Levante, before the end of its agony: three coaches, six victories and the pending examination of the president

A victory for Real Madrid this Thursday at the Bernabu will consummate the relegation of a model club after a season of mistakes.

Only six wins in 36 League games, 67 goals against, three coaches and the longest streak of consecutive games without winning in the League (27). The Levante has one foot in Second and the agony can have its last chapter this Thursday if it does not beat the Real Madrid. The Bernabu can witness the glory of the champions and the bitterness of those who are expelled from the First Division, a fate against which the Granotas have rebelled very late. It is not impossible for the team to come out alive, because they have scored points in three of their last four visits, but even winning will depend on what their rivals do. Cdiz and the Granada in the last two days. Salvation seems like a chimera.

How can a model club, a Cup semi-finalist a year ago and consolidated in the First Division, break down? Because football charges dearly for every mistake on the pitch and in offices. Since that goal Athletic in the extra time that left them on the verge of a Cup final, the club has accumulated setbacks.

The first was to lengthen the stage of paco lopez without faith in the sports management. It had been five years of growth, stability and ample saves, but the team closed last season without winning a game since April 10there were no sales that lightened the accounts and aired the locker room and the arrivals were not a plus either: Roberto Soldado arrived injured and Mustafi without having competed in months. The start was no better.

After eight days, Levante fell into descent and the second error came: the president Quico Catalan announced the dismissal of the technician, which caused a shock equivalent to the choice of his replacement, Javier Pereira, a technician with no First Division experience who took more than a week to leave China to take over the reins. Before two months he had already been replaced along with the entire sports area that chose him. His balance in seven games was three draws, four defeats and a feeling of breakdown.

The resuscitation maneuver was entrusted to Alessio Lisci, the young Italian who had shone in lower categories and directed the subsidiary. It cost him to make believe players as committed as the captain Jos Luis Morales that they were in time to make amends and found support in the arrival of Felipe Miambres to sports management.

First victory: January 8

The first victory came on January 8, but by then Levante had already accumulated 27 consecutive days without winning, a record in the First Division, and had only added eight points. During the alleged take-off, Lisci changed the system, player injuries appeared, such as of fruits or Roger, the relapses of Campaa and the doubts that made games that were under control or that drove them crazy escape, such as the duel against Bara in the Ciutat. But the smart team.

Of the six victories achieved, three have been in the last six games, in a sprint that will fall short of a good squad whose leadership is exercised by veterans such as Roger y Morales, fifth in the table of national scorers with 12 goals. His tears after some games have been the reflection of an inevitable fate that ends with the best stage in the history of the club.

The presidency under review

Relegation never comes at a good time, but Levante’s today is the most complicated of five years. The pandemic and the paralysis of the market reduced their income and increased their debt. The board of directors went into debt to remodel the stadium and build a new sports complex in the maritime district of Nazareth and, although the arrival of CVC has been a respite, the financial balance was due to being in the First Division. He knows Quico Catalanwhich after years of lauded management, announced that it would undergo a shareholder review to assess its presidency at the end of a season that would end in suspense.