SUMMER signing Alan Navarro says that he is looking forward to facing his former team-mates this evening with cup progress the target for Town.
Brighton are Swindon’s opposition in the 2012/13 curtain raiser, and Navarro says that old friendships will count for nothing once he crosses the whitewash in front of the Sky cameras tonight.
“I’ve been looking forward to it all summer,” he said. “Obviously I signed and then the fixture came out so I was delighted personally. It will be a bit strange: I was training with these lads only a few months ago and I’ve spent the best part of the last three years with a couple of them so it will be a bit strange but I will know them and I trained with them each day so I know the strengths and weaknesses that they’ve got.
“Every player is different, they’re a good team. They can hurt you if you don’t do things right and you’ve got to expect them to have a lot of the ball because obviously they’re a quality team. There will be a little bit of banter flying about but I’ll be going out on that pitch if I get picked and I’ll be giving 110% going out there to win the game. There are no friends on the pitch, it’s an old cliché but it’s true.
“We’re confident in our ability and in what we can do. We’ve got a quality squad and whoever is on that pitch on the day is going to prove to a lot of people what we’re about to do this season.”
Having worked under both Gus Poyet and Paolo Di Canio, Navarro compared the two and their management styles before switching the focus back to this evening’s tie.
“Very similar but different, it’s hard to explain,” he said. “There are similarities in their passion, the way they want to win the game, the way they want to play football but also different in other aspects of the game. It’s interesting to see how they’re both going to set out. It’s what we’ve been preparing for the last couple of months. The season starts tomorrow and we’ve got to be going out there trying to push on and get a result.”
