JOSÉ CASTRO: "WE WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES"

José Castro spoke with the media after the club's visit to Seville Cathedral to pay respects to the Virgen de los Reyes: "Like every year, we come here before Mary. We pray for good healthy, that we did not suffer injuries and have the best season possible. We are not happy with how it has started. Things have gone badly, it has been ruthless, although we made lots of improvements in the last match. We had a good preseason, acceptable, but we started LaLiga badly. I don't want to make excuses. Right now we are working together as a club to win the upcoming fixtures. This isn't normal for us, but we have the experience of last season to deal with it." 

"When things don't come off, people become frustrated. I understand as a sevillista who has dedicated himself to this club for 27 years, so I am sorry. This drives me to ensure come September 2nd that we have the competitive team we all want. I ask for a bit of patience. Leaders are cut from a different cloth and two and a half months ago we were here celebrating a title with this manager [Mendilibar] who made us champions. Caution and patience, the points will come. We have a good squad and we will only make it better," he promised. 

"There are going to be incomings and outgoings... That is what has changed, in order for some to come in, others will have to leave."

Asked about the transfer window, which closes on Friday, and specifically who might be staying or departing, the president said: "There are going to be incomings and outgoings so we have a team that satisfies us. It is a difficult year as we have many players who don't fit into the manager's plans, so we have to dedicate time to getting them out. Víctor Orta is working very hard, so we hope we can get everything done and bring in players in all the positions we need. We're having conversations at the moments, but there are no concrete offers. We will do what we need to do, but we also have to get players out of the door. That is what has changed, in order for some to come in, others will have to leave. [Clément] Lenglet is one of the centre-backs we are looking at, among other options. There are lots of players who could potentially join Sevilla in the coming days."

The top chief was also very clear about the refereeing decisions during last Saturday's match against Girona FC. "I've seen both plays many times. The offside, when I look at it I don't think it's offside, despite the line shot. I don't understand the penalty - he blows the whistle and has lots of experience in spotting things. He clearly sees that the ball hits the arm, so I don't know why he has to look at VAR. In any case, the results do not lie: the last 10 games in 4 years we have lost three, drawn six and won only one with this referee [Gil Manzano]. We have bad luck with this referee."

"he blows the whistle... He clearly sees the ball hit the arm, so I don't know why he has to look at VAR"

José Castro also wanted to explain why he wanted to privately pay tribute to Spain's World Cup winner, Olga Carmona: "quiso explicar también por qué se le hizo el homenaje en privado a la campeona del mundo, Olga Carmona: "It feels like Sevilla and its president are always attacked whatever we do, and that is wrong. Olga Carmona is a Real Madrid player and they wanted to celebrate and interview her first, so we decided to keep our own celebration private."

"Sevilla always have the ultimate goal, to achieve everything. That's nothing new. We've started badly, but that will change. Last year, we started badly and ended up winning a title," he concluded.