Ayoze off to Portugal??

Further rumors abound, it is difficult to know exactly where the young player from Santa Cruz will finally sign up next season but yesterday the thought was Oporto.

A team who are making a name for bringing on youth payers and selling them for high prices.  Sources state that the club will receive 1 million euros now and 15% of the future sale of the forward from Maria Jimenez.

Although it has been clear since December when he didn't renew with CD Tenerife his future has been linked to many clubs both on the Spanish mainland and in the Premier league.

Photo: @deporpress.com

Interview with the two captains.

In an interview with the two captains after Saturdays games they made the following statements, calling for support from the fans in the next two months:

Ayoze: “There are 13 finals left. Six of these are at home and we need the maximum support from the fans to help us on our way.”

Marc Bertrán: “If we are all on the same side it will be easier. I know that the fans haven't failed us all year , but now more than ever is when we need their help and support.”

Ayoze: “We have come to the deciding point in the season. Last year we showed the team and fans, when we are together we are hard to beat, and we can confront anyone.”

Marc Bertrán: “The group are conscious of the problems. The players know what the risks are and for our willingness there will be no sending us down. This squad will force itself to the maximum to manage to reach the goal of salvation .”

Ayoze: “We have now played all the complicated rivals. Now coming to our grounds are teams like us, the ones looking for salvation. Here we have rivals like Espanyol, Valladolid, Racing & Almería. Against them we will play for staying up.”

Marc Betrán: “We will not give up, that is clear. Fighting to the end is something the team and players have in their hearts.”

Ayoze: “There are still 39 points left to play and everything is possible. The league is more equal than ever and this could help us.”

Marc Betrán: “Although there are some points for us to salvation, for me it is clear that CD Tenerife needs to depend on itself to keep from going down to the next level."

Weeks round up

The club shop will be open all day on Saturday for any fan who wishes to go and buy a shirt before the big game.

Real Madrid are arriving on Friday afternoon and have reserved the whole hotel NH Santa Cruz for themselves. There are 64 rooms in the hotel so they will have space to spread out. The hotel is in the centre of the city so fans coming in by bus will be able to get all the way to the grounds and not have to walk to the Stadium. The hotel was also used this season by the teams from Osasuna and Valladolid.


CD Tenerife have only lost once with referee Ramírez Domínguez from Navarra. The other four times the team have played under his control there were three wins all at home and a draw.

Team interviews this week included:

Mark Bertran
"It was a pity" said the captain of CD Tenerife, " after the supposed foul and the expulsion of Culebras we lost our balance. We suffered a lot and there was no payment for all our effort. Athletic de Bilbao played a great game and deserved to win"
The defender from Lerida reminded that in spite of this blow, "we are only a point away form being outside the relegation zone and that is the positive though we can take from the round. We need to work hard to win more games." he also noted "we are not giving up the game against Real Madrid. I hope we will take something positive from the game."
Lastly when asked about his injury suffered at the hands of the R. Madrid team. He commented that " I tried to forget the accident and my injury in the Santiago Bernabéu as quickly as possible. Real Madrid with or without Drenthe will be a great rival. I have suffered the worst side of football with the injury and now just want to help the team. I know our fans will be loyal to the team.”, he finished.

Alejandro Alfaro also attended the press conference where he stated the situation was complicated "My goal was not useful. We saw them score really quickly and this was hard. We tried to come back but finally they managed four goals." He then commented that " after the 2-0 which happened so quickly we were a man down. We tried to overcome our bad run of away results but couldn't." he concluded.

On Wednesday interviews were with Nino and Ayoze:

Nino talked first and started with the comment that " Bilbao is forgotten and now we need to think about our next game against Real Madrid. We will need to be at 200% to take something positive from the round. To beat Real Madrid or any other team in the first division is always great. They have a great squad and we will need to compete at the highest level to take something away form the game. The player from Almeria remembered that "there are still rounds left and it is still early to make calculations. We need to go step by step never thinking past the next weekend. Against Real Madrid you can gift them nothing, because in any given moment they can make a great play," he concluded.

