Welcome Aboard, Watch Out for the Door on Your Way Out

Yes it’s time to review the latest slate of suckers, no I mean Managers in La Liga for the 2008-9 Season. Managers can’t win for losing. Yes they get paid the big bucks, but they get all the blame from the fans, players, staff management and press. This time around there are only 4 Foreign Managers in the Primera, very strange? (Schuster, Pellegrini, Aguirre and Kresic) Why the sudden decrease? That means 16 Spanish Managers. Is this the Golden Age of Managers, to go with the Golden Generation of Players? And only 8 manager changes in La Liga? (Guardiola, Lopez, Arconado, Emery, Marquez, Muñoz, Kresic, Tapia) Which means 12 Managers did the business and kept their job. Interesting…some stability? Well let’s run down the list at the top of the table and let me know what you think.

 

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1 Bernard Schuster – Real Madrid

 

He’s back! Just friend of player, president and socio alike. Schuster did not bring to the club jogo bonito, but he brought harmony and a cohesiveness. He still has his detractors. Some may say the top of the table was weaker than normal. The real task will be this year as fans and background staff all yearn for La Decima. (The 10th Champions League Title) Will this be known as a cycle of stability at Madrid? Or will last year just be a fluke, riding on Fabio Capello’s coat strings? It should be a very interesting year.

 

2. Manuel Pellegrini – Villarreal

 

The mild mannered Chilean Manager has brought this club back to greatness once again. They will be participating in the Champions League for the 2nd time in history and this time they are bringing some very interesting signings with a lot of quality. Of course the majority are South American, but Pellegrini knows that market intimately and is quite a crafty buyer to boot. Will they have enough depth to vie for all 3 titles? I say yes!

 

3. Pep Guardiola – Barcelona

 

The new kid on the block with the biggest job, IMO. Catalan born and bred in the Cryuff style. Can this superstar on the pitch succeed off the pitch? Does he have the man management skills and tactical nuance to battle with the big boys? Bringing in Pep so far has saved Joan Laporta’s job, but just barely. He has spent the most money in La Liga and probably in World Football, this silly season. It will be very interesting to see how he will handle Ronaldhino and Eto’o should they stay at the Camp Nou. Is he in over his head? We shall see.

 

4. Javier Aguirre – Atletico de Madrid

 

Vasco had a very tough year last season. He had to break the mental barrier of Los Pupes. A disease that literally used to affect the team in the 2nd half of the season, so that they were always the nearly men. Nearly Europe that is. Kudos to Aguirre for building mental strength and fortitude. Looks like he is making some quality signings, especially in defense. Looks like Atletico is going to have another good year.

 

5. Manolo Jimenez – Sevilla

 

President Del Nido and company decided to stay with the ex player and youth team coach. Sevilla had an extremely tough year with the death of Antonio Puerta early on and the loss of Juande Ramos. They missed the CL and now have to settle for UEFA Cup. Is Manolo the man to bring Sevilla to the glory of two years ago? Not sure.

 

6. Juan Roman Lopez – Racing de Santander

 

The ex Malaga jefe, did wonders last year to earn promotion for the Anchovies back to La Primera. And his prize, well the Manager position at Racing. Can Lopez fill Marcellino’s shoes? Does this small team from Cantabria have the depth and money to compete in the UEFA Cup? Is the team a Celta Vigo or a Sevilla? The reinforcements have been little to none, thus far. The future looks hazy.

 

7. Gregorio Manzano – Real Mallorca

 

The Spanish Manager made do with what he had and eked out tremendous results. Unfortunately, Mallorca’s parent company has filed for bankruptcy and so they are selling all of their key/star players. Where they will stop, no one knows? Arango is probably the next one out the door. But Manzano is making some bargain basement buys, so you never know? I would put my money on Manzano to pull out another mid table performance and Copa Del Rey run.

 

8. Gonzalo Arconada – UD Almeria

 

No one can repeat what Unai Emery did last year at Almeria, so hopefully expectations will be managed accordingly. Arconada had a stellar year with Numancia in the second division. They clearly outshined the rest of the pack and earned promotion quite early. But playing in the Primera is a whole other ball game. Almeria has made some very good signings with Piatti from Estudiantes, a record signing for the club. But the jury is still out with the little team from Andalusia. The sophomore slump is boding.

 

9. Miguel Angel Lotina – Deportivo La Coruña

 

The long time Vasco coach had a remarkable year with Baby Depor last year. The team is currently in pre-season preparing for their Intertoto matches at the end of the month. Will Depor return to Europe with a bang? We shall see. Will Lotina continue to play 5 at the back? I hope not. Lotina has made some selective transfers that on the surface complete a very balanced team. Look for another good year for the team from A Coruña. One step at a time.

