Last week Sporting Gijón decided to sack one of the bigger characters in La Liga the Cantabrian Manolo Preciado who was the longest serving manager in La Liga. He took over at the club in 2006, leading Sporting back into the top division and kept them up them up for 3 seasons.
Manolo in better times
With a club that has meagre resources, lack of income coming in from TV rights, having to sell their best players to survive. For Sporting their goals are pretty simple, preserving their status in La Liga, of course it would be great to say they could challenge for the title or European places but it’s delusional at best.
His best achievement was leading Sporting to defeat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, in the process calling Jose Mourinho a canalla, and like men they sorted it out afterwards, still a great moment.
Sporting Gijón 1-0 Real Madrid
Sporting had an awful start to the season with only 1 point from their first 8 matches, sure they played Atletico, Barcelona, Sevilla and Valencia in that time. Preciado had managed to turn it around with some reasonable results, while their position before the winter break wasn’t great there were no major indications of Preciado getting fired
After the winter break is where the heat was on Preciado, especially with the awful 5-1 loss to fellow relegation candidates Real Sociedad, it’s not like Sporting were playing Real Madrid or Barcelona in fact neither of those two sides had put 5 past Sporting in the last 2 seasons. This was the catalyst to Preciado’s sacking, football is such a results business and Vega-Arango delivered the final blow.
At the same time one has to look at the squad, there are a few good players there and they’re plucky, but Diego Castro was the inspiration last season and they haven’t been able to replace him. Miguel de las Cuevas hasn’t stepped up to fill the creative void. Sporting have usually been solid defensively, the manner of the recent defeats and poor defensive organisation is alarming.
Players are the ones who have to take responsibility for their poor performances. This was not all down to Preciado, you can’t have prime beef when you don’t have the best cattle. This is the problem even the critics of Preciado and others unhappy with the current position of the club, that the alternatives available aren’t likely to get any more out of the squad.
Thankfully Michel wasn’t appointed as the new manager, one he isn’t that good as a manager, two Marca keep pimping him out for any managerial vacancy and most importantly it’s hard to like a guy when you’re used to hearing the Michel Michel maricón chant.
Iñaki Tejada was the logical appointment, as he has been in the Sporting set up as an assistant under Preciado and former manager Marcelino. If he can preserve Sporting’s status in La Liga, then his reputation will grow and perhaps be a front runner to have the job for next season.
Normally when a club sacks a coach, the team normally win or play at a higher level. Huge surprise there as they are worried about their position in the side under the new guy, so they put in more effort and perhaps take responsibility for their performances which wasn’t happening previously.
Iñaki Tejada
Sporting will be frustrated with the 1-1 against Osasuna, sure it was an improved performance from the one against Real Sociedad then again it wouldn’t be hard to improve upon that. If confidence was a commodity then it would fetch higher prices than gold or truffles.
After taking the lead Sporting didn’t seize the initiative, they became conservative letting Osasuna back into the contest and they levelled with a good header. Once Osasuna levelled, they grew in confidence pressed harder for the second goal and it needed some good work from Juan Pablo who has been one of Sporting’s best this season to hold onto the draw.
Yes, there was the great goal from Trejo to steal the win against Malaga, but too many times they have conceded late goals to either cost them a draw or a win matches against Espanyol, Athletic and the clearest example Zaragoza.
Real test for Tejada is coming in the next 5 weeks up against Valencia, Atletico, Racing, Barcelona and Sevilla. Last season Sporting got excellent results against the better sides which secured survival earlier than normal, time for the players to have a good look at themselves and rise to the challenge.
Naturally I hope Sporting survive, but the same problems are still there and have been magnified. There is an overall lack of quality in the squad, sure Botia when in form is quality, Barral tries hard but de las Cuevas has to improve. Struggling to produce players from the youth academy, unsurprisingly when kids from Asturias are taken by better funded clubs, in addition to the lack of firepower and defensive issues, this will be a difficult situation to escape from.
Preciado Hall of Fame
Manolo Preciado has suffered enough in life, losing his wife, son and father, that being sacked by a football club isn’t the end for him. He did wonderful things for the club and very happy to hear that he will be a member of the club until he dies. It would be good if Racing Santander and Sporting Gijón could play for some trophy to be associated with Preciado considering his links to both clubs.
He will be missed by Sporting fans and neutrals alike who like different characters in a world that is homogenised by blandness within the sports world.
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