Ayoze continued "Against a team like Real Madrid nothing is forgiven. This is an important game for them too. The need to stay close in the points to Football Club Barcelona. But anyway if they want to win they are going to need to play well as we are going to make things difficult for them" When he was asked about starting in San Mames he answered "This was an opportunity for me but things happen and before I really got started I was substituted. I was my turn and I need to move on and wait for another chance" He finished with the comment, " at every training session I try my hardest to show the trainer what I can do but here the important entity is the team and we need to all row in the same direction."





Of all the players playing in the BBVA league very few have played the whole time. Amongst the 14 out of 505 players who have a re Nino and Sergio Aragoneses.
The full list of minutes played can be seen here.

Preparation for next Monday's game.

The players are training today in the Mundalito stadium at 10 am and the rest of the week in the Heliodoro

Thursday 10:00 El Mundialito Training
Friday 10:00 Heliodoro Training
Saturday 10:00 Heliodoro Training
Saturday - Heliodoro Press Conference JL Oltra
Sunday 10:00 Heliodoro Training
Sunday - Heliodoro List of players
Monday 20:00 Heliodoro CD Tenerife-RCD Mallorca

Tickets for Mondays game will go on sale from tomorrow Friday until the start of the game. Friday to Sunday the ticket offices in the stadium will be open from 10:00 a 13:00 and from 17:00 a 20:00. Monday the ticket offices will be open all day. Tickets will also be available in Bar Canario (Puerto de la Cruz) and in the Librería Papelería Raquel y Carla (Playa de Las Américas).

Interviews yesterday were with Ayoze & Ricardo in the press room in the Mundialito training grounds. Both home grown players talked abgout the importance of Monday's game against Real Mallorca.

“We are enthused to change the present situation. Next Monday we are going to give our all. With a victory things will seem different”. This is how Ayoze talked to the press.

He then continued, “In the changing room we are very much unified. We need to think about the game against Mallorca and no further. We need to believe in the work we are doing day by day. It is true that this mondays teeams season has been very good, above all at home. Mallorca can count on some great players and we need to bear that in mind. We need to win against Mallorca becuase amongst other reasonsever week there are less games until the end of the season.”

When Ayoze was asked about his chances for starting on Monday as international player Dani Kome has been stopped form playing for 5 yellow cards. He replied "I am hopeful as I am every week. I always play and train my best. We all have total confidence in the trainer."

“The fans put everything form their side and in this round we need to do all all for them"finished Ayoze.

Form his side, Ricardo sent a message of hope to the Tenerife fans: “We need to keep on fighting. I know we are going through a hard time. But we need to look for a positive resultwhich will allow us to move up. We are going to react.”

From the teams organiser, “lWhat we most need is a positive result. From there, dwe should continue on a positive run to get out of this position”.

He cosidered too that “the technical team are woking in a fantastic fashion and if we are down in relegation it is because the players are not responding. Between us all we need to fight to go on.”

Interviews with the players after the Sporting game

The following comments were on the club website after the Sporting game yesterday afternoon. Interestingly they are all local players this week.



Pablo Sicilia: "This victory is very important. Another three points gives us a great boost.The team achieved this with the support of the fans. Sporting scored from a lone play but we then controlled the game. We demonstrated that we wanted the win and is fair that we won. We now have 14 points which we earned by playing well but we need to continue along the same line. We need to play well against Getafe".

Omar: " The first half was more difficult, but in the second part we were much better and managed a win. We are very happy with the support form the fans. Their goal came very early and that is never good but we carried on fighting. As for me personally I need to continue working hard and playing the best I can. Our goal is to continue adding points”.

Ayoze: “We have shown we can work hard together to get things done. The support from the fans was a factor in our win. We need to concentrate on how we play not on how the others play. The point form last week was important and more so if we added to the win today. The last game gave us loads of umph as to come back form 3-0 to 3-3 is hard”.