 

10. Unai Emery – Valencia

 

Into the fire, head first. One of the hottest Managers in La Primera last year who played with a very attacking style. Now for something completely different? The bad news: dressing room drama, an enormous squad with the majority of players either not wanted or inconsistent at best that screams out for a major renovation. Financial debt mounting that is relying on the Nou Mestalla as it’s salvation. No Champions League, just UEFA Cup. The good news: two of the hottest players in World Football. A coach with 4 years of Football Managerial experience and some fresh ideas. Who’s worried? Me.

 

There’s no sure thing in La Liga, especially when it comes to the Managerial revolving door. But if I look at my crystal ball, here’s what I see. Look to Atleti to have another good year. Yes Atleti! Look to Villarreal to beat their every other year glory with a coach who has learned from his past CL Run. Chaos will continue at the Camp Nou and at the Mestalla. While being on the top of the table will be a one hit wonder for Racing and Almeria. Both teams should be weary of relegation. The former with fixture congestion and the latter with a coach in over his head. What do you think? Does the future look bright for Depor? Is Mallorca going to surprise us again? Who will be the hottest coach this year?

 

Next week I will review the Managers in the 2nd Half of the table. I cannot wait for the new season to start.

My Barcelona Adventure

Covering La Liga from far away as we’ve been doing for the past 6 months like we have on forza futbol, we tend to see things antiseptically, second hand or translated and repackaged to fit another culture or another way of seeing things, whether it’s to reach the ex-pat Spaniard, the curious Brit or the nonsensical American like myself. Sure, I speak the language and I can read the websites that As or Marca provides as a service, but it has never seemed to fit together, it has never seemed to make sense, until you come here like I did and you cover the league first hand, you read the ragsheets, you talk to the people on the street, and you sit in the seats and see the competition for yourself.

What have I learned? The place is old, it has a history that goes back generations in football terms, but there are Roman ruins here, there are events hardwired to people’s genes here that we have no clue about, even if we speak the language, so I’m going to even try to make sense of the place in one sitting or in one two week holiday, but I do know more about it’s football.

1. Football is king. Sure, they have something called futsala which is what Ronaldinho played I guess in those Nike commercials, and another weird invention that looks like water-polo but without the water, or even the swimming, the NBA and basketball in general is popular, and Formula 1 is always on, but football is front and center.
2. Spanish television, real over the air television, is stranger than I had thought, as there are hours upon hours of telebasura (or literally garbage tv), and while one could get spoiled by the one hour football pregame shows on free over-the-air tv like the one laSexta had, some games are changed and rescheduled or not run at all (like the Real Madrid game from last week) on a moments’ notice, so fans needs or wants are secondary. Oh, and the announcers talk over the action just as much as the English broadcasters do on Gol TV, so it really wouldn’t be that much of a difference. I even heard Ray Hudson’s voice on that Madrid pregame show, weird huh?
3. Spanish newspapers. To get any real sense as to what is really happening in La Liga you have to play the, “let’s buy all the papers in Madrid(As and Marca) and Barcelona(Sport and Mundo Deportivo) and try to find the truth somewhere in between. When 8-10 pages are given in Madrid to Real Madrid and the other teams are given anywhere from half a page to a full page of coverage, then bias is inherant in the system. It’s the same for Barcelona in the Catalan press as well, but it is nice to get a better look at the players, their tendencies, what formations clubs have been playing, and all number of useless statistical data to wet the appetite. Yes, the sports dailies have their uses as well.
4. FC Barcelona. Barcelona is a city of monuments, the AgBar Tower which looks like a blaugrana cucumber in the night sky, the Sagrada Familia which is probably the strangest looking psychedelic Church in the world, but I can see why Barca is one of the biggest clubs in the world just by looking at their own monument to their city. Yes, they’re planning on a new facade for the exterior (shown here) and a brand new coat of paint for the interior, but the club while very modern is all about its links to the past and making its members or socios feel part of the process of running the football club. For a measly 16 euros, I got the chance to tour the visiting training rooms, the media center and even the President’s box, I took a picture with cardboard cutouts of Leo Messi and Ronaldinho, I saw the FC Barcelona Megastore and I even took a picture at field level with Mes Que un Club in the background. I came, I saw and I was looking for Walt Disney’s hand in prepackaging the Barca experience. I must say that it did seem just a little phony to me, but it could just be me, the deluded, cynical American who is conditioned to it.
5. Espanyol were another story. The gritty club of overachievers that almost beat mighty Sevilla are actually situated on some nice property. Their stadium situated in the Montjuic area, a park and conventions area just south of their more popular cousins, is actually in a nice part of town, or at least as nice for different reasons as Barca, but the stadium while it was renovated for the Barcelona Olympics looks much worse for wear. The Espanyol supporters I talked to pretty much agreed that they were counting the days until their new stadium was built. I don’t know though, maybe it’s different on match days at Barca, but I got a better vibe at Espanyol. As one of the supporters told me, “It’s easy to be a Barcelona fan, their stadium is beautiful, they win, you expect them to, but here at Espanyol you suffer, sometimes waiting for that goal that might keep you from being relegated on the last day of the season.” And I told him, yeah but when you get one goal away from winning the UEFA Cup it seems all the sweeter no? He said he’d rather have won than had any moral victories.

