If you are a Deportivo fan, one thing is guaranteed, not everyone can say: you will never get bored. The problem is that this does not mean that you are going to have fun, quite the opposite. The A Coruña club has been a constant tsunami in recent years, or rather a decade, that has devastated everything. And of course, no one enjoys watching a huge wave destroy your house day in and day out, too. From being in First two and a half years ago, to not having certain permanence in Second B. From a president who was 25 years in office, to three different ones (plus the transition with Armenteros) since April 2019. From being the club from all over Spain with the most distributed share capital, to a single owner. As we say in Galicia, a constant descent into rolls that seems to have no end. Because Vidal and his advice leave does not guarantee anything. Release the rage of the helplessness of many fans watching the disaster, yes. Does that imply that Abanca is going to hit the mark? Let’s hope so, but it has already been seen that with Vidal and his advice no, because they both landed hand in hand just over a year ago. Moreover, since April 2020 David Villasuso, who has arrived from the bank, has been the club’s general director and, recently, a co-appointed director.
The decline of Deportivo has many edges, but some are evident and its fall into hell has much in common with that of the great empires of antiquity. He lived the maximum glory with Lendoiro, the August César of that feat. But precisely at that peak began its sinking by generating a mammoth debt. To give you an idea. We put our hands in our heads with Barça and its hole. His multi-million dollar deficit is roughly 1.5 of his budget. That of Depor in 2014 was 16 times what was budgeted. It was when Tino Fernández entered, who avoided disappearance, returned to the First Division and the year with the greatest resources crashed. Months later, he would resign. Paco Zas, the next on the list, was 20 centimeters away from ascending in Mallorca and only lasted seven months after leaving in December 2019 with the bottom team.
These last two presidents had something in common, an unprecedented hostility from many nostalgic sectors of the old regime. Tino lived through a constant civil war with the Jimmy case as the great trigger. With insults or ‘demonstrations’ at the first change that, together with their own mistakes, ended up in the word that is repeated the most in Depor in recent years: Resignation !!! Zas was not so lucky, the harassment, shouting and threats began the same day he was elected president in Palexco. And after the transition from Armenteros, Vidal arrived with Abanca and a factor that seemed decisive: the famous social peace. But those calm waters have not been enough after the sporting and economic disaster. In large part because Depor lives in an inbreeding from which it is necessary to get out. The solution is no longer Lendoiro, nor Tino, nor Zas. Neither was Vidal himself, Tino’s sports vice president for four years. You have to look forward, not back. And if possible with a person from outside of A Coruña. From very outside and without weights in his backpack, although it seems that it will not be so. The guillotined Fernando Vázquez said not long ago that “Deportivo will be what its fans want it to be.” Today the reality is different, Deportivo will be what Abanca wants it to be. An entity, by the way, that previously collected its debt on time and has gone on to cover the huge losses of the club. Let’s hope that with Escotet’s competitive and winning mentality, the umpteenth new Depor is, at least, a piece of what it became.
