Patricia Rodríguez is in one of her most difficult moments as a sports manager. After his successful stages as a member of the advisory council of the Gipuzkoa Basket and in Eibar, Elche or LaLigathe general director of Granada has found herself in the middle of the media tornado after the team’s relegation to the Second Division.
The fans have singled her out for being the visible face of a club whose president, Rentao Yi, has never set foot in the capital of La Alhambra and who has given command to legal adviser Javier Aranguren. Francisco Cuenca, mayor of Granada, wanted to contact the enigmatic top Chinese leader and with whom he had an exchange of views was with the lawyer, based in Madrid, as Ideal reported at the time.
Patricia has made a huge effort to try to keep the accounts of a club square that must assume amortizations for signings such as Luis Suárez, for whom it was agreed to pay Watford 15 million over five years. The most important operation in the history of the club.
The leader from San Sebastian has maintained good and fluid relations with LaLiga, which is a very important role for any club. What has failed? That the ball has not entered. In bad times, the counselor with command in place and sent by the property to ‘control the move’ has known how to get out of the way in bad times. The result is that the slaps have been taken by Patricia.
After three successful seasons with Diego Martínez as coach with promotion, two stays and a successful run in the Europa League, the bet on Robert Moreno as a substitute for the Vigo player or Pep Boada as sports director did not go well at all. The construction of the new template did not work. The replacement for Yangel Herrera was not found and the departure of Soldier, for whom Levante paid the clause of 500,000 euros, was not well replaced by a Carlos Bacca in the twilight phase.
Failed bet by Robert Moreno
Rentao Yi, the enigmatic president of Granada.
Robert Moreno tried everything to improve the results but he never had the support of a crowd that had Diego on a pedestal. The results did not accompany him and on matchday 27 after a terrible run of three points in nine days he was dismissed. The bet on Rubén Torrecilla, a good youth coach, did not go well either.
Aitor Karanka’s landing restored self-esteem to the team that reached the last day depending on itself to save itself. But the anxiety gripped him again and the descent was consummated with what the Granada fans took it again with Patricia Rodríguez. Many times in soccer the fans take it with the one they see in the box but rarely with the one who does not come. In truth Chinese owners are always secretive, distant, cautious and in this case absent.
For Rentao Yi and his team of Chinese collaborators, Granada is nothing more than a distant company. They only have kilometric contact with their local managers through videoconference, but they do not know their workers. Nor, of course, what the fans suffer. Granada is not a company to use. Is a feeling.
What will happen?
Alignment of Granada against Espanyol. Many of these players will not continue.
Granada CF.
No one can know what can happen. In the short term, Granada must assume its new reality in Second. The budget of 60 million euros for this campaign will be radically reduced. And let’s not talk about the salary cap. Of the 54,793 you can go, calculating by eye, to one of 18 or 20. It can be the highest in Second. But the reduction will be colossal. And that will mean letting go of any of the 20 contracted players. Here we include those on loan who are Abram, Monchu, Antoñín, Adrián Marín, Ricard Sánchez, Alpha Dionkou and Butzke.
shareholders meeting
Everything is at the expense of what the mysterious Chinese owners decide. For now, an Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting will be held on June 29. By then it is assumed that decisions should be made to move forward, such as the desire that Darwin Machís has to leave Granada, if possible to Mexico. But the surplus staff is an issue that we will deal with in the coming days.
Bad times for DDMC
To all this it seems that Wuhan DDMC, the company that owns the Granada is not going through its best moments. The value of the company that controls the entity has fallen by 68.5% in 2022 and its subsidiary has not paid for the League’s television rights. In addition, the Chongqing FC of the Super League of this country disappears due to financial problems. To give you an idea, this was the team that paid Borussia Dortmund 12 million for Adrián Ramos to join Granada. This gives a feeling of uncertainty and more with the news about the alleged interest of an Argentine group for the club.
There’s still a lot. Who will be the new sports director? And the coach? The owners have ended up very satisfied with Karanka. Will have to see. In any case, these are hard days for Patricia Rodríguez, who will have to plan the new campaign… if the bosses of the Asian giant do not trip her up.