Will we say ‘Gracias, señor Gracia’ next spring?
Rubin makes a decision about the candidate for its head coach. Spanish specialist Javier Gracia will work with the team in the next season
What had being heard in back rooms for a long time happened. A foreign coach will head Rubin after Valery Chaly's contract. He is not Romanian but Spanish. His name is Javier Carlos Gracia. As Realnoe Vremya was informed by credible sources, a corresponding decision have already been taken. The sides just will have to confirm the deal in written form. The signing of the contract will be officially declared in Rubin today, on 27 May, or even earlier because the move of the Spaniard to Kazan was confirmed by Malaga. Let's talk about the figure of the new head coach of Rubin together.
Principally – for!
I stated many times my position about who should train our favourite team after Kurban Berdyev. Undoubtedly, the second advent of the Master would be an ideal variant, but let's get real – it is impossible until they apologize to Kurban Berdyev in public. But the team needs to play and improve its results, return to the number of top clubs of the Premier League and remind about itself to Europe right now. One cannot just let the grass grow under their feet waiting for apologies…
I will repeat: they did not need to look for a worse copy of Berdyev after the best Russian coach of the last ten years (it is impossible if we take into account the specifics of his football and the necessity just to have power outside functions of a coach). It was necessary to try something new (or somebody new).
The choice of one of the strongest specialists in our youth team of Bilyaletdinov was a correct step (here we don't discuss why such a bright start of the work in Kazan came to an ignominious end). Chaly's designation was a forced measure, and he has played quite a good role of a temporary figure of the transitional period.
The administration of Rubin needed a serious and solid person at least to build a new team right now (it is understandable) if not for ever and not to let this period drag on. There have not been seen any actions of any new modern philosophy, ideas in the game of the Kazan players. And the signing of a long-term 4-year contract with the specialist from the country ruling the world and European football together with Germany (concerning clubs and national teams) is absolutely correct.
Casting about for figures of our compatriots, we can think about only one who (I mean the figure) is actually developing and progressing. It is Stanislav Cherchesov (we will do let Slutsky continue working with the national team). Cherchesov's success in the firm Polish championship and the failure of Dynamo, which dismissed him, is an evidence. But he is not Berdyev. This is why the Spaniard is WHAT WE NEED! And, by the way, not only because of his professional qualities. The Spaniards are the people who know how to work, rest, rule people and relax. I even don't speak about Gomila and Dmitry Kuznetsov who knows the Spanish football like the back of his hand – there will be people to help the new coach express his thoughts and feelings to the players. Mentally, he is almost our guy!
In brief: wait and see
But, in itself, a Spanish passport doesn't mean that its owner will lead the club to the shiny summits and our Rubin will shine in new splendour. The Iberian Peninsula has enough adventurers. But I'm pretty sure our don Carlos is not a swindler. His bio has nothing great bur demonstrates a normal way of a professional in the country where the education of both player and coach is at a scientific level, not simply high.
Javier Garcia was born on 1 May (this day is not bad for Russia) 1970 in Pamplona (it is where people run in front of a small group of cattle). He is a pupil of Athletic Bilbao (this means a Basque character – hey, señor Emeri, we know from your example what this character and temperament means). He has never played for the first team of the Lions but participated in over a hundred games in the youth team. Then he went to Lleida and became a constant player in la Primera. Within 15 years of the career defensive midfielder Gracia became one of the leaders at both Reals – Valladolid and Sociedad, though he finished his playing career at Cordova in la Segunda, so he is etched on people's memory in the form of more than 200 matches in of the strongest European championships.
At the age of Christ, Gracia stopped playing and started his coaching career aged 34. He began with the youth team of Villareal, then Cadiz, Greek Olympiacos (it is not where Chori is) and Kerkyra. Later he came back to his motherland and headed Almeria and Osasuna. To tell the truth, there was a problem in the latter: our hero and his Pamplona players took only the 18 th place in the season 2013/2014. But it seems that the work of the young coach did not correspond to the place occupied by his wards because the paths of the mentor and the team separated. Osasuna turned out in the second division, and Javi Gracia was promoted. He was noticed and invited to a project called Malaga by Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani. The project was expected to be ambitious just recently (but it has not been). In a southern seaport town, ex-half-back Gracia substituted his colleague in field position – football legend Bernd Schuster. During his work, Sheikh's team took a modest 11th position with 45 points and a negative goal difference.
Begin at the beginning
For two seasons at Malaga the new coach strengthened the discipline and put the defence in order first, so, it is where the team 'begins'. In the season 2014/15, the Andalusians were the 9th, and in this season they climbed one position higher and, finally, the goals scored exceeded the goals conceded. By the way, Gracia's wards lost the same number of goals as Villareal (35) and only two giants – Barcelona and Athletico – have fewer goals conceded.
Meanwhile, the Malaga players had a big difficulty in scoring goals. Here they are better than Getafe and Levante who have just been eliminated (38 out of 38). Doesn't this tendency and statistics remind you about Berdyev's any seasons at Rubin or his today's Rostov?
If you crinkle your face saying that you invited a coach from an average club, I will tell you: in Spain, it is an achievement to be a firm average club. Speaking about Russia, it is a real achievement. For instance, only Sevilla managed to go up in this season. And here we have examples of how Gracia's squad played with the leaders: away match with Barça 0:1, home match with Athletico 1:0, away match with Real Madrid 0:0 and at home 1:1, home match with Sevilla 0:0. Modestly, but with taste. If our Rubin had such 'boring' results with leaders – won't be happy?
How soon will we say to him Gracias?
And you, did you want to invite other Spaniards to Rubin? Guardiola, maybe? He was waiting and waiting for an offer from Kazan but did not receive it, so he chose Man City. Wasn't Gracia's almost namesake of Rudi Garcia (ex-Roma) who promised to come to Tatarstan? Or could Unai Emeri decide to repeat his Russian adventures? No kidding, the Spanish specialist comes from Andalusia not only because of good money. He breaks his contract ahead of time not only to make a fortune – for this goal the professional from the football trendsetter country has Sheikh Abdullah's motherland and rich but useless for development the Chinese and Indian Leagues. No, he comes here to achieve something with the club. I have no doubt he knew about the club when the team opened itself to Spain at Nou Camp (we will ask him for it) and then opened itself again and again with Barça and at Vicente Calderón. He comes to fulfil his ambitious plans…
I'm either an inveterate idealist or correct but next spring I will tell him on the closing the season press conference '¡Gracias, señor Gracia!'.