Sevilla have made a pretty bold move in signing the controversial manager, Julen Lopetegui who is best known for getting sacked as Spain’s national team manager two days before the 2018 World Cup after announcing that he would be the new Real Madrid manager.
Lopetegui did become the Real Madrid manager for the 2018 season, but it didn’t last long as he was sacked in October after a 5-1 loss in the El Clásico. In Real’s first season without Cristiano Ronaldo, the team seemed unable to score goals under Lopetegui.
Lopetegui started his managerial career at Rayo Vallecano before getting sacked after 11 games, going 2-2-7. He then went on to coach Real Madrid’s B squad for a season going 18-9-11.
Lopetegui then found himself managing Spain’s U19, U20 and U21 youth squads winning a combined 26 matches while drawing 5 and losing only 1 match. In July 2014, he was named as Porto’s new skipper.
At Porto, Lopetegui won a lot of games going 53-15-9 with a 68% win percentage; however, he also went trophy-less in his 1.5 seasons with Porto thus his sacking in January 2016. His hire as Spain manager in July 2016 found him great success pulling off 14 wins, 6 draws and zero losses, but his desire for a club gig cost him a chance of World Cup greatness.
Now after his faliure at Real Madrid, he has come to Sevilla with much to prove. Will the 52 year old manager be able to right his career with the Red and White? Did Monchi make the right hire? Will Lopetegui jump at the first bigger club to come calling if he is successful at Sevilla? There are lots of questions with this hire, thus the fan bases tepid response.
Not convinced at all, we have some promising youngsters such as Gil, Lara and Vazquez so we can see if he lives up to his billing as being good with youth, signings will be another thing to look upon. His signings for Real were pedestrian at best, time to get to work.
Note: not sure if Diego Carlos was his intended signing or something of a present by Monchi.
My belief is that Lopetegui & Monchi are at a similar place in their career paths. Although Monchi has a way better track record, his last job left a lot to be desired. Both are out to regain a bit of face in light of what happened with Spain/Real Madrid & Roma respectively.
What i’m waiting to see is how Julen will change the mentality of the players, and if he’ll be as influential as Sampaoli was.
@Surreysevilla I completely agree mate. I was unsure at first but I’m actually excited by the appointment. He’s a great coach and he knows his football and how to set up tactically. He’s been giving great backing by monchi and we not done yet! This could be a very exciting season for us Sevilla fans!
We are building an exciting long term project! We showing more ambition then we have in years. Steven Bergwijn might be coming, looks like we gonna sell Ben yedder but we will get good money for him!
Wouldn’t hurt , with Barca and Valencia heading into purgatory, Real being less dominant and Atletico also looking less sharp Sevilla have a good chance, just be wary of Villarreal and Sociedad.
This might sound weird but next season for the first time in ages or like ever we could finish above Barca in la liga. Like you say they are a mess, the board are a joke, Koeman is bang average manager, a lot of players want out. I really hope Messi goes as will be so funny to see and Barca’s demise will be beautiful.
Messi has kept them relevant on his own with Suarez help for past 3 seasons. Without them 2 I honestly think Barca have not much left and will really struggle. It all depends on Messi. I just hope he goes. I’m sick of him constantly bailing out Barca in games. In a way Messi is a problem for Barca too as he’s like to big for club. To move on they need to let him go but at same time without him in short term with no real talents coming through or big squad depth they could really struggle.
It would be amazing to see a golden balls club like Barca struggle and say either us or atletico become the new title rivals to Real Madrid. I hope it happens.
The only thing I fear for us going into the next season is the fatigue and screwed up calendar because of our EL final. 24th of Sep is the Supercup if we win the EL, so that’s 2 days less to prepare. It will impact every club’s performance, but we could have it worse because of this situation.
, with Barca and Valencia heading into purgatory, Real being less dominant and Atletico also looking less sharp Sevilla have a good chance, just be wary of Villarreal and Sociedad.