Well, that season certainly ended on a positive note. Just in case you forgot how it ended I decided to toss this video in in lieu of a recap. PS. as a special bonus somehow the guys got a hold of an inflatable doll during their celebrations if you watch til the end…. ridiculous.
Honestly, within the span of four day we were about 15 seconds from the season being an abject failure, and then by the time Navas sealed our win, it was an unmitigated success. I’m still in partial shock, just shaking my head and unable to believe that this bizarre, rhythmless, enigmatic season ended in such glory.
Champs League qualification AND some Copa del Rey hardware to put in our trophy cabinet. Incredible.
I had been terrified that we would see a fire sale on our players without qualifying for the CL, but qualification along with the Copa win re-establishes our claim as the third best team in Spain and one of Europe’s best. Diego Capel was so enthused that he signed an extension until 2014 which is great news. I think that Perotti being hurt for a stretch allowed Capel more consistency in playing time and really helped him. He was CRUCIAL in our final few games and really, for the first time in a while, was realizing his potential and sustaining it for entire games (OK maybe not entire games cus he’d consistently get subbed by the 65th minute, but thats a whole lot better than just 15 minutes at the end).
In other news, Sergio Sanchez apparently had his surgery and it went well. I have no clue what kind of recovery time/prospects he is facing, but regardless of whether he ever takes the pitch again (which I sincerely hope he does because he’s a great player), I just hope he has a complete recovery with no residual health issues. Terrifying.
And thats about it. This will be a facinating offseason. Apparently we already have Mamadou Dabo from St. Etienne. Anyone know who is out of contract? I think I’ll probably try and do position by position posts later… but just wanted to toss this up here for now.
Still thrilled about this season.
Great write-up, SRH. Totally agree that in the end we can’t call the season anything but a success. So glad we not only avoided disaster but won something as well.
…slightly off-topic, but now that a certain coach is heading for madrid, what do you all think of the possibility of signing Pellegrini? good idea? bad idea? good idea but unlikely?
I’m not sure what I think…he’s definitely a great coach and I think he’d be an improvement for us, but as usual I’m a big fan of continuity, and while Álvarez certainly hasn’t been our coach for a long time, he IS a part of our system, and it’s hard to imagine him performing better in his time with us. If we’d kept with Jiménez, I actually would probably be in favor of going after el ingeniero.
Thoughts?
Oh, and also…real madrid, everybody. These guys are something else.
I thought about Pellegrini being our coach before, but I dunno why, I just don’t see it happening. He’d be a good choice though. I wouldn’t mind having Manzano either, who’s Andalusian by the way, cause I believe he’s ready to step up and manage a big club. But does Alvarez deserve another season? Probably. But when Aragones declined our offer back in March, it’s been reported that it was only because it was gonna be till the end of the campaign, which makes me think we’re going after a stronger candidate this summer.
And about Sergio Sanchez, I’m very glad to hear he’s had a succesful surgery. They’re saying it’s gonna take about 5 months of recovery time for us to know if he’s ready to get back on the pitch.
Well, silly season has started, and it always piques my interest to read the various transfer speculations associated with our club. I guess the Dabo signing ends Stankevicius’ time with us. Although he ended up not being what we were looking for, he’s definitely been useful, seeing that our defense has been suffering injuries all season long.
Regarding our own players, I think the only definite sale is the one of Luis Fabiano. He came close to leaving last summer, but after he shines in the World Cup, I don’t think we’ll be able to stop him this time. I thought Romaric would be an addition to that list, but after seeing him play during the last 15-20 minutes in the Copa final, and finally smiling during the crazy celebrations that followed, I think he’ll stay for at least another season. Adriano’s name always comes up somewhere in the Italian press. He definitely gives his all for the team, which is a quality admired by Italian managers, with the fact that he is naturally two-footed, and versatile. I wouldn’t be surprised if he favors a big move elsewhere.
PS. LOL @ the inflatable doll.
Continuity v. Big Name
Man, the coaching debate is tough, and I’m glad its not my call in the end. Alvarez did a great job after taking over. He came in right after the Xerez game right? So he essentially went 6-4 in La Liga (though you could be generous and remove the 0-3 thrashing to Villareal just hours after he took over). And got us a finals victory.
In Jimenez’s last ten (Liga) games we scored 12 goals. That is gross. In Alvarez’s ten games of La Liga, we scored 25. Wow. Think about that. I didn’t realize it was that stark. But I think that to me that merits another chance.