Ángel: “These were 3 important points above all as we came form an away draw. We have come back in a good game. I had a chance for a goal but it didn't go in. Even then I am pleased with the way the game went. The goal against Valladolid has given me more confidence. The team finished today happy with the result”.

Ricardo: “It was a fair victory because we managed to fight our way back from the 0-1. They scored from an isolated play but CD Tenerife was dominating for most of the game. With the goal the idea was to finish the play. I think it hit someone and that confused Juan Pablo. This championship is very long and we need to keep up the fight, that said we are doing ok”.

Héctor: “I finished up very tired after so much time withour playing. I was concentrated all eek on training, but the trainer is the one who makes the final decisions. Now I need o keep training as usual. The applause from the public at the end was euphoric and gave us a great boost. The fans were unbeliveable and that led us to win”.

Comments from the players after the 3-0

Interviews with the players after Sundays come back from 3-0 to 3-3

Ricardo - After the 3-0 no one thought about a draw but we shouldn't have given away so much. We need to play well from the begining. We could have won this game, They started very strong especially after the start of the second half. Games last 90 minutes. It was time we scored a point away. To score in stadiums like this is important


Angel - It was a shame that we missed that last chance, I had a chance to win the game. Definatively it was a good point especially after how the game played out. The team needed a game like this. We started badly and it is always difficult to come back with a 3-0 in the first division.

Sicilia - After the 3-0 the team found some courage and went for the game. We gained a point in a difficult stadium. In the second half we demonstrated that we were superior. We did a great job. We are greatful for the support from the fans. I wnt to send support ton Chema Sanz. We go home from here happy. Now a rest day and then we need to think about the next game.

Bellvis - The point was important for us because we managed to come back and score the 3 goals something which seemed very difficult 15 minutes into the second half. The team went of and gave it their all and has managed a deserved draw. The game got very ugly but they made their mistakes and we made the most of them. Now with this point we need to do well at the weekend winning against Sporting at home.

Ayoze - The team played for their honor and achieved an important point. With the 3-0 it seemed almost impossible to achieve a draw for this game but we went for it. We have potential and today we have shown again what we can do. I belive the fair result was a draw. Now we need to win against Sporting and I ask the fans to support us to make the Helidoro into a fort.

Against Celta de Vigo

Tenerife has their first game in the cup this year tonight against Celta de Vigo. Celta beat Girona in the last round in a single game. This round has a home and away game the first our away being tonight and the home game being in 2 weeks. The club have still not announced what the cost for seats for the home game and we await their information.

Ayoze who hopes to get a chance to play in tonight's game said in Los Rodeos airport yesterday that"We saw them against Rayo Vallecano and they were superior to them. We need to do our best and go for it and that way we will not get a shock. It is all about finding rhythm in an important game and following the trainers instructions."

Dinei said thet he hoped that the players who were not playing so much in the league would have a chance to play. He actually played for Celta last year but said if he scored a goal he would celebrate it.

The game is on Canal Plus PPV or you can watch the ticker on the club website

Manolo Martinez scan results

Manolo Martinez stated that the scan which was done yesterday shows that he is recuperating well. His hope is to be fit to play in Barcelona against Espanyol.

Marc Bertran is continuing with absolute rest. His leg needs to be immobilised. He stated that he was grateful for all the support from the club, his team mates and the fans.

Yesterday after training the players went on a visit to the water bottling plant Fuente Alta. The company is one of CDT's sponsors. Jose Luis Oltra and the players saw how the water is teated and bottled in the mountains above Vilaflor. After the visit they had lunch in a hotel in Vilaflor before heading back to Santa Cruz.

Ayoze has announced to the AS newspaper that if he doesn't play then he feels obliged to look elsewhere. He stated that at 23 years old a player needs to count on playing and growing as a professional.. he lamented that for the team to be in the first division and only have played 23 minutes in the 6 games played so far seemed unfair. He also commented that he seemed to have moved down in the list of reserves with Omar, Dinei and Angel coming above him. His contact finishes in June but he talked of either going then or in the winter break.