I guess there’s a story in there somewhere, that the League is as vibrant at ground level as we see on television, and that maybe you need to get out of your comfort zone and travel, see the sights for yourself and not just be spoon fed team or a league

Messi Gol Part Deaux

Is someone laughing at us? Is there someone at the controls of life? Is God a cule? Well, if he’s not, he’s certainly a native of Buenos Aires. It’s ironic that in the same year that Lionel Messi scores a goal to rival the best of Maradona that scant weeks later he replicates the worst that my namesake Diego Armando in Hand of God. It almost worked, Barcelona was 18 seconds from pulling away from their rivals, playing sublimely against well matched rivals Espanyol, but all anyone I knew wanted to talk about was the cheating Argie that emulates his hero just a tad too closely.

Well, I won’t bore you with an old salt like, “Anyone who isn’t cheating doesn’t care enough” but we soccer fans tend to put way too much of the blame for football’s ills on the cheating, diving, whining Latins who have defiled the proper British sport of football.

Frankly, it happens everywhere I’ve been and in every league I’ve seen, but Argentina it seems has a past that rears its ugly head, from Maradona to Simeone, or Kun Aguero to Messi this year. The heart of a Carlos Tevez, the ball skills of Pablito Aimar or El Conejo Saviola, or the guts of a Javier Mascherano are overshadowed by the darker side of their game: one of gamesmanship, professional fouls, negative tactics and time-wasting.

The fact is that a great player from south of the Andes is measured not only by what he can bring to the ball but by what he can do without it. One minute Aimar can pull off a move that will break an opponents ankles, but seconds later he can win a penalty like the one he won against Madrid this weekend, where he trips on himself a foot after he passes Helguera in the area. I guess we need to realize whether we like it or not that the games is and has always been about the balancing both sides of “the Force.”

The Next Maradona

Diego Maradona was arguably, and I hate blogging about him in the past tense because despite hepatitis and an alcohol problem he is still very much with us, one of the best if not the best soccer players ever to play the game. Argentina has had a love affair with him on the level, and oddly  enough in the same manner, that they had with Eva Peron. I won’t go into the gist of that  history. Suffice it to say: they crazy.

Almost from the beginning with Boca Juniors the Argentinian press and the public have worried, fretted about, and prayed (and preyed) for a successor. Each new Argentinian wunderkind to come out of the Boca or River academy (which constitutes every other club in Argentina by the way) is dubbed “the next Maradona” and sent on his way to play in Spain or Italy. We’ve seen since retirement, easily 15 new Maradonas.

The lineage is striking, a group of great Argentinian players like his contemporaries Ariel Ortega, Marcello Gallardo, Gabriel Batistuta, to youger models like Hernan Crespo, Javier Saviola, Pablo Aimar, Juan Roma Riquelme, or even younger still like Carlos Tevez, or Kun Aguero. Some if not all of them at any given time have been given the term “next Maradona” by the master himself. Most of us just laughed to ourselves and called it Diego was talking to himself again. No one believed him.

Until he said it again this past week, about Barcelona youngster Lionel Messi. Now don’t believe me, but look at his goal (it’s on google or youtube) and tell me if that’s not Diego circa Mexico ‘86.

I won’t go as far as to say that the goal was better than Maradona’s. It was great, and Messi did finish it from a harder angle, but you have to factor who he did it against.

Getafe are a small neighborhood cousin of Real Madrid, and while they have had an excellent La Liga campaign and they are one of its best defensive teams, you cannot compare the level of defending to what Diego faced in the England squad of Mexico ‘86.

Still, none of those other “next Maradonas” had the goal. Messi’s goal this week was a Hollywood reimagining of a timeless classic, not Casablanca recolored or Psycho reshot, but one that is as good as the original and comes at the beginning and not so close to the dire end of a remarkable career.

Lionel Messi may be the “next Maradona” or he may not, but I guarantee you that there are going to be youngsters born this week, this month or this year, and for many years to come with the unattainable moniker of the “next Messi”.