Who'll be the next manager to be sacked in Spain?
Wednesday 17 November 2010 14:34
A combination of Spain’s economic crisis, club coffers as empty as
Villarreal’s trophy cabinet and the utterly misguided notion that
bench-sitting stability is a good thing has meant just two coaches have
been fired in la Primera so far this season.
La Liga Loca
feels that this simply isn’t good enough and that club presidents should
grow a pair and fire some managerial minions sharpish, taking Sevilla
and Málaga as an example of the awesome results that a cruel,
pre-Christmas dismissal can bring.
Ever since Antonio Alvarez was
replaced by the mind-probing former Mallorca man, Gregorio Manzano,
Sevilla have gone on to win seven of the club’s nine matches under the
new manager’s unflinching gaze.
In less than a week of appointing
Manuel Pellegrini, Málaga have won two games at home to put the
southern side through to the next round of the Copa del Rey and lift
them off the bottom of the table.
Following this lesson in the undeniable value of a good sacking, LLL brings forth three suggestions of whose head should be the next to roll. There will be blood. Oh yes.
José Aurelio Gay - Zaragoza
Zaragoza
were knocked out of the Spanish cup at the first hurdle by second
division Córdoba, have won just a single, measly league game in eleven
attempts and are stuck at the bottom of the table. Yet, incredibly their
manager, José Aurelio Gay is still in charge of the Aragonese outfit.
To
be fair to the former second team manager, Gay would have grabbed a
point off Sevilla on Sunday, had his centre-back, Jiri Jarosik not had a
brain meltdown and done a Pablo Ibañez in the final minutes against the
Andalusian side to gift Alvaro Negredo the winner.
The fact
there is still some semblance of a fighting spirit within the team -
although not enough to prevent the fans from turning on their
under-performing 'heroes' - has meant club president Agapito Iglesias
has so far been reluctant to execute his coach despite having some
history in this department in recent seasons.
“There won’t be any
change with Gay,” claimed the Zaragoza owner, on Monday. “We must keep
on having patience. Aurelio will be on the bench next Monday (against
Getafe). And on Tuesday.”
Míchel - Getafe
LLL
will be down at Getafe’s Coliseum on Monday for the aformentioned
Zaragoza clash, poised like a particularly peckish vulture, waiting for
Míchel’s managerial carcass to be thrown out to the circling, press pack
predators.
The supporters have been staying away from the stadium
of late - which they have always done, to be fair - and Getafe are in a
wretched run of form which sees the Madrid club without a league win in
six. And that’s not even mentioning a limp-as-a-boarding-school-biscuit
Europa League campaign which more or less ended with a 3-0 surrender to
Stuttgart in front of around 34 fans.
LLL has never
really been a fan of Míchel, who got the Getafe gig through a famous
name rather than a reputation, and is calling for Javier Aguirre,
reportedly sniffing out a new Spanish challenge to dig his teeth into.
Juanma Lillo - Almería
An
emergency meeting called after Almería failed to beat nine man Athletic
Bilbao on Saturday was supposed to the signal for the sacking of the
curly-haired coach, Juanma Lillo, who took over from Hugo Sánchez last
season.
But despite Almería big cheese, García Gabarrón,
complaining that “we weren’t in the game for a moment,” against their
Basque opponents, Lillo lives on and is now expected to get something
out of his side’s upcoming clashes against Barcelona and Valencia.
The blog’s money is on Lillo’s hide being the most likely to be hung out to dry on Sunday out of this troubled trio.
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About Tim Stannard
La Liga Loca is the playground for the evil, more childish half of Tim Stannard’s psyche to be let loose. The other 50% is a contributor to FourFourTwo magazine, Football365, Sabotage Times as well as other publications such as UEFA Champions Magazine and When Saturday Comes. He is also a regular guest on Real Madrid TV’s Extra Time show and works as a TV producer extraordinaire for hire. To contact Tim directly email laligaloca@yahoo.co.uk