Villarreal: the start of the end?

As far as la liga presidents go, Fernando Roig is quite a likeable character, one who seems to float above the sea of corruption, irresponsibility and downright incompetency many of his counterparts shamelessly choose to tread water in.

Since taking over at small town club Villarreal in 1997 his stewardship has been a massive success. A season or two of yo-yoing between la segunda and la primera at the beginning of his reign has long been forgotten and now the tiny outfit from Castellón can not only boast about being able to call Spain’s most prestigious competition, la primera liga, it’s home, but more precisely the higher echelons of the competition, where it has managed to finish in the top half of the table for the last eight seasons. As a result playing in Europe is no longer a fairy tale like novelty for the fans, rather a pre-season requirement: gracing the Champions League three times, getting as far as the Europa League semi-final twice (one of those times last season) and lifting the now sorely missed Intertoto Cup has seen to that.

A glance at some of the playing staff to have adorn the yellow jersey in recent years sheds some light on the club’s success: Marco Senna, Santi Cazorla, Diego Forlan, Pepe Reina, Juan Roman Riquelme, Borja Valero, Guiseppe Rossi, Javi Venta and Robert Pires to name but a few.

Roig’s impact at the club doesn’t just end with the first team either, he has also had the foresight to invest wisely in the ‘cantera’ (youth team). The imaginatively titled Villarreal B has been gracing la segunda division for the past three seasons, making Villarreal, along with Barcelona, one of only two clubs to have representation in Spain’s top two leagues.

An unrelated picture of a submarine which has seen better days.

An impressive story for such a modestly sized outfit but such formidable achievements come at a price, and in this case it comes in the form of raised levels of expectation. Similar to the legend of Ikarus flying too close to the sun and crash-landing to earth, the Yellow Submarine is feeling the heat this season, after reaching some pretty lofty heights over the past decade.

The current campaign has been marred by an almost supernatural string of calamities and misfortunes for Roig’s beloved club. Admittedly the team was already starting the season on the back foot after the reluctant departure to Málaga of buck-toothed cantera whizz, Santi Cazorla. Losing such a creative and cherished member of the dressing room-Senna compared his exit to losing a finger- was an ominous sign of the suffering to come. In fairness to Roig, his hand was twisted on the matter of el Cuín leaving-it was either the Spaniard or his team mate of note, Guiseppe Rossi, who made way as the lucrative offers from across Europe came in for the pair. Perhaps on reflection the wrong man went, seeing as how Rossi has been nursing cruciate ligament damage for the majority of the season, but more crucially the wrong men came in to replace him. Hindsight is easy thing to dish out but it goes without saying that Jonathan de Guzman and Cristián Zapata have fallen well short of the mark so far.

The players’ strike was the next thing to put a dent in the team’s confidence as a trip to the Camp Nou, where a 5-0 drubbing was mercilessly handed to them, was to be their season opener instead of what surely would have been a more comfortable game at home to Sporting Gijon to ease them into the campaign.

Imperfect start: Messi celebrates Barca's fifth goal in the opening match of the season.

Things went from bad to worse and the meagre opening tally of seven points from a possible 27 was overshadowed when the disaster of what was to be one of the worst Champions League performances got under way with a 2-0 loss to Bayern Munich. Despite being pitted against the German giants, nouveau riche Man City and Serie A revelation Napoli, zero points in six games and a pitiful two goals scored was an awful return, one which led to Juan Carlos Garrido’s team being the laughing stock of the group stages (Manchester clubs aside).

A decent, or at least honourable, run in the Copa del Rey was also beyond the club’s reach as it embarrassingly fell to Segunda B side Mirandes at the first jurdle.

It must be said that none of this was helped by injuries. The loss of Rossi was a massive blow but the house of cards-like squad depletion that followed was plain tragic and completely unforeseeable, with Cani, Marco Ruben, Nilmar, Senna, Camuñas and Zapata joining the Italian on the physio’s bench. At one stage Garrido only had 13 first teamers to choose from, including sub keeper Cesar.

Sitting in the relegation zone during the Christmas period forced Roig into drastic action yet again, this time having to axe Garrido as first team coach. The amicable nature in which he left the club reflected the inevitability of the decision, however, his replacement raised more eyebrows than it did fans’ hopes. Former Villarreal, Atlético Madrid and Spanish international (left wing and keeper) José Molina was put in charge of the embattled submarine despite coming straight from the second team which itself was struggling to keep it’s head above the relegation zone of la liga Adelante.

Roig has always had a policy of rewarding loyalty and hiring from within (Garrido being a prime example), which would go to explain Molina’s appointment. Financial constraints, something that has affected this man of industry greatly during the current economic crisis, may also have played a part in this internal promotion.

"Fix this mess": Roig and new coach Molina

Whatever the case he is the manager now and with three games down, the draw, lose and win he has under his belt have made drawing any conclusions quite difficult so far. A valiant point against local rivals Valencia was followed by a limb performance and loss against a revitalised Atleti, which in turn was followed by a ruthless 3-0 win over Sporting that finally took the team out of the relegation zone, albeit on goal difference. All very Jekyll and Hyde really.

So with no cups to play in and no hope of gaining a European position for next year, the season is all about damage limitation now and trying to crawl back to a somewhat respectable position. Something the club should be able to do considering the talent it has at it’s disposal.

The real concern is what will come after that. With pocket strings so tight as to cause friction burns and a talented squad not exactly showing a fighting spirit or willingness to die for the cause- the dispirited performance in the Calderon two weeks ago a case in point- in all likelihood the summer will see a mass exodus of players, with Rossi, Nilmar (if he hasn’t already left by then) and Borja Valero all rumoured to be eyeing up the backdoor of the Madrigal.

Were that to happen reclaiming it’s place as one of Europe’s most exciting teams would be a monumental task to undertake. Roig has always been pragmatic about signings and won’t be flashing the cash to lure any big name players in so the story of the little club which punched way above it’s weight looks to be coming to a sad and somewhat overdue end.