Sergio González will have a very special date this Tuesday (9.30 pm, Goal). The brand new coach of Cádiz will make his league debut in front of his new fans against Espanyol, the team that saw him grow as a footballer and as a coach. The paths of the Hospitalet de Llobregat coach and the white-and-blue club were hastily parted on December 14, 2015, a month before Chen Yansheng took over the presidency of the organization and publicly presented his plans. for the club I had just bought.
Sergio, therefore, was just a few weeks away from being able to enjoy the financial investments that the Rastar group has been making since then in signings (almost 129 million euros since January 2016). The context in which the new coach of Cádiz met at Espanyol was quite different from the current one, as at that time the club was in a very delicate economic situation, with a net debt of 133 million euros (the current is about 20) which conditioned too much the policy of buying and selling footballers. During the Catalan coach’s stage, and despite obtaining sales worth 26 million euros, the club’s war economy barely provided him with 4 million in new reinforcements. A modest figure that, in spite of everything, the sports area then led by Òscar Perarnau managed to use with ingenuity to incorporate pieces like Gerard Moreno, Lucas Vázquez, Caicedo, Salva Sevilla, Álvaro González or Asensio, to which they added young people of the branch like Pau López, Eric Bailly or Joan Jordán. Talented players who ended up exploding far from Cornellà.
The loss of confidence on the part of some players and especially of many members of the board of directors led to the departure of Sergio, who left the team six points behind Europe and three points down. The current Espanyol will visit the Nuevo Mirandilla with Europe at the same distance, but with a cushion of nine points with respect to the red zones.
After Joan Collet decided to leave Sergio with Chen Yansheng’s endorsement, Constantin Galca was chosen to lead the team for the remainder of the course. Rastar, however, did not quite believe the Romanian coach, who was allocated just over a million euros in a signing, Oscar Duarte. The first coach to be able to enjoy the bulk of the Chen Yansheng-era investment was Quique Sánchez Flores, who was signed for 43.4 million euros. Even today he is still the coach in whom Rastar has spent more on reinforcements, followed closely by Abelardo (43). Behind them are David Gallego (18.5), Rubi (14.6) and Vicente Moreno (8.26). Pablo Machín, who led the team between October and December, did not arrive in time to enjoy any signings.
The last Spanish semifinalist
Despite the difficult context in which he found himself in Cornellà-El Prat, Sergio González can boast of being, six years later, the last coach to manage Espanyol until the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. The Athletic Club, in 2015, deprived them of the final. Since then, the white-and-blues have never made it past the quarterfinals, a round they have only won twice with Chen Yansheng (the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons).
Last Saturday’s elimination at the hands of Mallorca, in the round of 16, puts even more value on the work done by Sergio González, who on the same day debuted with Cádiz, obtaining a ticket for the quarterfinals. At Nuevo Mirandilla, Sergio and Espanyol will find a turbulent atmosphere marked by the traumatic departure of Álvaro Cervera, a coach much loved by the Cadiz fans.
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