As for Stankilicious, I’ll miss making fun of his name. And although he ended with a couple week games, I think he deserves a lot of credit for (“stabilizing” isn’t the right word) mitigating the disaster that was our defense. He stepped in and started for us very quickly after arriving and whether or not he’s back (and probably not) he played a very important role for us over the last few months. So a huge than you to him and the best of luck wherever his future may take him (and who knows… maybe he will stay here… but probably not).
As some of you have already said, if we’d kept Jiménez until the end of the season, and if he’d managed to turn it around, now would be the time to go after Pellegrini. But, neither fortunately or unfortunately, Del Nido and Monchi’s firing of Jiménez and appointing of Álvarez has given us the best case scenario: an in house coach that would maintain continuity going into next season. It wouldn’t break the bank to sign him, he has the support of the players, and he has demonstrated that he can get this team to play an attractive, positive brand of football.
There are rumors that we will soon be signing Valero from Mallorca, where he played the role of attacking-distributing midfielder for them very well last season. Renato is ageing, and we all saw how much we lacked creativity through the middle of the field in the second half of last season. I’m not too worried about signing anyone else after that. I’m too worried about the club’s finances to ask for much more.
That’s a good point on the finances. And I largely agree. Just getting healthy will feel like getting 3-4 more players.
But the other half of the equation is obviously what happens to the players we currently have. If Fabiano leaves (and sounds like there’s a high level of possibility for that) we need another striker. Kanoute is only getting slower and I don’t think anyone here trusts Negredo. And if Navas leaves… Yikes. We still have Perotti and Capel, but getting another winger might then be needed as well.
Thing is though… Even if we don’t make any significant changes, we still will have closed the gap with Valencia. Though I also presume that we’d all love to see our team compete for something more than third. And the rich just get richer.
We’ll see. It will all be very interesting.
haha, well i guess i’d say barcelona closed the gap on valencia. but whatever the case, i’ll agree that at this point, i’m fine with whatever signings we do being only to replace (and solely funded by) whatever players leave this summer. del nido has said he’s looking to really build sevilla up this summer, and promises 3-4 more signings, after dabo. maybe that’s because he knows who’s leaving? i’d much prefer being a distant 4th place finish next year to entering into valencia’s or malaga’s (for example) ongoing financial disaster.
on the possible departures note, i’m not to taking it too seriously, because no matter who the coach is, marca is still marca, but i’ll be absolutely heartbroken if today’s marca cover ends up proving true, and navas goes to madrid. but then, on the other hand, no matter who the coach is, madrid is still madrid, so…i guess you can’t entirely write off the rumor, either.
agreed. if navas goes. please just go ANYWHERE but madrid.
at the end of the day i trust monchi to do what is necessary and fiscally prudent. but seeing navas wearing that jersey makes me puke in my mouth.
it’s official: http://www.marca.com/2010/05/25/futbol/equipos/sevilla/1274803597.html?a=ddf97ad21ca867da264b51a1a804ee17&t=1274850479
álvarez was renewed and will be sevilla’s coach for the next season. according to this article, it was a ‘unanimous’ decision, and there is a press conference planned tomorrow at 7 pm sevilla time to announce him officially as the head coach.
i don’t think we could really ask for a better scenario than this one that’s fell in our lap. i’d like to get pellegrini, but i’m afraid he’d cost a lot more than álvarez, and we need that money for other interests.
@rrnchrmbrs but u dont realise that he wud make sevilla extremely strong. real madrid are no club to measure a coach or a players potential. look at robben and sneider for example.
plus pellegrini wud get to choose who he wants and who he wud like to get. total power unlike in real where teh shit perez gets what he wants and too much pressure from teh board.
i would love to see pellegrini coach sevilla, it would only make liga more stronger and competitive. if sevilla can get pelle then its a better news than getting blanc.
this is just me, but i will prefer team continuity (álvarez) 100 times over a successful manager from another club (pellegrini). sevilla is not real madrid – we do not have the money (or the arrogance) to buy the best managers. and even if we did get that pellegrini, we will not have money left over to buy the players that “he wants and who he would like to get”.
that is not the sevilla i cheer for. we are in debt already, and hiring pellegrini would only make that worse. i would LOVE to see him as coach, but it does not seem like the most reasonable choice at this moment.