October 21, 2000. Real Madrid visited Camp Nou three months after Florentino Pérez paid the clause to dress Luis Figo in white. In that eleven that suffered the wrath, there was also another player raised in the Masía that had changed of air with much less fury: Albert Celades . Eclipsed by a major controversy, he lived his return to the stadium where he grew up with Cruyff and Van Gaal in his discreet background that he has never abandoned, either as a player or as a coach.

With an extreme discretion and an always slow tone, the fists to the sky of Amsterdam, the glassy eyes and the permanent smile were the only concessions to the joy of Celades before the greatest achievement of his career as a coach in a club: take Valencia to Valencia the eighth of the Champions League as a group leader. Against all odds and with 10 casualties per injury. Almost a miracle.

These 100 days at the head of the Mestalla team have not been easy. The Valencianism received him from nails. He had the right to distrust. He had just celebrated a Copa del Rey, after eleven years of drought, and had seen his scorer, Rodrigo Moreno , and dismissed Marcelino , the coach who for the first time in a long time stabilized and guided the squad to success. The three-year project was cracking and, at that time, the commitment to a rookie coach reminded of forward escapes like Gary Neville or Ayestarán . The background of the maximum shareholder did not presage anything good.

«We do not come to break what is there, many things have been done well. I have not come to leave a mark, just to help the team work, ”Celades said as soon as he landed in Mestalla. His relationship with the costumes, closely linked to Marcellin and defined as a "family," was going to be key. And chose to be prudent.

His contained personality and his bonhomy helped him make the players perceive that he respected his duel. Accompanied only by Javier Miñano and Óscar Álvarez , they left any ego at the gates of the Sports City. He was not even worried that his players left him alone in his first Champions press conference at Stamford Bridge, in full pulse with the presidency. He understood his anger.

The victory in that game, with Rodrigo's goal and a tactical variant that provided solidity, made his way. Then came the continuous recognition of the work of his staff, his "professionalism" and "human quality" which he summed up after defeating Ajax in "these uncles are milk."

They have earned them respecting their codes. He slowed the march of a recuperator and stood next to his men when they refused to be treated by the head of medical services hired by the club last September.

But above all he showed them that it was fair. “We are going to put the players who are going to help us win regardless of their age. It doesn't matter if he is 35 or 17 years old, ”he said publicly just after President Anil Murthy set him as a priority to look at the quarry. The example is Ferran Torres , who has become a decisive player and even displaced Carlos Soler from the band. The two are happier now. He tried with Kangin , but his performance is not comparable and his participation more intermittent. Nor did he hesitate to sit Guedes before his injury or to give Manu Vallejo minutes.

Started by the strategy with the ball stopped, he kept the 4-4-2 only in defensive transitions, getting him more mordant to the attack when they were looking for goal. His staff did not quite assimilate this proposal, it made him suffer. And he changed it, even on the fly in some game. He does not hesitate to recognize his mistakes, which has penetrated Mestalla.

Improving Valencia's football involves wanting the ball more, wrapping up Parejo with a freer Soler, an explosive Ferran and Rodrigo hitting defenses between the lines. "The system can be changed, but the style is the same," he defends.

The team he wants doesn't speculate. In the League he has 14 more goals than he had in the first 15 days of last season (26 against 12). But it has also fitted 11 so much more (23 versus 12). Those 23 goals are 65% of those who scored him in the last season.

The exchange of blows allows him to add 26 points and have the fourth place to one point while fighting against another enemy: injuries. With that handicap, he has advanced in the Champions League and emcara, today, Real Madrid, a team that is never well received in Mestalla.

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