Javi Calleja landed at Alavés in the final stretch of last season. The team was in worrying figures after the passage of Pablo Machín and Pitu Abelardo on the bench. He saved the Basque team, left very good football sensations and the Board of Directors decided to renew him for two more seasons, something very unusual in the teams of the owner, Josean Querejeta. Things in Vitoria are almost always reviewed year after year.
This season he had a very hesitant start, a fabulous phase in which he added ten of the twelve points at stake in a row but, again, he has fallen into a spin. League defeats against Celta, Granada, Rayo and Villarreal (5-2) and elimination in the Linarejos field against a rival from the First Federation, Linares Deportivo. Always good words and intentions but bad results in the end, which is what ends up condemning team coaches in any sport. On Tuesday night, after the crash in Castellón, they informed him that he was out of work.
Calleja has led Alavés from the bench in twenty games this season. Two are cupbearers (victory with Unami de Segovia and defeat in Linares) and 18 in the league. There he has achieved four victories (Atlético de Madrid, Cádiz, Levante and Elche), three draws (Barcelona, Sevilla and Getafe) and eleven defeats (against all other LaLiga teams except Real Sociedad, which is still pending dispute on Sunday, January 2 in Mendizorroza). The balance is very poor and relegates him to the relegation zone, tied with Getafe and Elche, with just 15 points. The projection at the end of the season is synonymous with relegation to the Second Division.
If he was not officially cut as soon as the match against Villarreal was over, it is because he must be compensated until June 2023. He and all his technical staff, who are a crowd. The fact of communicating it on January 1 seems to represent a saving at the time of finalizing the commitment. It is also possible that Calleja’s lawyers do not see it that way and the issue ends up in court again, as it already happened with Mauricio Pellegrino or Asier Garitano. In court or in agreement but, basically, to start up the club’s lawyers department. The team returns to training on December 27, Monday. The first commitments are against Real and Athletic in Mendizorroza. After celebrating the Centennial year, a decline would be a terrible thing for the entity.
José Luis Mendilibar has always been a man who has pleased Vitoria. The owner of Alavés loves his character and personality but he was always committed to the Eibar project. Once he descended, he was unemployed. It seems that the technician looks favorably upon landing at Mendizorroza. It is true that in Vitoria it will not have the same power as in the armory city, but it is what it is. The command will have to be earned with good results and a convincing job. Albiazul Sports Director, Sergio Fernández, knows him from their time at the Eibar Sports Society. Entente seems easy to come by.
The question now is to know who will lead the session on Monday, December 27. If you want to postpone the announcement to January 1, you will lose several days. Unless it is done before and Mendilibar, or whatever, takes the front of the ship. There is also the possibility that a club coach will do it on an interim basis and for a few days. But it would be a waste of time and condemnation against a team of the level of Real Sociedad. It will be curious to see how the first work session goes after Christmas.
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