Photograph: Alberto Gardin/IPA Sport/ipa-agency.net/Shutterstock
Rafa Benítez had started saying how proud he was to coach Real Club Celta de Vigo during their centenary when he gently applied a comic pause, glanced across at Carlos Mouriño, the president presenting him that July day, and smiled. “Well,” the new manager added, “hopefully I’ll make it: I’ll survive the whole year.” Which was when everyone laughed. Of course you will: you’re Rafa Benítez.
“This is a good day to introduce someone because the man being introduced doesn’t need anyone to introduce him,” Mouriño had said. “His curriculum, his history, his teams, his successes, his triumphs, his championships, speak for themselves. I don’t need to say it: the president of the league says it’s great a coach like Rafa Benítez is returning. This is not about Celta, this is a success for Spain. We needed people like him – and he came to us.”
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That us held a hint of disbelief, triumph. Benítez has won everything; they have won nothing. Benítez said he had “over 20 offers”, although most were from “distant places” where they pay “loads of money”, but he had been convinced by Luís Campos, the adviser to Celta entrusted with building something big. This was a step into a different dimension, excitement building, “a long-term project” finally in place: Celta’s 19th coach in 17 years, Benítez was the only one given a three-year contract and they were already talking about extending it.
Six months on, some are talking about ending it. Neither the president then nor his daughter, Marián, who took over this week, are among them, but football is unforgiving. On Saturday Celta host Granada, 18th against 19th, the midfielder Renato Tapia insists it is a “final”; in fact, he says, “from now to the end, they’re all finals”. A third of the way through, Celta are in the relegation zone, on 10 points. In 16 matches they’ve beaten one team – Almería, who haven’t beaten anybody.
“At no point did we expect to be in this position,” said Juan Carlos Calero, the sporting coordinator, at the AGM this week. Their new reality, he said, was the result of “footballing circumstances”. Which was one way of putting it; another was how Benítez had done, citing Isaac Newton and imploring the VAR room to incorporate Nasa physicists to decide how much force equals a penalty.
That day, a 96th-minute spot-kick had been given to Celta and taken away, supporters screaming injustice. They had already seen four “goals” ruled out this season and the captain, Iago Aspas, claimed key decisions had gone against them in seven of 12 games. “Every time we raise our heads, they try to sink us again,” he said. Benítez lamented: “Again we’re talking about how well we played and how we didn’t get three points.”
Celta’s expected points total is 13.4 higher than their actual points. Their expected goals are 24.69, putting them seventh, but their actual goals are 15. On chances created, they would be sixth and they have taken more shots than Atlético Madrid or Real Sociedad. They lost 4-3 to Atlético in the 93rd minute, 1-0 to Madrid in the 81st, 1-0 to Mallorca in the 85th, and 1-0 to Girona in the 91st. One-up against Sevilla they conceded on 84, and with the same lead at Las Palmas they conceded on 84 and 97. Two-up against Barcelona, they conceded on 81, 85 and 89. Against Getafe the shot count read 26-3, actual goals 2-2.
The new era wasn’t supposed to be like this, and yet it was always possible, not least because the old one hadn’t been left behind entirely and the new one under Campos was not as advertised. And while in July Benítez talked about them learning from mistakes, the only conclusion is that they have not.
This is Celta’s 12th consecutive season in primera, equalling their previous record, but their past seven finishes read: 13, 11, 8, 17, 17, 13, 13. For so long, Aspas has been a one-man rescue mission, the single most important player at any club in Spain. Aged 36, he has scored 13, 19, 22, 20, 14, 14, 18, 12, and … one. He has even missed a penalty.
Which is not to lay blame on Aspas, about the most blameless person there is, and his figures are baffling. He has created more shooting opportunities this season than anyone else, and when it all began Benítez was drawing on the old short blanket theory: if Aspas comes deep to get them playing, he’s missing up front; if he stays up front, there’s no one to take the ball to him. There can be doubts about his deployment, yet it all points at something deeper, more damaging; more basic, too.
Aspas, a man with a keen eye and an analytical mind who will be sporting director one day, told them there was a talent deficit. Why are Celta near the bottom? On one level, the answer is simple. The best players have departed, inadequately replaced. Operation Return, a homecoming for Galician players, has been shelved. Brais Méndez’s departure particularly stings, while the ostracism of Denis Suárez startled.
Last season Celta survived on the final day, fortunate to face a Barcelona side who were already champions. Instead of strengthening as a matter of urgency, they sold their outstanding left-back Javi Galán to Atlético for only €5m and Gabri Veiga left for Saudi Arabia. Almost as soon as the excitement around Gabri had built, he was gone. He scored a quarter of their goals; between him and Aspas they had more than the rest of the squad put together. And Hugo Mallo, the captain and key figure in the dressing room, also departed, leaving a leadership vacuum.
Against Las Palmas this season, the former Celtic defender Carl Starfelt was captain. He was playing his seventh game for the club. Tapia, his contract running down, was supposed to be on his way out but no deals were reached and now he is playing again: the defensive midfielder Benítez needed never came. Their best defender, Joseph Aidoo, sustained an achilles tear in October that will keep him out for the season.
In all of this, the man entrusted with rebuilding the squad is the sporting director … at Paris Saint-Germain. Campos’s presence in Vigo is not permanent, responsibility left with Calero. And it does not work. This week Marian Mouriño said Celta would change a structure that has failed but they can’t do it now. Given the sporting situation, she said, it was best to wait which, with the winter window coming and gaps that need filling, appears a curious conclusion.
“We’re still optimistic, we’ll be higher up the table soon and we’ll bring you the happiness we haven’t been able to deliver so far,” Calero told supporters.
In the meantime, Benítez seeks to stem the bleeding. Celta have not lost in three; there are still no wins since 1 September but they have drawn four of the past five. Monday’s 0-0 with Rayo, hardly the kind of game to get fans excited, was described by one newspaper as “an ode to anti-football” and by the Celta coach as another step towards competing again. “Every day, all day, I go over things in my mind, talk to my assistants, see if we can find the right button,” Benítez said. “If we had half as many points as we deserve we would be talking about a building from a place of optimism.”
But instead there is gloom and against Granada nothing less than a win will do. Salvation does not come one point at a time. Another manager on another contract might have already gone. The pressure builds, the tension and frustration, the suspicion that something has to give. “Fortunately, I have been up many times and unfortunately I have also been down many times and I am clear about what I have to do,” Benítez said. “You have stay calm, analyse carefully, and make the right decisions, not do anything strange.”
