MADRID, 11 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Italian Gennaro Gattuso will be the main novelty on the 2022/23 LaLiga Santander bench, along with the outstanding return of coaches such as Ernesto Valverde and Diego Martínez, while Rubi, Míchel and Pacheta return to the top flight after achieving the long-awaited promotion with Almería, Girona and Real Valladolid to the First Division.
The coaching position has not changed excessively for this campaign and only three teams will debut a new one compared to last season, including a Valencia team that is looking for a change of direction. The person in charge will be the Italian Gattuso, non-negotiable in his style and faced with the complexity of becoming the talisman of a ‘che’ hobby in need of happiness.
Valencia trusted José Bordalás last season to rebuild a crumbling project. However, the Valencian team dismissed the Alicante team at the end of their first and only season at Mestalla, where they finished ninth in the League and finalist in the Copa del Rey, brushing the title on penalties against Betis. Now, Peter Lim has turned to a revolutionary and supposedly heavy-handed figure as the former Milan player.
The former defensive midfielder, memorable in his position and winner of the ‘Champions’ in 2003 and 2007, will have his first foreign experience as a coach after occupying the benches of AC Milan and SSC Napoli, the latter where he won his first title in the Italian Cup . Also, he tried his luck at Fiorentina in the previous campaign, although he left a month later due to disagreements with the board -as already happened as a ‘rossoneri’- regarding the signings of the ‘viola’ team.
THE RETURN OF VALVERDE AND DIEGO MARTÍNEZ
In addition to Gattuso, Ernesto Valverde’s return to the Athletic Club bench stands out in his third stage, after managing the rojiblanco team between 2003 and 2005 and between 2013 and 2017, becoming the coach with the most games in its history (307). The presidential elections determined the future of a Basque institution headed by Jon Uriarte, the new top leader who has entrusted the direction of the team to ‘Txingurri’.
Thus, Valverde returns to activity after his last experience at FC Barcelona, where he won two Leagues and was dismissed in January 2020 when he was leading in his third campaign. With Barça he also won a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup, but the eliminations in the Champions League against Rome and Liverpool weighed more heavily.
Less stable seems RCD Espanyol, which has been entrusted to a Diego Martínez who had been off for a year. The man from Vigo rose to glory with Granada by achieving promotion to LaLiga in 2019 and later qualifying for the Europa League, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Manchester United.
CONFIDENCE IN THE NEWLY PROMOTED
For their part, the recently promoted have relied on the coaches who have made their dream of returning to LaLiga Santander come true. Thus, Miguel Ángel Sánchez Muñoz, ‘Míchel’, managed to complete the objective of the Catalan team, as he already did with Rayo Vallecano in the 2017/18 season and Huesca in 2019/20, his last time in the First Division.
Precisely, Pacheta replaced him on his return to the gold category, although his relegation led him to try his luck at Real Valladolid, with whom he is back at the top of Spanish football. Rubi will do the same with UD Almería after a dream season in LaLiga SmartBank, where he managed to become champion.
THE LEGACY OF THE ‘CHOLO’ AND THE CONTINUING LINE OF THE SAVED
The longest-serving coach will continue to be Diego Pablo Simeone, who will complete his 12th consecutive season under the command of Atlético de Madrid. For this reason, the mattress team will try to reissue the glory obtained in 2020/21, although they will face Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid, who faces his fourth year in two different stages as a madridista.
Along with them will be a dream Barça led by Xavi Hernández, the one in charge of maintaining the Barcelona illusion in his first full season at the helm of the team. The renewal of the ‘culé’ squad makes a team dream of a multitude of variants to play in all competitions.
The continuity line of the rest of the projects shows the reward of some teams with their latest coaches to arrive during the course of the last campaign. In this way, Sergio González won the trust of Cádiz and Javier Aguirre of Mallorca, after the successful permanence of both teams. A case similar to that of Francisco in Elche and Quique Sánchez Flores in Getafe. All of them with the initial confidence of their teams for the starting gun of LaLiga on August 12.