by Rafa Benítez began by saying how proud he was to coach Real Club Celta de Vigo during their centenary when he gently applied a comic pause, glancing across at Carlos Mouriño, the president he was present that July day, and he smiled. “Well,” said the new manager, “I hope I’ll make it: I’ll last the whole year.” That was when everyone laughed. Of course you will: you’re Rafa Benitez.
“This is a good day to bring someone in because the man who is being brought in does not need to be brought in,” Mouriño said. “His curriculum, his history, his teams, his achievements, his talents, his championships, speak for themselves. I don’t need to say it: the president of the league says that it is great for a coach like Rafa Benítez to return. This is not about Celta, this is success for Spain. We needed people like him – and he came to us.”
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That us there was a hint of disbelief, victory. Benitez has won everything; they have won nothing. Benítez said he had “over 20 offers”, although most of them were from “far away places” where they pay “loads of money”, but he was persuaded by Luís Campos, the Celta adviser he was tasked with to build something big. This was another step, excitement building, a “long-term project” finally in place: the 19th coach at Celta in 17 years, Benítez was the only one to get a three-year contract and they were already talking about extending it own.
Six months later, some are talking about ending it. Neither the president nor his daughter, Marián, who took over this week, are among them, but football is undisputed. On Saturday Celta host Granada, 18th vs 19th, midfielder Renato Tapia insists it is a “final game”; indeed, he says, “from here on out, it’s all finals”. A third of the way through, Celta is in the relegation zone, on 10 points. In 16 games they have beaten one team – Almería, who have not beaten anyone.
“We never expected to be in this position,” said Juan Carlos Calero, the sports coordinator, at the AGM this week. His new reality, he said, was the result of “football circumstances”. Which is one way of putting it; another was as Benítez did, quoting Isaac Newton and begging the VAR room to incorporate NASA physicists to decide how much force equals a penalty.
That day, Celta were awarded a 96th minute penalty and taken away, supporters screaming injustice. They had already seen four “reasons” out of the reckoning this season and the captain, Iago Aspas, claimed that the main 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 said: “Again we are talking about how well we played and we didn’t get three points.”
Celta’s expected points total is 13.4 higher than their actual points. The expected goals are 24.69, putting them in seventh place, but their actual goals are 15. On proven chances, they would be sixth and have taken more shots than Atlético Madrid or Real Sociedad. They lost 4-3 against Atlético in the 93rd minute, 1-0 against Madrid in the 81st, 1-0 against Mallorca in the 85th, and 1-0 against Girona in the 91st. One up against Sevilla they conceded 84, and with the same lead at Las Palmas they conceded 84 and 97. Two up against Barcelona, they conceded 81, 85 and 89. Against Getafe the number of shots reading 26-3, actual goals 2-2.
The new era was not supposed to be this way, and yet it was always possible, especially because the old one was not completely left behind and the new one was not under Campos as advertised. And although Benítez spoke to them in July learning from mistakes, the only conclusion is that they are not.
This is Celta’s 12th season in a row primera, equaling their previous record, but their last seven finishes read: 13, 11, 8, 17, 17, 13, 13. For a long time, Aspas was a one-man rescue mission, the single most important player at any club in Spain. At the age of 36, he has scored 13, 19, 22, 20, 14, 14, 18, 12, and … one. He has even missed a penalty.
That is not to blame Aspas, because he is the one to blame the most, and his figures are disturbing. He has created more shooting opportunities than anyone else this season, and when it all started Benítez was drawing on the old short-ball theory: if Aspas comes deep to make them play, he is missing the point; if he stays forward, nobody is going to give him the ball. Its deployment can be doubted, but it all points to something deeper and more harmful; more basic, too.
Aspas, a man with a sharp eye and analytical mind who will one day be a sports director, said there was a lack of talent. Why are Celta near the bottom? On one level, the answer is simple. The best players left, they didn’t have enough substitutes. Operation Return, a homecoming for Galician players, has been shelved. The departure of Brais Méndez is particularly worrisome, and the ostrich has ruled out Denis Suárez.
Last season Celta survived on the final day, lucky to face a Barcelona team who were already champions. Instead of strengthening as a matter of urgency, they sold the brilliant left-back Javi Galán to Atlético for just €5m and left Gabri Veiga for Saudi Arabia. Almost as soon as the excitement around Gabri had taken off, he was gone. He scored a fourth 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 left, leaving a leadership vacuum.
Against Las Palmas this season, former Celtic defender Carl Starfelt was the 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 deal was reached and now he is playing again: defensive midfielder Benítez never arrived. Their best defender, Joseph Aidoo, suffered an Achilles tear in October which will keep him out for the season.
On top of all that, the sporting director at Paris Saint-Germain is the man tasked with rebuilding the squad. Campos’ presence in Vigo is not permanent, the responsibility is left to Calero. And it doesn’t work. This week Marian Mouriño said that Celta would change a failed structure but they are not able to do it now. Because of the sports situation, she said, it would be better to wait, with the winter window coming and gaps that must be filled, it seems like a strange conclusion.
“We are still optimistic, we will be higher in the table soon and we will give you the happiness that we have not been able to deliver so far,” Calero told the supporters.
Meanwhile, Benítez tries to stop the bleeding. Celta are unbeaten in three; are still winless since September 1 but have won four of their last five. One newspaper described Monday’s 0-0 draw with Rayo, which would hardly excite fans, as an “anti-football ode” and Celta’s coach said it was another step to compete again. “Every day, all day, I go over things in my mind, talk to my assistants, see if we can find the right button,” said Benítez. “If we had half as many points as we deserve we would be talking about a building from a place of hope.”
But instead there is gloom and nothing less than a win against Granada. Salvation does not come one point at a time. Another manager on another contract may have already left. The pressure, the tension and the frustration, the doubt that something has to give. “Fortunately, I got up many times and unfortunately I was also down many times and I am clear what I have to do,” said Benítez. “You have remained calm, analyzed carefully, and made the right decisions, without doing anything strange.”
