Miguel Ángel Ramírez: "Josep, Fabio, Kirian, Edu Espiau and Cristian Cedrés will sign professional terms with the first team squad"

Miguel Ángel Ramírez started his press conference in the press room at the Estadio Gran Canaria by looking back over last season: "We were excited because we had one of the highest players’ budgets in the league, the largest we have ever had in the second division, but it has been proven that money is not everything. We ended up in no man’s land and that let to disappointment for everyone”, adding "we put together a great squad but not a great team, and the results reflected this".

As for next year’s budget, Ramírez stressed "for next season we will work with a much lower budget, around seven and a half million euros, and we calculate we will end up with a budget of around eight to nine million, which may vary depending on money we make from the sale of players, but it will be enough to create a competitive team". The club’s president underlined that the club’s objective will be to "to stay in the division and to continue to grow, and from there we will see if we can go any further".

As for the cutback in spending, Ramírez said "we have proposed some reductions in the current squad and everyone has been party to these savings; this shows the professionalism of our players". Ramírez explained that Juan Cala would not be continuing with the club, saying "he has made it very straightforward for us and this has been beneficial to us in terms of our budget".

As for the possible continuation of Momo and club captain David García, the president stated "they are two exceptional cases, next year the manager wishes to work with a squad of 22 professionals and the case of David requires special consideration given his track record at the club. We had thought he could be the second trainer to Juan Manuel Rodríguez but when we put it to him he told us he wanted to continue playing for one more year, whether it be at Las Palmas or a different club, and the problem is we are full of players in this respect", adding "I cannot get rid of any player to make room for David in this position, we believe in Álex Suárez very much and we would like to make room for him, he is knocking on the door and it might be a mistake to leave him out. We have until 30th June to decide". Miguel Ángel Ramírez wished to highlight the fact that “we have a problem of capacity, it is nothing to do with the money, the manager thinks he can be of use to us".

The president also announced the promotion to the first team squad of Josep, Fabio, Kirian, Edu Espiau and Cristian Cedrés, while Josemi, Toni Robaina, Fortes and Valles will feature in pre-season. As for the situation of Carlos González, "UD Las Palmas had the option to renew his contract but his representative is looking for a better deal and we are not going to change our salary policy, we would love him to re-think his position". Another of the changes he announced was the extension of the contract of Maikel Mesa for a further year.

As for the start of pre-season, Ramírez stated "we start back on 8th July, and this will be the day we will inaugurate the training facilities at Barranco Seco, for which we have invested twenty million euros and which has been valued at around forty million. This inauguration will be part of the commemorative acts for the 70th anniversary of UD Las Palmas, the programme for which we will soon be presenting".

He ended his presentation be highlighting the work put in by the club for the fans, saying: "Over the last few months we have held meetings with several different collectives and fan-clubs, who are all taking part in the season ticket holder campaign which we shall be presenting next week or the start of the following week".