Betis has become accustomed (and some would even say badly accustomed) to crises touching it just a little on the ear. It itches, but it doesn’t hurt. Like a scare to get rid of the hiccups, a little trick for a lesser evil. And he owes that healthy habit of emerging from football ambushes without war wounds to his coach, Manuel Pellegrini. In all these years at the head of the green and white team he has achieved historically elusive stability in Heliópolis. Because when Betis went into the alley, they couldn’t find the exit even if they pointed it out with neon lights. And this is not the time to say that everything comes back. Yes we have returned to another decade. Feet still. That Betis is not doing well is obvious. That his coach is strangely misguided, a dangerous novelty. Pellegrini, a friend of not raising his voice and giving naturalness to everything that happens around the ball, must be the lighthouse that takes his team out of the panic room. More than that. Let him lock it before anyone ventures in without permission. A leader does not stop being one overnight, no matter how easy it is to charge him with the dead when the smell of burning begins to reach the offices. And it won’t exactly come from the Rocío Jurado Auditorium…Another issue is the wear and tear that comes with having pulled each other’s sleeves for so long. From coach to club and vice versa. Leaders are now concerned about this negative dynamic. They had also become accustomed to dealing with crises from the sidelines. They knew that Pellegrini, in games like against Real, took out his resistance manual and the victory came almost without deserving it. Because of that regularity in numbers that has always been its best guarantee. Incontestable. The only thing that counts in football. Insecurity grows when those triumphs of yesteryear now resist. And even more so if you come from an embarrassment that should hurt more than a defeat in a long championship like the League. There are things that cannot be allowed. Spot. Within the current state of Betis crisis there are football reasons to explain it, although the simplest and most real is that this Betis is a worse team than last year. And than the previous one. And that of three years ago, too. The Chilean coach has been watering down the wine with the skill of a surgeon. But there comes a time when the concoction only tastes like the liquid element. There is no solid foundation to hold on to. It is true that the numerous casualties in the team’s kitchen have done a lot of damage, where Pellegrini’s Betis was more reliable. Once the mask falls, everything is revealed. Because Pellegrini has been dressing Betis all these years as a team without complexes. That he played what he knew and, when he couldn’t due to absences or difficulties that his rivals gave him, he took from where there were none. A kind of magician or guru (from the old days, no hair growth sellers) who knew all the possible potions. Betis, at this point in the season, should focus on looking for solutions above the culprits, which there are, but they are not there to pay the bill when December has only just started. The objectives are at a safe distance, whether in the League, Europe or even the Cup. We all warn that the wear and tear of this season will take away an important part of Betis’ recent history. The cycles always give signs when they are running out…although with Don Manuel you can never put your hand in the fire because you end up getting burned. There will be time to assess a possible transition on the bench if it occurs. The fingers pointing at the coach have multiplied, also from a stand that does not understand what is happening. Or it does and looks in turn at the interiors of a club that has been relying its structure on weak pillars, except for its own bench. Confidence in Pellegrini falls. In Pellegrini! Football devours the past with the urgencies of the present. Others will come and they will do you good. Without any doubt.
#ALBERTO #FERNÁNDEZ #discouragement #turns #distrust
