Bournemouth’s loss is Liga and Rayo Íñigo Pérez’s gain in Real Madrid’s possession

Rayo Vallecano cut the goal of Raul de Tomas Real Madrid in the local derby.Photo: Europa Press Sports/Europa Press/Getty Images“src =” https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/1K80IQLG3GFio1Dv7nw_fw–/yxbwawq9aglnagxhbmrlcjt3ptk2mdtoptu3ng–/https commissions :media.zenfs.com/en/theguardian_763/8a885be0b92f78f955 51CC86FDDA35C9 “data-SRC = “https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/1K80Iqlg3GfIO1DV7nW_fw–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU3Ng–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/theguardian_763/8a885be0b92f78f95551cc86fdda35c9″/>

Íñigo Pérez had nothing to offer the Premier League, they said, so he returned to Spain and revived La Liga and people instead. The man from Navarre with the sweet voice, privileged mind and impeccable manners should be sitting on the Bournemouth bench at St James’ Park this weekend, taking on Newcastle United – trophies since 1955: nil – but for It was announced by the Home Office and the FA panel. unable to compete, a man unable to contribute to English football, even as an assistant. So he threw it back in barriothe New one coach Rayo Vallecano taking Real Madrid – trophies since 1955: 85 – and matching them too, making this a better place for everyone.

“Yes yes league,” which was running at the front of one of the country’s sports daily on Monday morning, an old favorite of yours went out for the day. Maybe it was an exaggeration, maybe it would only prove 24 hours, and it was just a draw, but if so, it is thanks to Pérez’s Rayo team, who succeeded on Sunday evening , his first ever job. do what only Atlético Madrid did in 2024 – get something from Carlo Ancelotti’s side. In another Madrid derby, out in the east of the city where life meets and the best seats in the house really are in the house, Raúl de Tomás equalized Joselu’s opener to leave Madrid just six clear points. With Girona playing on Monday, there will be a title race again, a week after it wasn’t, or so.

“The league wakes up”, ran the headline in AS. “Rayo kept the league alive on Inigo Pérez’s first game,” said Diario de Navarra. Above all though, Rayo kept themselves alive, a bit of sunshine was finally let into Vallecas. They needed it: Rayo have only won once at home and that was back in September, despite Vallecas proving to be a tough place to go with their firm stands, tougher pitch, surface lumpy, with a wall at one end. The team that was once rock ‘n’ roll, all organized chaos, the most fun you could have in Spanish football, Cádiz just outscored the whole thing. primera. Worse, beaten three weeks in a row and six times out of eight, after having won once in 14, they had begun to slide towards relegation, pessimism taking effect. That’s why in the middle of the week they took off Francisco Rodríguez and brought in Pérez, the former assistant who now took control.

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There was “sorrow”, said Pérez; it was his job to change that. It wasn’t just a job he planned.

At the age of 36, two years younger than Radamel Falcao, who finished the game ahead of him, and less than two years after his last appearance as a player, Pérez’s first ever game as a head coach was the 1,324 th place by Ancelotti. Pérez was only given three days to prepare, except that he had been preparing for years. He watched his team go down after three minutes but got a win that changed everything. At least that’s what De Tomás said afterwards, the Freudian passage saying it all. “This win – erm, draw – will be good for us,” insisted the striker, after getting his first score this season, a smile returned to Vallecas. Sure it was just the first day, just a drag too, but it was a start. Unpredictable, but in the end it was right.

This is not the way it was supposed to be. Pérez wasn’t supposed to be here at all. Assistant coach of former Rayo coach Andoni Iraola, he had every intention of continuing in that role. When Iraola left for Bournemouth, Rayo offered him the job of head coach but he did not feel “ethically comfortable” taking on the role, believing it was not what he wanted or what he wanted, and turned it down. He planned to remain part of Iraola’s team and Iraola wanted that too. Indeed, Pérez was all Bournemouth’s coach wanted. Far from bringing half a dozen men with him, Iraola chose two: Pérez and fitness coach Pablo de la Torre.

