“The Espanyol it has to be in the First Division and, once there, be an important team”. The sentence is Vicente Moreno. But not this summer, after the promotion, but a year ago, which is celebrated these days. His signing took place on August 4, 2020, was presented the next day and got down to work on this day, the August 10. With the team, the club and all the fans immersed in a deep depression after the recent fall to the Second Division. At the time, surely he was the the only one who blindly trusted immediate return to the highest category.
12 months and 82 points later, Moreno has emerged as the leader of a silent revolution which started from the premise of change the mindset to a desolate locker room, to make him one capable of everything and with the self esteem through the clouds in record time, and was extending its control to almost all controllable facets. From about locked medical parts to some calls that sprout almost in unison with the line-ups for, apparently, not granting the slightest clue to the rival. Jealous of his own as he couldn't, in Second the results proved him right, with the title of champion, with the ‘pichichi’ for Raúl de Tomás, the Zamora in the hands of Diego Lopez, and being the top scorer (71 targets) and the less thrashed (28).
It has also ingrained its football libretto, perhaps not the most colorful but the most effective. And his group management, of which the entire squad speaks wonders despite the fact that, in minutes on the pitch, it has been counting primarily on a bulk of about 15 or 16 players. In this process, which began a year ago in Marbella, it may be that the only failure was that due to COVID-19 he was unable to command this time the preparation in his talisman base camp on the Costa del Sol.
He has brought stability to the club, balance in the squad and results: Second-leg champion, Pichichi, Zamora, the team with the highest score and the least goals scored …
Signed until 2023, and after providing a stability that Espanyol was demanding loudly –four coaches had had the previous season, including David Gallego, Pablo Machín, Abelardo Fernández and Francisco Joaquín Pérez Rufete–, Vicente Moreno's great challenge will consist of settle in the First Division with the same level of success that has led him to sign four promotions in the last eight seasons. In his first attempt, two seasons ago with Mallorca, he was on point. Now, as he himself predicted upon arrival, his mission is for Espanyol, once in the First Division, to be “an important team”.