They started with a very high budget, but they have not been anywhere near a dominant team in their Second Federation group. On the contrary, after a very irregular first phase of the season, they entered the ‘playoff’ on the horn and barely managed to win one of the four games in the promotion phase to the First Federation. And it is that the UCAM, despite the powerful budget that Miguel Linares had to assemble the university team last summer, has not given the stature and will be forced to play one more campaign in the fourth category of Spanish football, a well from which Antequera, Recreativo de Huelva, Sanluqueño and Granada B, the other four teams from group 4 that played for promotion, have managed to leave.
And among those most pointed out for this failure is Linares himself, sports director and architect of the UCAM 2022-23 who landed in Murcia from Linares, a club in which he worked four seasons and in which he was promoted to Second Division. But after his arrival in Murcia he made certain decisions that, in the end, could have led to the final setback of his team and that has been a bite to his credit. However, he has the support of the Mendoza family and Manuel Agustín Heredia, founder of BeSoccer and also a manager and sponsor of the club, and next year he will have the opportunity to achieve the goal for which he came to La Condomina.
Indecision on the bench
To begin with, Linares opted for a coach who was not his first choice. After several interviews, the chosen one was Molo, although he never came to trust him. In fact, the coach from Almería was barely five days on the university bench before being fired, an unusual fact that showed that Linares’ commitment to him was not solid.
The winter signing of Mario Sánchez, who already arrived injured from Real Murcia, is also a failure for Linares
After the dismissal of Molo, Jorge Romero arrived at UCAM, who months before had said ‘no’ to the Murcians waiting for the Alcorcón bench. Romero was always the first candidate for Linares, former teammates on other teams, and he waited for the slightest opportunity to incorporate him. Even so, he also had to dismiss him in the final stretch because UCAM did not finish clinging to the ‘playoff’ for promotion, which he reached thanks to the collapse of a Yeclano with less potential.
The speed when building the squad despite being practically new, the fact of keeping only two players from last year (Abenza and Zorro) and needing a winter campaign with up to seven signings (Pito Camacho, Edu Oriol, Víctor Mena, José Cruz, Javi Moreno, Mario Sánchez and Raúl Pescador) to straighten the course of a team that was still fragile until the end and lacked energy in decisive moments, are also attributable to a sports director who, even so, will have a second opportunity.
Víctor Cea wants to follow the example of Munitis and Salmerón
Víctor Cea reached seven games to go in the regular season and with three consecutive victories managed to hook UCAM to the ‘playoff’. Then came a draw and a defeat against Cartagena B that endangered qualification for the promotion phase, a ticket achieved on the last day. At the decisive moment, UCAM once again showed two faces, but competed until the end against Atlético de Madrid B, who did not need to win either of the two duels to be promoted.
Cea could start the next campaign. Thus, he would start a course having finished the previous one, something that was only signed at UCAM Salmerón in 2015 and 2021, and Munitis, who finished the 2017-18 financial year and managed to start 2018-19.
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