La Liga winners to the third-tier of Spanish soccer: How Deportivo La Coruna are plotting a return to the highest after years of battle
Deportivo La Coruña, as soon as Champions League semi-finalists, at the moment are in Spain’s Segunda División, and aiming to discover a approach again to La Liga. However what went unsuitable on the membership, and the way are they rebuilding the foundations?
Hayters TV spoke to their new CEO, Massimo Adalberto Benassi, who detailed what has been taking place on the membership in the previous couple of years, and the way they’re planning get again to the highest.
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Deportivo had been relegated from La Liga in 2018, after getting into administration in 2013 with money owed of over €150 million. The troublesome monetary scenario paired with frequent managerial adjustments, anger from followers, and poor recruitment out there meant the as soon as nice membership had been at considered one of their lowest factors within the membership’s historical past.
However it could get even worse. After two seasons within the Segunda División, they had been relegated to the third tier of Spanish soccer in 2020. It was a really unthinkable fall-off for a group that had loved a lot success over the earlier three many years, which included a La Liga title win in 2000, and reaching the Champions League semi-final in 2004.
However now they’re turning issues round. After 4 years within the third division, they acquired promoted to the second tier final marketing campaign and are having fun with a steady season below the administration of Óscar Gilsanz, sitting in eleventh.
Their ambition is evident. To get again to the primary tier of Spanish soccer, however Benassi is reluctant to place a timeline on it given what has occurred beforehand.
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“Should you ask the proprietor, he’ll say as quickly as attainable,” he mentioned. “It’s actually troublesome to place a timeline on it.
“In fact we need to be again within the first division as quickly as attainable, however we don’t need to die within the course of. For us it’s extra essential to be sustainable and intelligent, to develop with the challenge and do it step-by-step.”
The membership are primarily based in Galicia, and have historically centered on scouting the area for expertise. However Benassi defined how their attain now expands far past that.
“Our scouts are monitoring all of Europe by video and once we make shortlists the scouts journey to verify after which double-check the gamers. Knowledge is a extremely essential a part of our soccer division.
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“We have now a know-how director who’s in control of connecting the sports activities facet with the non sports activities facet. We use it (knowledge) loads, and sooner or later I believe we’ll use it and enhance with it much more.”
Increasing on how Los Blanquiazules are utilizing knowledge, Benassi pointed to how the likes of English golf equipment Brentford and Brighton have had success doing the identical factor.
“We discuss loads with different golf equipment who’re utilizing knowledge. You might have golf equipment like Brighton or Brentford in England, who we all know are utilizing knowledge loads. I don’t suppose we’re at that stage, and possibly it’s not our mannequin.
“You can’t copy and paste from one membership to a different. We attempt to preserve a steadiness. We don’t signal a participant simply because the sporting director says he’s high, and we don’t signal a participant as a result of the info says he’s high. We attempt to preserve a steadiness between what the technical facet of the membership is saying, what the info facet is saying, and what our CFO is saying.”
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Deportivo La Coruña should be discovering their ft within the Segunda División, however the foundations for a return to La Liga are there.
The indicators of late have been encouraging. They’ve misplaced simply twice because the flip of the 12 months and whereas they’ve drawn just a few too many for his or her liking, they’ve proven they’re extremely troublesome to beat.
With a membership of their historical past, a faithful fanbase, and the proper long-term imaginative and prescient, a top-flight comeback will not be rapid, however it feels extra like a query of when, fairly than if.