Espanyol's return to LaLiga Santander hides multiple personal challenges, from players who make their debut in the category and others who want to show that what happened two seasons ago was an accident, and that this is their place in football. It will also be for Vicente Moreno. The parakeet coach, at 46, will live his second season in the top flight after a bitter debut due to the relegation of Mallorca in the 2019-20 season.
This will be the tenth season as coach of the Valencian coach, who started on the benches in the 2011-12 season at Xerez, the club of his life, in which he achieved promotion to First Division and was the captain for many courses. “Vinagre”, they called him, as Dani Pendín commented in the documentary RCDE Inside, example of the seriousness of the now coach. Already as a player, the one who was a midfielder only played one season in the Primera (2009-10) in which he played 22 games and did not prevent the relegation of his team.
After his brief stint at Xerez, where he led 26 games, Moreno had to go down a notch to win back the chance to train in the silver division. With Nàstic, he spent two campaigns in Second B, a category in which he has led in 102 games later in the ranks of Mallorca. 170 accumulates in Second, both in Nàstic, as with Mallorca and now in Espanyol, all those successful stages covered with two promotions and a playoff with the Tarragona team.
With Mallorca, Vicente Moreno faced a summer that resembles the current one. With hardly any resources being a low budget (this campaign due to the overflowing Blue and White salary limit), Mallorca pulled from the base of the Second Division and only incorporated Lumor, Febas, Cucho Hernández, Kubo and Pozo as the most representative players. The vermilion team fought all season in the low zone and ended up falling two days before the end with just nine wins and six draws.
With all this background, for Moreno this course is a revalidation. In the first place, to complete a year in the highest category in which his team remains, and secondly to continue taking steps forward as a coach after the great sensations (and level) that Espanyol offered the previous year. For Moreno, the year is also transcendental in his sports career.