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La perspectiva de Girona - with Jordi Agusti (1st September, 2017)

Jordi Agusti, 34, is the Chief Operations Officer of a shop displays company. You can follow him on Twitter: @Totocompos

He also recommends the Twitter account of Penya Jandrista - @losjandristas - as a great place to follow the club's day to day workings.

How long have you been a fan of Girona and what made you support them in the first place?

I've been a Girona fan since I was about 10 years ago, I started to support Girona because it is the team of our province and at that moment the team was playing in the Segunda B with the possibility to go to the 2nd division. Also in that moment it was one of my friends playing in the team (Albert Dorca, now playing at Alcorcón)

Describe your first experience of watching Girona play?

I don't remember the first experience but I remember the first season Girona played in the 2nd division because they played against some first division teams I used to watch on TV (Zaragoza, Rayo, Tenerife, Real Sociedad, Celta) and at that moment I had the chance to see those teams in our stadium playing against my team.

To an outsider - how would you describe Girona's playing style, what it means to be a fan of the club, and what it means to be a player of the club?

Girona's playing style has become very particular for the last 4 years since Pablo Machín become the coach of the team, The team is playing with 3-5-2; 3 center backs, 5 in the middle (including 2 wingers covering the entire length of the pitch - defending and attacking) and 2 forwards.

Being a fan of Girona is being a fan of a very familiar team, because before the last few years the attendance in the stadium was not very big 4,000-6,000 every match and sometimes lower than that, so you use to meet with the same people every match, you talk with them...

Being a player of Girona means being a player of a small team, we don't use to have the best players of the division we play in but we're use to having players with a very good attitude who fight throughout the 95 minutes of the match.

Describe the importance and significance of a game against a rival? What do you think would be the key differences between a Girona fan and a fan of those clubs?

The importance of a game is only to enjoy the game, seeing your team competing during the 95 minutes. You can lose or win but the team must compete.

I think Girona fans are not as passionate as other teams fans in Spain, Girona fans like to see their team, and like to see their team winning but Girona fans were never radical fans

There was a time when Girona weren't even in the Segunda. However, it has since "consolidated" itself in the Segunda, and even reached La Liga this season. How would you describe the last few seasons for Girona fans?

We enjoyed a lot, and not only last year when we reached La liga, but also the last 4 years were very good seasons for Girona fans because we saw our team fighting against teams with better players, more money, more fans and sometimes beating them because we were more competitive, we were competing during the 95 minutes of the game.

What is your opinion on the utilization of the youth teams? How would you rate the opportunities that youth players get in the first team?

I like to have some players in the first team from the youth teams, because those kind of players have a different feeling with the club, they have a closer relationship with the workers of the club, with some fans... and those players always give something else during the matches.

During last year the rate of youth players coming in was quite big because the economic situation of the club was not really good, so it was a need for the club to use the youth team players. Now, being in La Liga and with the relationship with Manchester City I think it will be more difficult to see players from the youth team in the first team.

Personally, I think it's a pity.

List some things you appreciate and some things you can’t stand about the club management.

What I appreciate now is the familiarity of the club, because for example it was easy to take pictures with the players after the matches and sometimes also talk to them, but we will see what will happen now in La Liga - maybe it changes a little bit, you never know.

The bad things of the management is the communication with the club, sometimes is really difficult to get in contact with the correct person for some questions!

What is the most famous ultra group at Girona? How would you describe them and their political affiliations? What is the feeling of fans of Girona and of other clubs towards them? How would you characterize the Girona board's support to them?

I would say there are no ultra groups in Girona, there are peñas though. A peña is a group of fans of the club who like to meet for the matches, talk about football and Girona FC, and try to work for things in and around the team.

At this moment the biggest peña is Penya Jandrista with more than 200 members. It is named after a player called Jandro Castro who played in the team from 2010 to 2015, at that moment the team was always on the lowest places of the table in the second division and that player had more quality than the regular Girona players, he also had a very good background because he played some years in La Liga before joining Girona FC.

I would say that peñas are apolitical, there are no political trends of the people joining.

I think other clubs fans group looks us as a smaller fans, because we don't move a lot of people so we are always a small quantity of people when we play outside or even when we play at home compared to most of the teams we play against (and that's in the Segunda, so I imagine it'll be even more in La Liga!)

Is there something that the media doesn't (or maybe doesn't want to) talk about Girona that you think is worth mentioning?

I think there isn't anything that the media doesn't want to talk about, the only problem we have is we are a small team compared to the other teams in Catalonia - especially FC Barcelona. Which means the importance in the media is low for Girona because most of the priority is for Barcelona.

Also 2-3 years ago most of the population in the Girona province were Barcelona, Espanyol and even Real Madrid fans, and then their second team was Girona.

But now it has started to change people are now Girona fans first and then the other bigger teams are second.

Your thoughts on the season ahead?

I think it will be a really good season, we should be able to obtain continuity in the league for next year, this is the main objective, if we achieve it then we can think about more optimistic objectives we could work for.

But the main objective is to not lose our place in La Liga.

A huge thanks to Jordi for taking the time to do this!

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