Valencia and Levante have had to deal with misbehaving players, while Barcelona look to bounce back from their Champions League exit explains Tim Stannard...
Friday’s preview was supposed to be a little bit easier for poor, frazzled La Liga Loca. Barcelona trundle on with a huge lead at the top of the table. Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid do their thing.
But then a mini-crisis struck the selfish league leaders and everything at the top is wide open again. At least the prospect of another couple of Madrid derbies has been put to one side for the moment, with both clubs avoiding each other in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Let’s just say that Pep Guardiola will be ordering in some titanium-reinforced shin pads.
The blog is going to try to continue tradition by shining a light on the rest of La Liga while the top three duke it out, in a week stuffed with a lot of player naughtiness and a washing line.
Valencia’s boat slightly rocked by player pout
I feel like I tried to help him, but he didn’t want to be helped
Of course, Valencia can’t enjoy what should have been a perfectly nice week without something going a little pear-shaped in the Mestalla dressing room. That something was called sulky Sofiane Feghouli, who reportedly refused to warm down on the pitch after last weekend’s win over Sevilla– a requirement for those who didn’t start the game.
The Algerian midfielder had been a second-half substitute and may well have played his last minutes for Valencia due to a disciplinary suspension, having been largely AWOL for much of the season as well as out of contract in the summer. “I feel like I tried to help him, but he didn’t want to be helped,” lamented Valencia manager, Pako Ayesterán.
The club’s accounts have also been a nattering point in the press, with AS noting that the wage budget from next season will have to be shrunk from €110m to €74m due to a lack of Champions League funds coming into the coffers.
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At least the Valencia players and supporters can cheer themselves up by potentially digging Barcelona into a bigger hole by taking points off the league leaders in the Camp Nou. If they’re into that kind of thing
Barcelona vs Valencia: Sunday 8.30pm CEST
Getafe test drive new manager against Real Madrid
I'm not a Kamikaze and wouldn't have accepted the job if I didn’t believe we were going to (stay up)
Well, that was quite the week for both Madrid clubs in very different ways. While the forces of Mordor were celebrating a genuinely famous victory over Wolfsburg, the Hobbits of the Shire were reeling after the sacking of Fran Escribá.
Now, LLL was expecting Joaquín Caparrós to take over considering the Getafe president, Angel Torres, promised on Monday that the new manager was going to be someone who “had never worked for Getafe, is Spanish and had coached big teams”.
Just hours later they unveiled a former assistant coach, who was Argentine and had never managed anyone bigger than Córdoba. Welcome back to the Coliseum Juan Esnáider, who said on Thursday that he was aware of Getafe’s precarious position in the relegation zone but revealed that he was not “a Kamikaze and would not have accepted the job if I didn’t believe we were going to (stay up)”.
“I would love to spend my life here. I never left Getafe,” said the new boss for good measure, to the club’s regular press pack of three. LLL has a feeling that something very surprising might happen in the Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. Aside from more than 4,000 people turning up.
Getafe vs Real Madrid: Saturday 4pm CEST
Disco dancing leads to player-fan feud at Levante
Failure to beat Espanyol on Friday would see the stadium going up in flames, with Levante at the bottom of the table on 25 points
A tough week for Levante may end with a happy resolution. Unless the Valencia side fail to beat Espanyol on Friday, that is. That would see the stadium going up in flames, with Levante at the bottom of the table on 25 points and probably needing three wins from five that would then be available to stay up.
There was controversy aplenty after last weekend’s away defeat to Betis, when three players reportedly went out disco dance in the early hours of Sunday morning on their return from Seville.
Those players were Deyverson, Simao and Zouhair Feddal. The first two were out till 7.30am, with Feddal home a little earlier. Simao didn't make the 11.30am training session the same day.
But none will be suspended from playing duties, with manager Rubi shrugging that “I can’t afford to be losing players”. The nonplussed head of the Levante fan groups demanded a meeting on Thursday with Rubi and the club captains.
Gabriel Salinas revealed that “it was a meeting of strong words and we said things face-to-face. But we all left feeling stronger and more united.” Time will tell if the group hug session was enough to stop the rot of just one win for Levante in seven.
Levante vs Espanyol: Friday 8.30pm CEST
Sporting fans adopt towel tactics to inspire players
Sporting fans are all about the creativity this week. The third member of the relegation zone club after Levante and Getafe had a bit of a surprise when the players trotted out onto the training ground turf to find a huge banner declaring that “no one throws in the towel here”.
PREVIA | El Sporting de Gijón no tira la toalla April 14, 2016
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To reinforce the message, a washing line was strung up along the length of the pitch with actual towels belonging to ‘La 1905 peña’ (fan club).
