Tim Stannard provides the inside line from Spain after yet another impressive Barcelona performance...
When the glorious day comes that La Liga Loca has the pleasure of firing someone, big time, as opposed to being on the receiving end of the boot (waves fist at Little Chef) then the blog is sure that it won’t make the same mistake as many Spanish football clubs.
At this point, LLL would like to note that technically it was never fired by Little Chef. Indeed, a younger version of LLL spent many a happy holiday helping to put lead in the pencil of weary lorry drivers with a nice Early Starter (LLL pulls Kenneth Williams face).
Unless you are one of the really big boys and tie up former managers with no-speakie-bad-things-when-fired clauses, then La Liga clubs often allow a sacked manager straight back into the press room to complain that the former bosses have made a dunderheaded decision.
Valencia in form
Sandoval pointed out that he was also grateful for the warm hand on his exit
José Ramón Sandoval was given this opportunity on Tuesday, having been ejected the previous day after a home defeat to Valencia that left Granada at the bottom of the table, but only four points from survival.
“It’s rare to sack a manager when the supporters are behind them,” noted Sandoval who pointed out that he was also grateful for the warm hand on his exit offered by his footballers.
The latest figure in a very hot seat in Andalusia is José Gonzalez who has certainly been around the blocks in the lower reaches of La Liga, but was most recently the assistant of Gregorio Manzano at Beijing Guoan.
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In his opening words to the media, Gonzalez was promising pretty much everything to the fans with the side being compact yet expansive, and defensive yet attacking. “I understand why there are doubts about bringing me in, I would be surprised, too,” admitted the new Granada boss, 'pulling a Neville,' by doubting his own appointment. Granada’s run of matches includes back-to-back games against some relegation rivals, once an away clash with a faltering Deportivo La Coruna is out the way this weekend.
And those are probably the most words to be written on the affair, even in Spanish, as Barcelona and Real Madrid are dominating the Primera media world as ever. The Champions League victory for the Catalan club against Arsenal on Tuesday has gone down very well indeed. There were even patronising pats on the head for the Gunners for being worthy rivals despite ultimately being put to the sword by Leo Messi.
Wednesday’s Sport notes that the MSN trident has now scored 215 goals between them in a year-and-a-half, but Messi quite naturally takes all the praise with the Argentine called “a gift from God for Barcelona.”
Mundo Deportivo were a little less biblical with Santi Nolla enthusing that “nobody said Abracadabra in the 71st minute, but Messi created magic,” referring to Luis Enrique’s revelation that a team talk for the three forward players consisted of just the single word.
More Barca
Atlético Madrid will now be in action on Wednesday night to see if Spanish clubs can continue a remarkable run of six matches over the past week without a single goal being conceded. Indeed, it would genuinely be ironic if it was the most stifling side on the planet who let their country down against PSV Eindhoven.
