This Wednesday will be a special match for
Javi Calleja
. Because of his past and the way it ended. The Madrid coach, trained in the
Villarreal
quarry
after finishing a career as a footballer that spent, for much of it, in the yellow team, took the reins of the first team shortly after starting the 2017-18 season. Only six games had
Fran Escribá
directed
when the club made him jump from the Second B subsidiary to First. The course ended with the Castellón team meeting their goal of qualifying for the Europa League.
The same did not happen, however, the following campaign. The poor results and the threat of relegation cost Calleja his dismissal. Surprisingly, just 50 days after being replaced by
Luis García Plaza
, the president called him to see if he was willing to return to his post. He accepted and saved Villarreal from relegation, thus earning his renewal for one season. I thought that history would repeat itself at the end of last year, that after some doubts just at the moment when Covid-19 forced everything to stop, it ended with a good taste in the mouth and with a new classification for the Europa League. But by then Villarreal already had other plans.
"My departure takes place at the moment when I feel better," Calleja acknowledged just a month ago at Radio Marca's microphones. The Madrid coach left hurt. «Yes, it pissed me off, but it's already past history and we have to look to the future. In his day, when you are comfortable, you achieve the results and the objectives and you see that you do not continue, at first it hurts ». So much so that he did not even want to attend to the request of
Unai Emery
, his substitute, to meet to speak. «I didn't speak to Unai and I don't really want to. I have nothing to talk about. It is true that in his day he showed interest in talking to me. At that moment I couldn't, I didn't really want to and from then on he goes on and his way and I mine ».
And his has taken him to
Deportivo Alavés
, which he took over a couple of days ago after
Abelardo's
dismissal
- who had in turn relieved
Pablo Machín
- after the Asturian had won only one of the eleven games he led. and with the team in the last position of the table. The arrival of Calleja has been good for the Vitorian team, which is already out of relegation after adding four points in two days with a draw in
San Mamés
and last day's victory against Huesca in
Mendizorroza
, without having yet conceded any goal and with a bet for possession.
Today he will try to stretch his streak against a Villarreal of which he claims to stay "with the positive things." «At Villarreal there are many people I love, I have friends, the fans are there and I wish them the best, that they achieve their goals. I have lived unforgettable years, it opened the doors of Primera for me, which gave me the opportunity to train as a coach and train among the elite. I do not forget the opportunity they gave me and I do not wish any harm to anyone and less to Villarreal, to whom I owe so much.
Tonight's will, of course, be his first confrontation with the yellow team and the first also against Unai Emery who intends to continue rotating his players in order to dose them for the two important appointments that await him in the next eight days : Sunday's game against Barcelona and, above all, the first leg of the European semifinal against Arsenal.
All this without losing sight of the objective of maintaining that fifth place that he now occupies in LaLiga.
Calleja, meanwhile, recovers the former yellow
Florian Lejeune
and
Manu García
, after serving a penalty game but is injured due to
Rubén Duarte's
injury
.
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Castellon
Villarreal CF
Deportivo Alavés
First division
football
LaLigaSergio Herrera stops Villarreal in his tracks
Europa League 2020 - 2021 Villarreal win their fifth European semi-final
LaLiga Santander 2020 - 2021 Villarreal overwhelms Levante in the derby
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