It's a fact: this year, in Pamplona, spring has fallen on a Tuesday. Because exhibition solar influences melatonin and serotonin levels, which greatly affect mood, I have decided to take drastic measures: every time I see the acronym subject OECD or the word 'forecast' attached to the name of any international organization, I run like hell. If I get upset, I want it to be because of a fact, not because of some forecast, conjecture, assessment, guess, assumption or supposition of analysts whose crystal ball has been affected by rampant myopia since long before 2007, based on their level of accuracy or the lack of penalties for their inaccuracies. Wrapped in this Pamplona grayness, missing the sweet light therapy, I avoid appreciations, and I rely on facts and symptoms. And as there is only the present, I delight myself with the export figures, which are not appraisals but verifiable facts; with our magnificent SMEs in multiple sectors and with the last three data on the fall in unemployment which, although they do not create a trend, are manifestly positive and point to the power of the much-maligned labor reform. While reading, I prefer to look at how the results of Iberia's restructuring plan are beginning to be seen; how the strategic alliances of Spanish hotel companies are consolidating our sector (with AC by Marriot already in the United States), or how our large banks are establishing themselves globally with enormous strength. However we look at it, betting has little or nothing to do with the results of the matches: they have to be played. A pre-match forecast is of little or no interest. Another thing is when the match takes place. There, many psychological and sociological factors and the voice of those who shout without the need to provide reliable data affect.

Before the match, the important thing is the past. You train to win, because you know that your ability to respond comes from a long time before: from training, from the ability to suffer and to take the blows, whatever the statistics may say. Preparing for the future requires leaving the assessments and forecasts out, and going back to differential diagnoses, all based on facts.
When a game starts, more variables come into play, many of them psychological. At that moment, there are people who listen to the screams from the stands. But good coaches don't do that, they just remember the facts: you can lose or win, but success doesn't depend on those shouts, but on your past efforts and the solidity of your spirit and knowing how to judge yourself objectively. That is why I do not read forecasts. The mood needs sunshine.