” explained the president. “It’s been a difficult season, there’s been turbulence but we kept on the same track despite having a new manager, a new project, new players. “I think that this year has been important. If we beat Osasuna we’ll register the second-highest points total in our history. We’ve got a lot to be proud of and we have to value this year because we’ve been able to qualify for the Champions League for the third consecutive season. “There’s been turbulence but we didn’t lose our way with a new manager and a new Project” “We’ve got to enjoy where we’ve finished in the league this season and as of next Monday we’ve got to get to work to make the team competitive again and this excites us.” Although Sevilla’s recent history has been punctuated with success, Castro reminded supporters that the club is overachieving as far as the budget on which the club operates is concerned. “We will always expect a lot of ourselves and we’ll try to achieve more while remembering that we’re not Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atlético Madrid who have much bigger budgets,” he said. “From Monday we will be working to keep the team competitive” Saturday’s game, which kicks off at 21.00 CET, will see Sevilla face already-relegated Osasuna at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. “I hope that on Saturday we can enjoy what we’ve achieved in our stadium, not just the supporters but everyone involved with the club,” Castro explained. “Today I’ve heard mutterings that he [Samapoli] won’t be our manager on Saturday, of course he will be because he’s a professional and he has to lead Sevilla FC until the end of the season.”