Juan Carlos Navarro admits mistakes, promises changes in the summer

Juan Carlos Navarro revealed that changes will definitely be made in the Barcelona roster but didn’t specify what the future holds for the head coach Roger Grimau.

FC Barcelona sporting director Juan Carlos Navarro shared some of his thoughts after his team’s season came to an end following a 0-3 loss in the ACB League semifinal against Real Madrid.

Navarro began by apologizing to the fans and promising that Barcelona will see some changes for the upcoming season.

“I want to apologize to the fans; they have been great from the first moment, and there has been more attendance than ever,” Navarro said. “The team tried hard in this last game, we can’t blame them for anything. We could go into the refereeing issue. I think we are always super, super conditioned, and the ejection of Vesely has been key, as it was in the Copa del Rey final.”

“I say to the fans that we will keep trying as we have been doing so far. We are going to make some adjustments, for sure, to be more competitive. I think the season in Europe has been good. At the end of Game 5 against Olympiacos, we lost in 3 minutes. If we had won that game, many things would have changed,” Navarro continued.

Navarro also briefly talked about Roger Grimau’s future, admitting that the decision hasn’t been made yet.

“It has been a season in which we have not achieved our objectives. It was a season of transition, as everyone knows, and with many changes, but still, we have not taken a step forward. For example, the fifth game here against Olympiacos or now losing 3-0 in a semifinal.”

“We are a bit disappointed with everything that has happened. In a few days or weeks, we will hold another press conference so that you can see the decisions. I believe that changes must be made because we have not reached the objectives we all wanted.

We have to think, reflect, and talk to Roger Grimau as well. Not everything has been the coach’s fault; some players have not been up to the task. Nobody has been at the highest level, and we are also talking about ourselves [executives]. We have made mistakes, we have to learn from everything, and we are looking forward to next season. But the future of Roger Grimau is something I can’t answer yet,” Navarro noted.

Finally, Navarro admitted that the ideas before the 2023-24 season simply didn’t work out.

“It was a gamble, it was a radical change, with a much lower budget and a new coach, and it didn’t work out. Now we have to think about the future,” he concluded.