Focus on: Manolo Preciado

The league was lost on Saturday in Madrid. I realize that mathematically there is still a chance, but with so few games left and with the lack of real competition, it is a safe bet to say that there will be no more remontadas, no hay liga, in short the title race is finished. Negativity abounds, and all anyone wants to talk or write about is failure: the inability of Real Madrid to close the gap on Barcelona, the favoritism that the blaugrana get from the referees, or even worse, how quickly everyone's attention split for the two cups that are still open. Hold on a second though. As much as people are quick to blame, rather I would say they should celebrate instead. A league was not given away to FC Barcelona last Saturday night in Madrid, it was rightfully won, and not by Pep Guardiola whose club had a difficult time impressing themselves later that night on Villarreal, but by the man occupying the other seat at the Bernabeu, quite ironically considering the events of the last six months, Manuel 'Manolo' Preciado Rebolledo.

If the name is unfamiliar, it is because up until recently, his public profile has been quite honestly that of any ordinary second tier coach in La Liga, and yet, if you look closely, you see right away that this coach is anything but anonymous. Maybe it's the bristle-bar mustache that he sports, the salt and pepper running through it and the wild-hair, the comically up-turned eyebrows and the expressiveness in which he runs the sidelines at El Molinon. That captures the eye, then you consider the two-pack a day habit or the ashy, raspiness of his voice, and you think this comical little gnome is too cartoony to be true. He looks nothing short a life-sized Super Mario in sweatpants, or Albert Einstein's slightly more athletic younger brother.

Then you hear the outburst. Defending his club from the verbal jibes of Jose Mourinho, this proud Cantabrian reacts. "Who the hell is this guy? Mourinho is a scoundrel and a bad partner", the papers say. The plan works and Mourinho keeps the focus away from his emotionally fragile team, but the full weight of the media circus that is Real Madrid comes down on Preciado. They call him unprofessional. Another easy victim for the media-centric antics of Mourinho the shark. Why can't he just admit that his Sporting didn't compete as aggressively against Barcelona? Well, because even a generally accepted lie is still a lie and Preciado saw no need to acquiesce to a media looking for excuses rather than answers. How ironic that Manolo got the last word on Saturday. His Sporting took 4 points from the four games against the big two and holding them to less than a goal per game overall. If you think this was a fluke, then you don't know Manolo Preciado.

This is a guy who has come through the fire and has earned everything he has. He came up as a player through the Racing Santander youth system. He studies medicine, but football called instead. A solid central defender, he could play on the wing as well, he made his circuit through practically every region in Spain: Racing in Cantabria, Linares of Jaen in Andalusia, Real Mallorca on the islands, Deportivo Alaves in the Basque-lands, Ourense in Galicia, only to return to his homeland to play at lowly Gimnástica de Torrelavega where he would retire and where he would subsequently start his coaching career.

He would lead the torrelaveguenses to a quick promotion back to the Segunda Division B after the club had fallen to the depths of Tercera. It would be a pattern he would repeat often, gaining the reputation of being a facilitator of promotions. He gained promotion for Racing's B-squad not once but twice and was on the bench alongside Quique Setien when Ukranian businessman Dmitry Piterman bought 24% of the club, took control and immediately installed himself as coach. League rules would keep Piterman away from the bench officially, but the Ukranian circumvented the rules by passing himself as an equipment man, a photographer or a journalist. Either way, Setien and Preciado would quit their hometown club; a painful period made worse by the fact that his wife would pass-away that year, a victim of cancer. He would bounce back with Levante, winning them their first promotion to the Primera since the early 60's, dedicating the victory to "his girl, looking on from Heaven", but he would not continue in the first division. He would lose a son, Raul, to a motorcycle accident and sign with Real Murcia. He spends another time with Racing, when they bottomed out in 2005-2006, but it would be for Sporting de Gijon that he would succeed, finally in the first division as he led another club to promotion, his fifth, and would secure for the Asturians their place in the first division ever since.

Now he is known for what he has done in reaction to and in the orbit of Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho, a glaring example I might add of the lazy journalism that persists in Spain, but as is usual, when one digs in deeper, much more important information can be found if one just cares enough. By all means also, keep finding people to blame for failure, it's an easier task, but I'd rather focus on the positive. Give it up for Manuel Preciado. He and his club deserve it.