Blade for Sale
Well-Known Member
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50203474
Nice article on another team playing in Red and White mixing more then comfortably with the big boys in Spain, surpassing our acheivements by some distance at the moment. A young, tactically astute, revolutionary manager who has learnt his trade lower down and worked his way to the top.
A side which has re-invented itself by recruiting mainly from withing its own borders (I wonder if some bellend English journalist somewhere will write an article barley masking his contempt for their implied xeonophobia as a Spanish hack did about us not so long back?).
I particularly love these few paragraphs. They may ring a few bells:
He was more or less an unknown quantity, having failed to make the grade as a player and started his coaching career with a series of lower-level appointments and a few seasons with Sevilla's youth and reserve teams, before a solitary mid-table campaign in the second tier with Osasuna.
"If Diego Martinez has one key quality, it is humility," says Chesters. "He's worked his way up from the bottom rung of the ladder, and implanted a strong sense of solidarity which the players embraced and filtered throughout the club. Nobody is special, everyone's in this together.
"Players in interviews refuse to accept individual praise, focusing instead on collective effort and the influence of their manager. I've never seen a club that's so united from top to bottom."
Under Martinez's calm but purposeful leadership, Granada were rock solid throughout the 2018-19 season, grinding their way to promotion by conceding just 28 goals in 42 games.
That, though, was widely thought to be the extent of their capabilities, and Granada headed into the new campaign accompanied by unanimous predictions that they would spend the season battling against relegation. How wrong we all were.
During the Arsenal match (my 1st of the season for my sins) I also found my mind drifting to a comment made during an Atletico Madrid match a few years back, they went 1-0 up against an English side (can't recall who, maybe Arsenal themselves!). The comment was something along the lines of 'I can't think of a worse side against which to go 1-0 down'. We are as yet no Atletico but the way we saw out that win was certainly reminiscent of them. If we keep progressing whilst at the same time maintaining our mindset, workrate and a healthy level of humility, who knows where we may end up.
I'm blathering. In short, olé!
Nice article on another team playing in Red and White mixing more then comfortably with the big boys in Spain, surpassing our acheivements by some distance at the moment. A young, tactically astute, revolutionary manager who has learnt his trade lower down and worked his way to the top.
A side which has re-invented itself by recruiting mainly from withing its own borders (I wonder if some bellend English journalist somewhere will write an article barley masking his contempt for their implied xeonophobia as a Spanish hack did about us not so long back?).
I particularly love these few paragraphs. They may ring a few bells:
He was more or less an unknown quantity, having failed to make the grade as a player and started his coaching career with a series of lower-level appointments and a few seasons with Sevilla's youth and reserve teams, before a solitary mid-table campaign in the second tier with Osasuna.
"If Diego Martinez has one key quality, it is humility," says Chesters. "He's worked his way up from the bottom rung of the ladder, and implanted a strong sense of solidarity which the players embraced and filtered throughout the club. Nobody is special, everyone's in this together.
"Players in interviews refuse to accept individual praise, focusing instead on collective effort and the influence of their manager. I've never seen a club that's so united from top to bottom."
Under Martinez's calm but purposeful leadership, Granada were rock solid throughout the 2018-19 season, grinding their way to promotion by conceding just 28 goals in 42 games.
That, though, was widely thought to be the extent of their capabilities, and Granada headed into the new campaign accompanied by unanimous predictions that they would spend the season battling against relegation. How wrong we all were.
During the Arsenal match (my 1st of the season for my sins) I also found my mind drifting to a comment made during an Atletico Madrid match a few years back, they went 1-0 up against an English side (can't recall who, maybe Arsenal themselves!). The comment was something along the lines of 'I can't think of a worse side against which to go 1-0 down'. We are as yet no Atletico but the way we saw out that win was certainly reminiscent of them. If we keep progressing whilst at the same time maintaining our mindset, workrate and a healthy level of humility, who knows where we may end up.
I'm blathering. In short, olé!
