Iñigo Pérez: “I would give everything I have to see Vallecas celebrate in its streets”

The coach of Rayo Vallecano, Iñigo Pérez, revealed this Wednesday that “he would give practically everything to see Vallecas celebrate in its streets” the Conference League title, at the same time that he defended that the team from the strip “is the perfect example that those who always suffer can also achieve the honeys of success.”

“The enthusiasm that is breathed in Vallecas along with this last trajectory is easy, it is to continue the inertia, control the emotions, manage the loads, it is simpler than the entire previous section,” he explained about how to face a week with “two finals”, in the ‘Media Day’ of the Conference final against Crystal Palace next Wednesday (9:00 p.m.).

The team from the fringe faces its first match for a European title, with a structure in which “attachment is very powerful.” “This acceptance of suffering makes us unique,” defended the Navarrese. “El Rayo is the perfect example that in sport, those who always suffer and always lose, who are not used to the joys of success, can also achieve them,” he added.

“The Rayo fan is in a way that we must imitate on the field. There is an increasingly powerful feedback. Generally, their destiny is usually to lose, but they do not give up anything. The story of Rayo, not only this year, is very beautiful and must be told, I hope it ends with a happy ending,” he wished.

And Pérez carries “hope as his flag.” “Yes, I have imagined it, Vallecas is my Mount Parnassus, where the imagination flows and makes you see that any dream can be possible,” he compared Vallecas to the Greek mountain where, according to mythology, the muses live.

The coach revealed that, once they had passed the qualifying phase, he told the players that they were not “invited” to the competition. “It was an achievement from the previous year. I refused to think that we did not have that mental conviction. It is a team that learns tremendously quickly, that needs very little from its coach to feel a mental stimulus,” he praised.

“There are players now whose moment of form is close to excellence. I knew they were good, but every day they surprise me because their level is increasing. We reached an important moment at a point of brilliant maturity,” he added about an “unrepeatable group of players.”

Iñigo Pérez assured that he is not “nervous” nor does he see the players that way. “The most critical moment of nerves was in Athens, there we surpassed the club’s ceiling and I told them that the semifinals were played on their own. The final is the same, but magnified. We cannot have stress or a blockage, we cannot let it control us, I don’t know what,” he warned.

“The finals are played, winning them is the consequence of a process. We have to focus on that excessively, without fear. ‘You have to win no matter what’, no matter how much you say that phrase, it will not happen, I believe in the process. Winning at all costs or that the end justifies the means are beliefs that I will always distance myself from,” he said.

For this reason, he believes that they should not face it as “it is now or never.” “I would give practically everything I have to see Vallecas celebrate in its streets. We are here because of the successful process that the players have carried out,” he added.

“My playing career was mediocre, at an average level, it was neither very poor nor excellent, but I have been fortunate to be in finals and in a team in which the excess of responsibility with the partners is very powerful and generated too many poorly answered questions. We know what the fans represent, we know that 11,000 people will be there and we appreciate it, but for everything to work well we must ignore it, not have that feeling that we owe them something,” he noted.

Because for Iñigo Pérez “that debt is settled.” “We must enjoy ourselves in the stands like them, the day in Athens was that excess of responsibility. It is not a day to feel indebted to anyone,” he asserted. “This is not the time to stop and reflect on what we are achieving. We have to generate more inertia until everything ends in a week. Playing three days in a row is not synonymous with relegation or failure, it is just a new difficulty,” he stated.

Pérez avoided commenting on his future and whether he will leave Rayo this summer, because “it is not the time” or “the right thing,” before confessing that “many times” he has cried “on the way to the stadium.” “I don’t believe much in the repression of emotions, and it is a beautiful moment and we must show it that way,” he defended.

Finally, he analyzed Crystal Palace. “They have played finals, they have success similar to that of Rayo, they have built a powerful team from below. On a defensive level, it is very well structured, they move very quickly, with set pieces they can hurt us. The clichés of the budget and marking value do not work. They have a lot of football,” he concluded.