Only a week ago, Sevilla Sporting Director Ramón Rodríguez Monchi declared full confidence in his coach Marcelino García Toral. His faith only lasted a week, however, with a 2-1 home defeat to Villarreal proving the final nail in the coffin. Still believing he could turn the team’s fortunes around, the coach refused to quit on Sunday evening but the decision was taken out of his hands. Following an emergency meeting with soon-to-be-incarcerated club president José María del Nido and Monchi on Monday morning, he was given his marching orders. Only in the job since the summer of 2011, he was brought in to replace Gregorio Manzano – who was himself recently dismissed by Atlético Madrid – … [Read more...] about La Liga: Sevilla’s woes leave Marcelino high and dry
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Real Madrid winning run leaves Mourinho smiling
José Mourinho has changed. The brash, bombastic, fight-picking, opposition-baiting, eye-poking manager, who was worshipped by fans at Porto, Chelsea, Inter and now Real Madrid while being reviled by almost everyone else (including his own colleagues), has been replaced by a more reserved and gentlemanly figure who calmly oversees affairs and stays out of trouble. That was the argument put forward by journalist Tomas Roncero in the Tuesday edition of Madrid sports newspaper AS anyway. “Mourinho has made a radical change in his attitude,” Roncero wrote. “For the better. Since he signed his contract with Madrid for four seasons at the Bernabeu on 31st May 2009, to the Mourinho of 15th … [Read more...] about Real Madrid winning run leaves Mourinho smiling
Wanted: absurdly rich tycoon to lend Spain’s La Liga intrigue
It was while perusing the scoreline of Sunday’s Manchester derby – in which a team of petrodollar-financed stars had trounced the English champions 6-1 - that my mind turned to La Liga. By a twist of fate, something akin to a parallel fixture had been played the day before in Spain, between Real Madrid and Málaga. Real Madrid, like Manchester United, was the big, established power, with a glittering history, a formidable manager and a team built on tradition, as well as money. Málaga was the Manchester City of the piece: a side with no trophies to boast of (at least in recent decades) but with oodles of money provided by a rich foreign owner – Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani of … [Read more...] about Wanted: absurdly rich tycoon to lend Spain’s La Liga intrigue