Villarreal back in the big-time
Villarreal, a small-town club in the Castellón region of Spain, made it back to the top-flight when gaining automatic promotion yesterday in front of a sell-out crowd at their home El Madrigal.
A 1-0 victory against rivals for that coveted second spot in the Segunda División, Almería, condemned their opponents to the lottery of the play-offs while catapulting the Yellow Submarine back to La Liga at the first time of asking.
The heady days under Manuel Pellegrini of European football and fighting amongst the top sides domestically are a distant memory and it is remarkable that Villarreal have made it back so soon after numerous issues threatened to thwart them.
The club hired a new coach in June 2012 to spearhead their challenge on a top-two slot, but Manuel Preciado tragically died after suffering a heart attack on the same day of his appointment. Former B team coach Julio Velazguez filled the void and held on to the job until January, when a 1-1 draw away to Almería caused the board to act. At that time, the team sat seventh and promotion looked unlikely.
However, new man Marcelino García Toral's arrival signalled a sharp upturn in form and, in spite of an ever-increasing injury list, the Costa del Azahar club shot up the table to reclaim their La Liga berth following only a year out.
The chances of repeating previous glories, including grasping the La Liga runners-up spot in 2008 behind giants Real Madrid and reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2006, appear slim. Having been out of the spotlight for a season, Villarreal could struggle to regain ground on the bigger Spanish sides and in all likelihood the long-term benefactor of the club Fernando Roig will find it difficult in these harsh economic times to bankroll another assault on the title.
Having stellar names such as Diego Forlán, Juan Román Riquelme and Giuseppe Rossi in their ranks would appear to be a thing of the past. New investment, possibly from abroad, would be the only opportunity this small club based near Valencia has of catching up on the top teams in the future.
Jonathan Pereira's goal that sealed promotion will rank alongside any of the more illustrious achievements in the club's history, as it's notoriously tricky for teams with few resources to come back so soon and occasionally relegation from La Liga results in a free-fall effect that cannot be halted. Next season will be one of consolidation and then El Submarino Amarillo can look to emulate highlights of the past in an attempt to recreate one of the most romantic of footballing stories in modern times.
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