At least that’s the plan. But Pérez did not meet the Home Office criteria required to obtain a work permit as an assistant coach: he had not yet worked for two years and did not have a Uefa Pro license. If that verdict was expected, automatically, what followed was not. Pérez’s case was taken, as most are and usually successfully, to a panel of exceptions, headed by a lawyer and two former players. There were hearings in June, July and August. Bournemouth insisted its Royal Spanish Football Federation qualification was the same as Uefa Pro – the Techno deportivo deportivo superior and futbolrequiring more than double the hours of teaching and practical training – and provided references from the likes of Marseille, Osasuna and Sevilla. Rayo confirmed they wanted him as head coach, with no assistant in mind. Iraola wrote explaining why it was so important.

“We did everything,” Pérez admitted this week. They even tried to get him to coach the youth team, which didn’t work – or very well. Perhaps a different club in a different context could have had a different result but this time the panel did not budge an inch, unhappy that Mr. Soto, as they called him, was “excellent and can contribute a lot with the development. of the game at the highest level in England”.

The son of a fruit seller, Pérez was always a little different, organizing everyone even as a kid. But there is a lightness to that leadership, a quietness, which is not very football about him. He made his debut for Athletic in 2009 – against Rayo – but when Marcelo Bielsa took over he was one of eight players who immediately disappeared. Pérez won his place back, he and Bielsa finished close and the Argentine’s influence was huge. It also belonged to Ernesto Valverde. And then there was Iagoba Arrasate under whom he played for seven years, at Numancia and Osasuna.

When Pérez left his loan at Mallorca to return to Athletic at the age of 26 in 2014, it was, Valverde said, more for her than for himself: he was struggling with stress. The day he retired, still 33 years old, he published a poetic, honest open letter, which was an expression of awareness and sense that drove him. One member of staff at the Gael Athletic Club recalls that the first time he met him, unbeknownst to him, was not the first time at all. Íñigo immediately thanked him – a former temporary teacher – for a class delivered eight years earlier. Asked for his opinion of Pérez this weekend, one man who worked with him says: “He’s the best.” Another says of this that “no one has a bad word to say about him”, and this is confirmed. Try these: “the nicest man I’ve ever met,” “phenomenon, so bright; you’ll never find anyone nicer.”

illarreal 1-1 Getafe, Valencia 0-0 Sevilla, Celta Vigo 1-2 Barcelona, ​​Osasuna 2-0 Cádiz, Atlético Madrid 5-0 Las Palmas, Real Betis 0-0 Alavés, Real Mallorca 1-2 Real Sociedad, Granada 1 -1 Almería, Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Rea Madrid

In that letter, Pérez said he left “without pity and without glory”, both “grateful and ashamed” for taking more than he deserved. A committee of experts would give it 5.7 out of 10, he said, which now looks quite prophetic. And yet, he noted, there was something, a role in the dressing room – which he admitted is the kind of thing that “is often valued when the real objectives that you sign a player are not fulfilled for them” and that, however, was true. One day, Arrasate asked him to give a speech to the team; he stayed with them all.

“When he speaks, everyone listens,” says one attendee. “He has a great ability to communicate, to connect with people. He took down everything, analyzed everything: all the sessions, every drill. He is extremely intelligent; he sees things differently, he analyzes his opponent; he is passionate about football, he does everything naturally. It is a profession. He understands the game like few people, and he is really talented: he has everything to be a great coach.”

Those who saw it saw. When he retired, Bielsa wanted him as an assistant coach. Osasuna also opened the door. Perez joined Iraola instead. A colleague describes him as: “analytical, reflective, excellent manager of emotions, deep knowledge of the game. Smart, empathetic, excellent communication.” They were a successful partnership until their eventual split this summer, even if they were opposed for a while. At some Bournemouth games he could be seen sitting in the stand behind the bench and he and Iraola spoke often, almost as if he was an on-call consultant. But it was not the same. And as the results slipped back home and the pressure piled on Rayo, the coach resigned and the players pushed. There was only one man they wanted, and he was.

And so it was this weekend: Íñigo Pérez was back in Madrid and not on Tyneside, a contribution to be made, against the greatest club of them all. “Sometimes life brings you things you never even imagined,” he said. “I was excited to work with Andoni: we tried, but it wasn’t meant to be. You will find yourself here and then this opportunity arises. It’s proof that you have to look at life with happiness and be ready for whatever comes your way.”