Rafa Benítez was starting to talk about how proud he was to coach Real Club Celta de Vigo in their centennial year, when he took a funny pause, looked at president Carlos Mouriño, who had introduced him that July day, and smiled. “Well,” added the new manager, “I hope I’ll make it: I’ll survive the whole year.” That’s when everyone laughed. Of course you will: you are Rafa Benitez.
“This is a good day to introduce someone, because the man being introduced doesn’t need anyone to introduce him,” Mouriño said. “The curriculum, history, teams, achievements, victories, championships are obvious. Needless to say: the league president says it’s great to have a coach like Rafa Benítez back. This is not about Celta, this is Spain’s success. “We needed people like him and he came to us.”
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HE We There was a hint of disbelief and triumph. Benítez won everything; They didn’t win anything. Benítez said he received “more than 20 offers”, although most were from “far away places” for which they paid “a lot of money”, but was persuaded by Celta’s consultant Luís Campos, who was tasked with building something big. It was a step into a different dimension, a step that created excitement, a “long-term project” that was finally implemented: Benitez, Celta’s 19th coach in 17 years, was the only one given a three-year contract and they were already talking about extending it.
Six months have passed, some are talking about ending it. Neither the then-president nor his daughter Marián, who took over this week, are among them, but football is unforgiving. Celta host Granada on Saturday in 18th and 19th, with midfielder Renato Tapia insisting it is a “final”; He even says, “From now on, it’s all final.” Celta are in the relegation zone with 10 points a third of the way through. They beat one team in 16 games; Almería couldn’t beat anyone.
“We never expected to be in this position,” sports coordinator Juan Carlos Calero said at this week’s General Assembly meeting. He said their new reality was the result of “football conditions”. This was one way of expressing it; another was what Benítez did by quoting Isaac Newton and imploring the VAR room to involve NASA physicists to decide how much force equals punishment.
That day, Celta were awarded a penalty kick in the 96th minute and the fans screamed at injustice. They have already seen four goals disallowed this season and captain Iago Aspas claimed key decisions were made against them in seven of 12 matches. “Every time we raise our heads, they try to sink us again,” he said. Benítez lamented: “We’re talking again about how well we played and how we didn’t get three points.”
Celta’s expected point total is 13.4 higher than their actual points total. Expected goals are 24.69, meaning they are seventh, but their actual goals are 15. They would be sixth when chances are created, and they have taken more shots than Atlético Madrid or Real Sociedad. They lost 4-3 to Atletico in the 93rd minute, 1-0 to Madrid in the 81st minute, 1-0 to Mallorca in the 85th minute, and 1-0 to Girona in the 91st minute. They conceded 84 points in a single match against Sevilla, and lost by the same margin in Las Palmas, 84 and 97. In the bilateral match against Barcelona, they lost with 81, 85 and 89 points. Shots against Getafe 26-3, actual goals 2-2.
The new age was not supposed to be like this, but it was always possible; at least because the old one has not been completely left behind and the new era under Campos is not as advertised. And while in July Benítez talked about them learning from mistakes, the only conclusion is that they did not.
This is Celta’s 12th consecutive season. First episode, equaling their previous record, but their last seven finishes are: 13, 11, 8, 17, 17, 13, 13. Aspas has long been a one-man rescue mission and has been the marquee player for every club in the world. Spain. At age 36, he scored 13, 19, 22, 20, 14, 14, 18, 12 and… one point. He even missed the penalty.
This is not to blame Aspas, the most blameless human being in existence, and his figures are confusing. He has created more shooting opportunities than anyone else this season, and when it all started, Benítez was using the old short blanket theory: if Aspas drops deep to play them on, he’s missing in front; If he stays ahead, there is no one to take the ball to him. There may be doubts about its deployment, but it all points to something deeper, more damaging; It’s also more fundamental.
Aspas, a sharp-eyed and analytical minded man who would one day be a sports director, told them there was a talent gap. Why is Celta near the bottom? At one level the answer is simple. The best players left, they were inadequately replaced. Operation Return, a homecoming operation for the Galician players, was shelved. The departure of Brais Méndez is particularly troubling, while the exclusion of Denis Suárez is frightening.
On the final day of last season, Celta managed to survive by having the chance to face the already champion Barcelona team. Instead of immediately strengthening, they sold outstanding left-back Javi Galán to Atlético for just 5 million euros, and Gabri Veiga also left for Saudi Arabia. As soon as the excitement around Gabri started, he was gone too. He scored a quarter of his goals; There was more between him and Aspas than the rest of the team combined. And Hugo Mallo, the captain and key figure in the dressing room, also left, leaving a leadership vacuum.
Former Celtic defender Carl Starfelt was captain against Las Palmas this season. He was playing his seventh game for the club. Tapia was supposed to be leaving when his contract expired, but no agreement was reached and now he is playing again: the defensive midfielder Benítez needed never arrived. Top defender Joseph Aidoo suffered an Achilles tear in October, which will rule him out this season.
In all this, the person tasked with rebuilding the squad is Paris Saint-Germain’s sporting director. Campos’ presence in Vigo is not permanent, the responsibility is left to Calero. And it doesn’t work. This week Marian Mouriño said Celta will replace a failing structure but they can’t do that now. Given the sporting situation, he said it was best to wait; This seems like an interesting result, considering the winter period is approaching and the gaps need to be filled.
“We are still optimistic, we will soon be higher up and we will bring you the happiness we have not been able to offer until now,” Calero told his supporters.
Meanwhile, Benitez is trying to stop the bleeding. Celta did not lose in all three matches; Still no win since September 1, but they have drawn four of the last five matches. Monday’s 0-0 0-0 with Rayo was not the kind of game that would excite fans, described by one newspaper as “an ode to anti-football” and described by the Celta coach as another step towards competing again. “Every day, all day long, I go over things in my mind, talk to my assistants, see if we can find the right button,” Benítez said. “If we got half as many points as we deserved, we would be talking about a building from an optimistic point of view.”
But instead there is gloom and nothing short of a win against Granada will do. Salvation does not come suddenly. Another manager on another contract may already be gone. Pressure, tension and frustration build, the doubt that something has to give. “Fortunately I have stood up many times and unfortunately I have fallen many times and I am clear about what I have to do,” Benítez said. “You need to stay calm, analyze carefully and make the right decisions, not do anything weird.”