Great sides, even better manager

First and foremost, the 2014/2015 season in the Liga Adelante ended with three new sides who will play in the Liga BBVA next year and with four teams who will have to fight to once again enjoy the delights of playing in the second tiers. There were plenty of smiles and the odd tear, and despite mot being promotes, many sides have successfully met any expectations they had at the start of the league year.

Thus, the managers are largely responsible for the positive results of some of the sides, and this includes some managers who were making their debuts in the league in charge of sides. These were debuts to dream for in the majority of cases, as good decisions allowed their respective sides to go on to have great seasons.

In this regard, it is worth highlighting above all the great season that Abelardo Fernández has had in charge of R. Sporting. The Asturian manager began his career coaching the youth side where he himself trained as a player more than 25 years ago, and this season at the club he made a real dream come true: gaining promotion with his beloved side to the Liga BBVA.

The former defender took over the first team when there were five games left two season ago. This year, he had his first full season in charge of the side from Gijon, and with a squad full of young academy players he has managed to lead the rojiblancos to top-flight Spanish football after finishing 2nd with 82 points, 57 goals for and 27 against.

Likewise, Ranko Popović almost managed something similar. The coach joined R. Zaragoza just after matchday 14, when the side announced the firing of Víctor Muñoz. And the arrival of the Serbian manager could not have been better, as in addition to leading his side to the promotion playoffs, the Aragonese side were only one goal away from beating UD Las Palmas and obtaining promotion.

In the first leg of the promotion playoffs to the Liga BBVA, the Aragnonese side gave a dominant performance and won 3-1 at La Romareda, however they lost 2-0 at the Estadio de Gran Canaria. The Canary Island side’s second goal, courtesy of Sergio Araujo with six minutes left on the clock, just robbed the side of promotion, and they will try again next years, surely strengthened and with Popović again in charge.  

Survival and a good manager, two premises that go hand in hand

On the flip side, the aim of promotion is the not the only objective to take into account when trying to determine which coaches were outstanding in the last Liga Adelante. Sporting and Zaragoza were outstanding for being two of the best competitive teams in the league, although there are also others whose results have been much more positive than what many had expected.

And so, it is worth highlighting the work of the work of two managers whose sides had been newly promoted. On one hand, it is worth mentioning the role of Lluís Carrillo at UE Llagostera, a side who made their debut in the Liga Adelante and ended up in a more than deserved ninth place. The team thus managed their best result in the second tier thanks to the great work of Carrillo, who arrived in October to take over the Catalan side. In addition to getting the delicate situation of the club back on track and he received the BBVA prize for best coach for two consecutive months, February and March, just when the team was playing at its top level. Llagostera put together a run of fifteen consecutive games, without losing, from matchday 24 to 39, getting 8 wins and 7 draws and kept four clean sheets in a row.

Asier Garitano is the other coach who did a great job with another of the sides who returned to the Liga Adelante, CD Leganés. The aim of the Madrid side was to stay up in the league, although just like Llagostera they fought until the last moment to reach sixth place. Finally, Garitano’s side ended up in in tenth place, with a total of 56 points, 48 goals for, and 42 against.