Man’s had 6 games in Europe and won the EL. What was his salary €600K? He’s taken a team in a tail spin and got them flying again. After this season Sevilla need to keep hold of Mendilibar.
6 Likes
Credit to Lope for what? Failing badly enough to get Sevilla to 3rd place? When he left Sevilla were bottom of the group having conceded four goals at RSP to Man City and Dortmund respectively sandwiched with a draw to Copenhagen. Sampaoli drew away to Dortmund and won at home against Copenhagen before losing away to Man City.
Mendi has earned the right to take the reins for at least a full season, something akin to a 1+1 as Shend mentioned, a long-term commitment is not ideal as 1) Mendi is 62 and 2) the last time we gave a long term contract to a EL winner led to 3.5 seasons of lope-ball.
It could also give more time to observe future candidates, can Iraola go onwards and upwards? Can Gallardo perform at a different club from River? Can Diego Martinez find a new team and rebuild his reputation? There’s also a host of new managers who have done wonders this season, Arne Slot of Feyernoord and Franck Haise of Lens come to mind, even Xabi Alonso did well at Leverkusen though he would be aiming to get back to Sociedad.
An EL win and CL entry has given the money the board claimed they so desperately needed, now spend it wisely on and build the foundations of more solid seasons, please.
5 Likes
On his IG story last night Bade asked Monchi to sign him last night, to which Monchi replied ‘it’s already done’. Could just be in the heat of the moment/not fully signed, but hopefully he’s the first new signing.
Sadly I think departures are likely, with Bono being the obvious one mostly because I’m not sure how much actual interest there is in other squad members…
6 Likes
Mendi just has to stay.
Winning the Europa again last night surely has to settle it. If he doesn’t get the job permanently after that and steering us to comfortable safety from the precarious position we were in, then I don’t know what the man has to do.
When he took over we were in genuine danger of relegation and talk of winning the Europa League was seen understandably as a distraction.
The man has presided over a quite frankly astonishing turnaround.
Give him the job!
6 Likes
Last game away at Sociedad doesn’t really matter now. We could finish 12th and we know Champions League football is in the bag.
The difference it will make to us financially is huge and for our summer transfer prospects.
5 Likes
Here’s where we stand going into the final match day. We could climb as high as 7th and fall as far as 12th, but who really cares? We’ve qualified for Champions League!
4 Likes
slight pushback on the “last game doesnt matter” take. which is an understandable one relative to champions league qualification.
but in reality, there is a meaningful difference (european qualification aside) in where we finish given how tight things are. If we finish 12th our season reward is 8.1m euros, 7th and that jumps up by ten to 18m.
winning EL itself gave us something like 7m, so in some ways, a single game return of 10m euros (of course depending on other results) is still potentially huge. i’d love to see us win a pocket a few million extra at least.
8 Likes
So La Liga will have 8 teams in Europe next season! That’s amazing.
5 Likes
Absolutely.
Hope we can win and finish as high in the league as possible.
5 Likes
Well yes unless we somehow get 7th then only 7 teams.
8 Likes
After the debacle away at athletico madrid i honestly thought this club was finished - well for a while anyway. The transformation has been incredibly all down to Mendi. Yes, give him another year rolling and look out for the type of Young manager to hopefully build a long term project with.
6 Likes
https://twitter.com/fabrizioromano/status/1664398671914450944?s=46&t=MGZQ4XnfdTHq0s4iat9AAA
If Fabrizio is reporting it, that’s good news!
4 Likes
4 Likes
Great news.
Let’s hope Bade, Gueye and Gill can all be signed on and we really have a good basis to push on next season.
5 Likes
Nice to know Mendi is probably signed, he’s got a calming effect on the players and can motivate them. Only thing I noticed, which will not be popular, is his style tends towards crossing into the box, we crossed 15 more times than Roma and when YEN is sandwiched by the likes of Smalling, Ibanez and Mancini it’s pretty ineffective; second route is to have the wingers and fullbacks create havoc and find ways into the box, this is much better. Hope he can come up with some adjustments in the offseason, or just sign a bunch of bullies and continue route-one football.
7 Likes
Need a nice second striker type that can sit behind and bang in the deflected crosses. Basically, more speed there to get to the box quicker, I think will go a long way.
4 Likes
I do think the return of Tecatito next season will give us some different options up front in terms of attacking style. Hopefully we don’t try to sell Ocampos this summer. Papu will likely be gone, as will Acuña. But with Lamela, Tecatito, YEN up front, maybe even Bryan Gil. That looks like some pretty lethal combinations up front. And hopefully less reliance on Jesus Navas and Suso with the long balls and the long (feckless) shots, respectively
5 Likes
I think that says more about En-Nesyri and the contributing party. YEN straight up has no hold up play, so you automatically miss out on any combinations thru the middle. They’re even reluctant to play him the through-ball cause they assume the chance will be gone by the time the ball gets to him. Our wings are mostly fine. We need to address the attacking mid & centre fwd positions if we’re to change the dynamic in attack at all.
7 Likes
Mendi deserves a deal!
3 Likes
Rumored that he turned down the first deal offered.
4 Likes