Abelardo returns to Alavés

Alavés has made official the hiring of Pitu Abelardo as the club's new coach. This is his third stage as an albiazul after being a player at the beginning of the century and a first team coach two seasons ago. Born in Gijón 50 years ago, he was a player in La Braña, Estudiantes de Somió, Sporting, Barcelona and Alavés. He was also an under-21 international and absolute. In the maximum he played 54 games and scored three goals. He was a forceful center-back. As a coach, his career has passed through Sporting, Candás, Tuilla, Alavés and Espanyol. On June 27, 2020, he was dismissed leaving the Barcelona team in the last position of the table, just like when he took the reins of the parakeets.

At 10:05 in the morning, Alavés issued a statement saying that Pablo Machín and the entity separated their paths. The defeats against direct rivals such as Huesca, Celta and Cádiz have meant his grave. The club has had eight coaches since returning to Primera five years ago: Bordalás raised the club to the highest category but did not continue. Then came Pellegrino, Zubeldía, De Biasi, Abelardo in his first stage, Asier Garitano, López Muñiz and Machín. In some competitive appointments, the interim Javi Cabello has also trained the team. Hot bench in several seasons inside the albiazul house.

Last night, the club's Technical Secretary, Sergio Fernández, got in touch with Pitu Abelardo, who was interested in the possibilities of reinforcing the squad in January and also about committing himself to the babazorro team for more than a year . There is no money for reinforcements but the second point seems to be fulfilled. The arrival of Abelardo entails the reunion with a man who caught Alavés in a very delicate situation after the passage of Luis Zubeldia and De Biasi on the bench. The idea was to close the agreement with the Asturian coach as soon as possible and that tomorrow he can train the team in Ibaia. Today's session was directed by Javi Cabello, who will continue as second in Vitoria. El Pitu left Alavés because he thought he shouldn't extend that stage any further but now he returns with renewed spirits.

This Saturday they have a Cup against Almería at the Mediterranean Games stadium and next week they will host Sevilla and Real Madr in the league in Mendizorrozaid. On Saturday, January 23, the day of the clash against the whites, it will be the day of the founding Centenary of the club. If Josean Querejeta, owner of the club, did not have good feelings with Machín, his future was very clear: outside the club, especially in a season as emblematic as that of one hundred years.

The physical trainer and man of confidence of Machín, Jordi Balcells, will also leave the team. With the Soriano on the bench, Alavés has won four games this season, has lost eight and had six draws, with a total of 16 goals in favor and 23 against. These numbers place him in sixteenth place in the standings, two points behind Elche, which marks the relegation zone, although Elche has two games less than the Albiazules.

Machín is the fourth coach relieved in the First Division this season and his departure takes place hours after that of Míchel in front of Huesca, who announced his dismissal last morning. In this way, in the few days of 2021 there have already been more dismissals than in the initial phase of LaLiga Santander in 2020, in which only Óscar García Junyent had to leave his position, at Celta, replaced by the Argentine the 'Chacho' Coudet. So far this year, Gaizka Garitano have fallen to Athletic, Míchel and Machín. This will not be able to live the Albiazul Centennial, for which there are only 12 days left.

Since Alavés returned to the First Division five years ago, in the 2016-17 season, eight coaches have been on the Albiazul bench, following the recent departure of Pablo Machín, the last coach dismissed by the Vitorian entity. After the promotion, the first to leave was José Bordalás, which was not released in the highest category to which the Argentine arrived Mauricio Pellegrino, which reached the first final of the Copa del Rey for the Basque team. Despite the successes, the Argentine gave up his position to his compatriot Luis Zubeldia, who was only in charge of the team the first four days of the 2017-18 academic year.

Javier Cabello replaced him for two days, until the arrival of the Italian Gianni De Biasi, who led Alavés for seven days. Abelardo Fernandez managed to turn around the complicated situation of the Vitoria club. He took over the team on the fourteenth day and achieved salvation to complete the best first round of the Basque entity in the subsequent campaign, 2018-19, but he did not continue at the head of the Alava squad.

Asier Garitano The 2019-20 season began, but after the confinement the team chained a series of bad results that led to the substitution by Juan Ramón López Muñiz, who sat on the bench during the last four league games and Alavés got salvation. Pablo Machin He had started the current season with a one-year contract, but the club has decided to dispense with the coach after 18 days.