“Coaches must be old, ugly and wear tracksuits,” said a Sevilla fan at London Stansted airport.. The man's scarf was heavy around his neck.. His friends agreed with him with their heads.. Arsenal had easily dispatched their team on the fourth day of the Champions League and Diego Alonso, the coach who came to resurrect the team, showed signs of desperation. This Sunday (6:30 p.m.), in the derby against Betis his position could be at stake.
Pedrosa as interior, Nianzou as winger or Jordán as starter. Decisions that cease to be a symptom and become a diagnosis. Diego Alonso (Montevideo, Uruguay; 1975) has not brought Sevilla out of its melancholy. Given his replacement, the dismissal of José Luis Mendilibar, based on the lack of points in the locker and the lack of ideas on the pitch, does not seem like such a good idea now.
Bringing the Uruguayan coach has been the first big decision of Sevilla's new sports director, Víctor Orta. Monchi's replacement told a press conference why he noticed the coach: “I made a trip to Uruguay and we met at a barbecue at Rabajda's house.”. There I was introduced to Diego and I was impressed by one thing he told me, that he knew he was going to be a soccer coach since he was 23 years old.. That day we talked about Luis Aragonés, Rafa Benítez and Héctor Cúper. Since then I always had it on my radar and watched how it evolved.. Now she has been my first choice to coach Sevilla and I thank the management committee for supporting her.”
It was a matter of feeling, although the Montevideo native's career had not been brilliant up to that point and he had no experience on the European bench.. He starts at Club Atlético Bella Vista and from there he jumps to Club Guaraní of the Paraguayan league. His good numbers made him return to Uruguayan football, where he failed at Peñarol and performed timidly at Olimpia.
He arrives in Mexico and in Pachuca he achieves his greatest successes as a coach, winning the national Clausura championship in 2016 and the CONCACAF Champions League in 2017.. Later, in the Monterrery stripes, he achieved his second CONCACAF title, in 2019.
He had a brief spell at Inter Miami, at the request of David Beckham. Those days he remembered that Beckham and he had faced each other in the Spanish League. «I played for Málaga. David scored a great goal for us, I think it was the first he scored in Spain…. Well, that one didn't make us.”. That Málaga, by the way, was coached by Juande Ramos.
COMPARISON WITH SIMEONE
Finally, before his arrival in Seville, Alonso had been hired by Uruguay, whom he managed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar after winning the four remaining games in the South American group when they were already out of the big event.. The final phase was not so brilliant. In a group made up of Portugal, South Korea and Ghana, the Uruguayan team came third. The elimination cost him his position. Next destination: Nervión.
Comparisons with Simeone, a hopeful debut against Real Madrid, Orta's confidence and the feeling that there were underused players with Mendilibar seemed to raise the white and red spirit; but, six games later, the situation is one of restlessness and fatigue. Only one victory, in the Copa del Rey, against Quintanar de la Orden, of the First Preferential Autonomous Region of Castilla-La Mancha. Two defeats, both against Arsenal, in the Champions League. And three draws in the League: Real Madrid, Cádiz and Celta.
The fussing and shouting from Alonso's side do not serve to organize or motivate the team.. Sevilla is inconsistent in defense, gets stuck at the top and trusts everything to individual talent and brief flashes of light among the chaos. The squad appears weak on and off the field. “Everyone was going their own way, very quiet, very disconnected, taking defeat for sure,” they say from the inside about the footballers in the last Champions League duel. “Either they get excited in the derby or this man is going to last less than the hugs I give my son-in-law,” they warn.
This Sunday, Diego Alonso plays his continuity against Betis at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium. «There is a fashionable coach now in Germany who is Xabi Alonso. Of his first seven games he won one, and with a little patience, it is working. “The victories are going to come,” defended Víctor Orta, whose work would also be called into question if the dismissal is completed.