The Primera benches are bustling a week after the 2020-21 season closed. In the absence of resolving the succession of Zinedine Zidane as the helmsman of Real Madrid and Joan Laporta issuing his final opinion on Ronald Koeman, whose permanence at Can Barça depends more on the Barça management not finding a replacement of guarantees for the Dutchman than on the scant confidence that there is in a trainer who has already been put at the foot of the horses to air that will only continue if they do not find anything better, the highest category of Spanish football is going through a period of turmoil in the technical field with movements that had been suspected for months and the return of an illustrious to the League, although the continuity of projects that earned another opportunity to continue growing prevails after demonstrating their strength in a demanding campaign like few others.
In Valdebebas the casting has been open for six days to relieve Zidane. Exhausted and fed up with the leaks that questioned his work at the helm of Real Madrid, the Marseillais ended his second stage as coach of the thirteen-time European champion, forcing Florentino Pérez to probe the market again. The chosen one was Massimiliano Allegri, but the one from Livorno preferred to return at the last minute to Juventus, leaving a poker of candidates in which his compatriot is well placed Antonio Conte.
Unemployed after leaving an Inter with which the Scudetto recovered eleven years after the last ‘nareoazzurra’ conquest but from which he came out due to disagreements with the leadership of the Lombard club, the Lecce coach supports his record but raises suspicions due to his aggressive character, in the antipodes of the silk glove with which Zidane handled the squad.
Florentino Pérez’s favorite is Mauricio Pochettino, who has been flirting with the ‘white house’ for years but to whom his contract with PSG ties him. Although he maintains serious differences with Leonardo, sports director of the Parisian team, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi does not seem willing to let him out and it would have to be the Argentine who would tighten the rope, because Real Madrid does not want to go to war with an entity that has under his boot to the great object of desire of the whites, Kylian Mbappé.
The emergency button would go through Raul Gonzalez, a bullet for the future that you do not want to burn too soon but that would have to be spent if the operations of Pochettino or Conte do not bear fruit. It has also sounded Xabi Alonso, but as with the mythical ‘7’, it seems early for the Toulouse, who has just achieved promotion to Second with the Real Sociedad subsidiary, to make the leap.
At Barça the great priority continues to be the renewal of Leo Messi, but for the Rosario to agree to finish his career at the Camp Nou it is necessary to offer him an attractive project and that, to a large extent, goes through the name of the coach. De Koeman likes his commitment to young people and it is appreciated that he does not mince words and does not marry anyone in the locker room, but Laporta prefers to make a clean slate. The problem is to find a substitute that assumes a renewal based on ‘low cost’ reinforcements and pay the Dutchman the seven million that he would have to collect next year.
The need to release figures with whom he shared a wardrobe and certain misgivings on the part of Laporta hinder the arrival of Xavi Hernandez, current coach of Qatari Al Sadd, Pep Guardiola it’s an impossible wish and Mikel Arteta would be the covered. The Gipuzkoan has Barça DNA since he passed through La Masia and spent three and a half years as a coach next to Guardiola, but it is most likely that he will continue to command Arsenal, where his good work has been valued since will take the reins of the ‘gunners’ at the end of December, despite not having managed to seal the ticket for Europe.
Dean Simeone
Beyond the two colossi of Spanish football, the stability on the benches of fourteen of the nineteen teams that, to this day, have their presence in the First Division assured for the next season, stands out. This will happen in the current champion, an Atlético that will continue to profess the ‘cholista’ creed. Also in the rest of the Spanish representatives in European competitions, with Julen Lopetegui heading up the new challenge for Sevilla in the Champions League, Unai Emery directing Villarreal on their return to the top continental competition after buckling the first Europa League in history for him. yellow submarine ‘, and Imanol Alguacil and Manuel Pellegrini guiding Real Sociedad and Betis in this last tournament.
Celta, Athletic, Osasuna, Cádiz, Levante and Alavés, as well as the promoted Espanyol and Mallorca, pose a continuity line, the same as Elche, whose agreement with Fran Escribá to continue the Valencian after achieving permanence is well advanced. Granada is looking for a coach who accepts the considerable challenge of keeping the Nasrids in the dignified step to which he raised them Diego Martinez, which closed its stage in the city of La Alhambra by its own decision. Pacheta, Mendilibar and Javi Gracia are the best positioned.
The news confirmed for the moment come from the hand of Valencia and Getafe. José Bordalás assumes the challenge of raising the black and white team after a turbulent season marked by the departure last summer of several heavyweights from the dressing room and the always delicate relationship with the club’s ownership, leaving a void in the Coliseum that Ángel Torres has rushed to fill with the Míchel’s return ten years after he closed his first blue tour.
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