There are no cuts from Mauro Silva, no passes from Valern, or centers from Fran, no crosses from Donato, no cons from Makaay, no heels from Djalminha, no visits to Milan, Paris or London. “It’s a disaster”. “An infinite sadness”. “It’s a bit sad.” “In free fall”. They are some diagnoses that crowd on the back of Deportivo de la Corua, a historian of Spanish football who lives badly for Second B.
In a normal week 20 years ago the team, the Superdepor, will rush this round Copa del Rey, prepare the next European duel and look closely at the chin of his rivals in LaLiga. The reality is different and the Depor march classified in fourth position of group I of Second B, a position that would give him no option to contest the promotion. There is time to apply patches. Representatives of sportsmanship express how they live an exceptional situation.
One of the godfathers of the great Depor was Jabo Irureta, League and Cup champion coach, that he admits feeling “sorry, I don’t know how it got there. From a distance, you see a lot of changes in coaches and players. There have been things that haven’t been done well. I could imagine it in Second B, but not in Second B. It’s very sad and I hope that with that phenomenal hobby it can be rectified and relive great moments “.
It is very sad, there will be things that have not been done well. Second B is tough and tough and you can’t believe that you win just by name “
Jabo Irureta (Former Depor coach)
Regarding the heads of the footballers, Irureta thinks that “they must have the security that in Depor there are more possibilities to go up than in another team. They must do their best to return the club to the category it deserves. Second B is tough and tough and you can’t believe you win on the name alone. ”
For the technician, the only recipe is “to be united. I’m not saying to go up to First, but I do to get out of this hell little by little.” Irureta believes that Empty Riazor “hurts the team. Surely in Segunda B there will be 15 or 20 thousand people each game and that will be noticed by their own players and those of the rival. It is an ideal field to support the team. ”
Manuel Pablo, a whip on the right wing of Superdepor, wore the blue and white jersey from 1998 to 2016. “Now you believe it because football is very even. It is not the only historical club that has gone through this. You have to do things very well in every way. It’s a bit sad but no, this doesn’t happen overnight “, points out one of the referents of the last five years of the entity.
The Canarian defender knew the threat of cataclysm, with the declines of 2011 and 2013, remedied by promotions after a year. Manuel Pablo recalls that at that time “a lot of economic potential had already been lost. We were saved in the last matches. Nobody thought it was going to fall that much. “
The remedy is not easy because “now you have to get a lot right to resolve a situation that was not expected. “On the pressure that footballers can feel, Manuel Pablo estimates that” the footballer must live with that, I descend twice and you have to know how to adapt. If Depor signs you, that’s what you have to do, you have to know how to live with pressure. ”
Nobody thought it was going to fall that much, but this does not happen overnight. Now you have to go step by step “
Manuel Pablo (Former Depor player)
Seeing an empty Riazor doesn’t help either because “It is a stadium where support was noticeable from the public and help the team. At times like this you have to build a fort at home. ”
The weight of memories also influences and Manuel Pablo remembers how “in Primera, if we go up, we had the memory of before and it was thought that we had to return with the best. Every League seemed like a disappointment. It is difficult to understand and it takes time. You can’t think, I have to be in Europe because I had degrees. Well no, now we have to go step by step “.
The club that featured world stars like Bebeto, Rivaldo, Djalminha o Mauro Silva found the spell broken. In the second decade of the century he was installed on a roller coaster of ascents and descents. The project was to survive. There was no continuity.
Since 2014, the year of the last promotion to First, the institutional custom has been evident. Since that date, in which Lendoiro leaves the entity, they have passed four presidents: Constantino Fernndez, Francisco Martnez Zas, Juan Antonio Armenteros Cuetos and Fernando Vidal, the current one.
In that period, on the bench an anthology of the swing has been made. Twelve coaches have passed through the position: Vctor Fernndez, Vctor Snchez del Amo, Gaizka Garitano, Seedorf, Fernando Vzquez, Cristbal, Pepe Mel, Natxo Gonzlez, Mart, Anquela, Luis Csar and the current one, Rubn de la Barrera.
Deportivo wins the Centennial Cup
Another sufferer is Miroslav Djukic, a Depor player from 1991 to 1997. The Serbian feels “enormous sadness for the team, the city and the fans after so many years being an option to win titles.”
The defender talks about the reasons for the undercut: “It has been a cluster of things that have not been done well. With that hobby you must be in First, Second B is a disaster. People are sad and disappointed, but I hope it’s a passing thing. Many things have been done wrong, it is what you see from a distance. The efforts have been fatal. “
Being in Second B is a disaster. The first thing is to go up to Second. It’s like a baby, first the bottle and then the meat “
Djukic (Former Depor player)
Djukic, who later became a coach and knows the steps of football, points out that “the reality is that you are in Second B, even if you want it to be a bad dream and it passes. It is very difficult to play with the Second B mentality. If you don’t adapt, you have a hard time. In First it is easier to play; in Second there is more aggressiveness and pressure; and in Second B it is very tight. The team has to adapt as soon as possible, not to think that it is First, but Second B. ”
The defender sees the precipitation as a mistake because “the first thing is to go up to Second. This is like a baby, first the bottle and then the meat. You have to ask for patience, work and go little by little “.
