There are teams of presidents, such as Real Madrid with Florentine, others of cracks, like Barcelona with Messi and sets of coaches, such as Atlético de Madrid. Perhaps Real Sociedad and Granada belong to the latter lineage, although with a glaring difference: the tenants of their benches, decisive in their successes, flee from the spotlight and are antidive beings who prefer to maneuver from the shadows. Perhaps that is why the Txuri Urdin and Nazarí technicians are known more by name than by surname. Imanol Y Diego Maybe they want to be one more in the gear, but right now they happen to be two true gurus of the benches. The dynamics of their teams already speak for them without microphones involved.
Apart from the sensational records they are starring in, what distinguishes them from their colleagues is that they have sucked Second B with their teams, Imanol in the Real affiliate, where he worked with a good part of the homegrown players he now has; Diego, with the first team, rose through the ranks until he reached the top of his group in the Europa League.
The position of coach is the most fragile in professional football, it is always the first to fall and one's own Imanol He said Wednesday that maybe in 15 days someone will ask for his resignation. For now, their numbers only provide arguments to the contrary. In his 88 games with Real, he has recorded 43 victories – practically half -, 20 draws and 25 defeats. His 88th match causes him to go to Raynald
Denoueix as the eleventh coach with the most games in the history of Real. His 43 wins place him eighth in the ranking, behind Eusebius, which he will equal when he celebrates three more successes. In addition, he is the fourth coach with the best percentage of victories (49%) in the 111-year history of Txuri Urdin, only behind Asier
Santana, who led a party, Silveti, Y Olabe, which commanded the ship for nine crashes.
This Real has six victories in the last seven games, seven in the last nine and only two losses in the last 14 games. The balance of the season is astonishing: in 11 games, seven wins, two draws and two losses: leader in the League and in the Europa League, in this case tied with two rivals, AZ Alkmaar and Napoli.
The 100 of Diego Martínez
The balance of the Granada course is also stratospheric: in 10 games, six wins, three draws and one defeat. In the league they will tie Real if they win this Sunday, with one game less. He is now fourth with 14 points. In the Europa League, they are first in Group E with seven points, after two wins and a draw.
Diego accumulates 100 games leading Granada, with 52 victories, 24 draws and 24 defeats. In 59 of those 100 he has left his clean sheet and they never traced back a game that he was winning.