For Djukic, the emptiness in the stands does not help since “without an audience in Riazor you don’t have the help of a large stadium either, so you are one more of Second B. All the teams want to beat you, they come plugged in contra you “.
Paco Liao was the wall in the goalkeeper of Depor from 1991 to 1996. The goalkeeper acknowledges that “today I already believe it, although it was hard just thinking about it. I live in Santander and I have in mind what Second B is, the reality is even harder.”
Liao does not show surprise about the situation of the team because “in general the Second B is very special and Depor is not even responding to the difference that it should show with the rivals. If you play football well, you show the difference, but now it’s just another Second B team. With his classification every game he plays it with great need. Last Sunday against Unionistas was the first day he showed his role in dominating the game. ”
Commentator of all the team’s matches, Paco Liao points out as causes of the collapse that “there has not been a clear project of where they wanted to go. In a few years, 14, 15 coaches have passed and the debt conditioned the squad. There is no continuity and the future is not promising. There is an urge to return because you are in free fall. After touching the sky this nobody imagined it “.
There has not been a clear project of where they wanted to go; after touching the sky, nobody imagined this “
Paco Liao (Former Depor goalkeeper)
The goalkeeper insists that “if the squad is analyzed, few teams have so many people with experience in the First or Second Division, but a project is missing. The last thing was that or that the president was going to order a project from a consulting firm. It sounds like a joke. You have to look at models like the Real one, copy what is done well. You cannot fall into improvisation and repeated mistakes. “
Send a message of hope for the change of coach because “With Rubn de la Barrera you want to play well, dominate the games. It is a new model, but with the classification like this now we have to win. ”
Aora the support of the stands: “The lack of public also hurts him. In each game there will be 20,000 people in Riazor. I would have scored more points for sure. Now this is another sport. “
Liao remains cautious: “I am not optimistic, but there is time. Going up from Second B to Second is now more difficult and if you don’t go up, with the new remodeling of the divisions for next year it’s like losing another category. ”
At least feel like the team he has never lacked “social support, but if this goes on every year people get saturated. The risk is to see again in the city in a few years more shirts of Madrid and Bara than Depor, which is what happened before. “
The Deportivo movie is not new. A hysterical man takes ground in heaven and years later falls into hell. It happened to Nottingham Forest, European champion in 1979 and 1980, winner of the 78 League, and now resident in the Championship, the English second row. The pas al Hamburgo, six times Bundesliga champion and winner of the European Cup in 1983. Depor won LaLiga in 2000, the King’s Cup in 95 and 2002 and the Spanish Super Cup in 1995, 2000 and 2002.
Another symbol was Donato, with a career at Riazor from 1993 to 2003. He lives it now “with great sadness. You have to go step by step. He has a good team for Second B, which is a very complicated category and where not just with the name “.
In recent weeks, the Spanish-Brazilian has fed his hope because “with Rubn de la Barrera you see more chances. In the last game, better organization, intention to dominate, occupation of spaces etc. Before it did not seem that the team was superior to the rival. Against Compostela, for example, I didn’t like anything “,
I see everything with great sadness, but at least in the last game he created more chances and organized himself better “
Donato (Former Depor player)
On the lack of public Donato contributes with another point of view: “If he went down to Second B it was not due to lack of fans. You never know. Without fans, the players have less pressure. There was a public and it also went down to Second “.
In the field of communication, Pepe Domingo Castao contributes one of the most recognized voices in Spain. A confessed athlete, the communicator from Cadena COPE does not hide feelings when talking about his team in Second B: “It is an immense sadness to see the club like this after winning a League, two Cups, three Super Cups. They managed to impress the country with a wonderful football and see it now down … But hey, to be from Depor all my life. “
Castao is not optimistic because “What the Second B requires has not been hit right, moving up in this category is getting harder every day. The quarry should have been taken advantage of and stopped bright signings, rare signings. I would prefer that a very Corus, very Galician team had been made, very from home and if you do not get promoted unless you understand that something is being built “.
I feel an immense sadness, he has been lost even with Celta B. He would prefer a bet on the quarry and not on the bright signings “
Pepe Domingo Castao (Cadena COPE)
At the origin of the disaster, Pepe Domingo Castao places the “We live many years beyond our means. Was that financial gamble of so many years worth it? I think so, there are people who think not and we have had to pay “.
The situation of the team does not excite him because “they are not capable of scoring goals. He has lost with Celta B, which is the worst that could happen to him, and with the Compos. But hey, I hope vital signs recover. You have to bet on the quarry and risk your life with the people at home. You have to make an authentic team, pure, with Galicianism. “
The pain continues. The next station arrives on Sunday before Coruxo.