Direct and extraordinarily sincere. Manolo González (Folgoso do Courel, Lugo, 1979) is a football Stakhanovite who has fulfilled a dream he never sought at Espanyol. His dream was to be a First Division player, but an injury kept him from playing at the age of 21. As a coach he continued his passion and achieved success wherever he went. Montañesa, Badalona, Ebro and Peña Deportiva. That long road opened the doors of Espanyol, the club of his heart. After being promoted last season, this season they have built a team that has once again excited the Perica fans.
Who did you call when you found out you would coach Espanyol’s first team?
To no one in particular. I called home and that’s it, I’m not much of a teller.
What was going through your mind?
Excitement, responsibility… But I didn’t have time to think much, because the next day I had to train. It was going directly to trouble.
He achieved the goal of promotion.
I understand that it’s funny that he drove a bus, but I’m not ashamed.”
I found a very committed group and my job was to get the best out of each one. I have a football ideal that is impossible to achieve because you don’t have the ideal player for each position. But I think the team ended up playing very well and is becoming more and more like what I would like.
During your time as a footballer, did you ever think about being a coach?
As a footballer, what I wanted was to reach the First Division, it was my dream. But I never had anyone to advise me or anyone to help me and I was not smart at all. Apart from the fact that the conditions may not have allowed me to reach First Class, if you are egocentric and don’t do what you have to do, then in the end you won’t get there.
What do you mean he wasn’t smart?
Because he was very temperamental. I didn’t handle it well when I wasn’t playing and no one educated me on that. I wish I could go back and have had the head I have now before.
As a player he was very temperamental. “I wasn’t smart and that’s why I didn’t get to First Division.”
Hasn’t that passion taken its toll on you as a coach?
The key person for me was José Ramón Preciado. A scout who was at Espanyol and Real Madrid who helped me with my temperamental character at the Badalona youth team. I was getting very hot. He was key in my cognitive and human development. It helped me see the game and understand it.
For years you had to work while training, how did you balance it?
As I could. With many hours. I left the house at five in the morning to work and we trained in the afternoon… busy all day. More watching the games, preparing for the training sessions… But I had to do it, I had no other choice.
Have you ever been late?
No, but because they helped me a lot in my company. They allowed me to change my work schedule if I had games or training sessions. Thanks in part to them I am here. I had to earn a living, and I couldn’t do it with football alone. They helped me be what I am.
Were you bothered by jokes about your former profession?
I don’t pay much attention to that. I think that working is the most normal thing in the world. I understand that it’s funny that he drove buses, but it happened a long time ago. Still, I am very proud of what I have done my entire life. It doesn’t cause me any shame or embarrassment.
Do you feel that you have lacked support from your environment because you are not as well-known?
No. I feel that the fans have trusted me.
“I came to Espanyol with worse conditions than at the Peña Deportiva”
Did you see yourself going that far?
No. I have always had a lot of respect for the profession. In Badalona, when I was in the youth team, we sometimes trained with the first team, which was led by Francisco López (historic Espanyol and Sevilla player with more than 400 games in the First Division). I remember how much respect I had for him, I didn’t even go into the locker room to change with him. And one day he told me: “No, no, Manolo. Come and change here with me.” He was a gentleman.
Was he one of the coaches who advised you best?
And more than that. Another day I was in the locker room with him and he told me: “I don’t know what you’re waiting for to get your coaching qualifications.” I was missing the second and third level. I didn’t even consider it. But he opened my eyes and I decided to take it out. I told myself ‘but how am I going to coach Badalona’s first team in Second B, if there are these people who are very good!’.
And Espanyol arrived.
I didn’t contemplate it. I came to the reserve team without thinking about it, just because I wanted to be at Espanyol. In fact, I came with worse conditions than at the Peña Deportiva. When Fran Garagarza called me, he showed a lot of interest and I didn’t think about it.
Did you have more dreams as a player than as a coach?
I thought I could get there because they tell you that you are very good and they deceive you. You end up thinking that you are very good when you are not. As a coach I have had my head in a very good position and what has come has been with work and in a natural way.
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Can a bad player be a good coach?
There are things that are innate to being a coach. When we review the post-match videos, my team sometimes doesn’t understand that I watch it once and already know the corrections that need to be made. Or when we watch the game from the field, it looks worse: “How can you see it so fast,” they tell me. There are things that are innate. And having been a player has nothing to do with it.
You are Galician, where does the parakeet feeling come from?
I simply opted for Espanyol. My family is from Espanyol and Madrid. He always gave us more than Barça.
Does being so parakeet benefit or harm you?
When you’re on a team and you feel it, it’s fucking bad to lose. You go home annoyed. If I wanted Espanyol to win, now that I coach him I want him twice as much.
Signing with zero euros and getting it right is very difficult, and we get it right much more than we fail.”
Five homegrown players have started in the last few games. Is it a real bet?
I would love for one day there to be many more. But that doesn’t even happen in Madrid. Five is a high and good number. It’s the First Division, not everyone can get there.
What is the worst thing about your position?
Media exposure is very difficult for me. I am a person who likes to go unnoticed. I am natural. I do the things that come my way!
Like what?
The celebrations. I had to apologize to the Rayo coach (Íñigo Pérez) for celebrating the goal as I did (González ran the entire sideline with his arms raised after his team scored the second goal, which marked the victory). “I don’t want you to be upset,” I told him. It came out of me to do it like that. We had just lost and it was important for the team. He could have been upset, but he congratulated me on the victory… I’m like that, but I don’t want a role that I don’t deserve. I don’t like it, nor do I want it.
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He deserves it anyway.
Yes, but I don’t want it. I want to train and for the players to be the protagonists. The coaches without the players are nobody. It’s like that.
Are you worried about the club’s lack of investment?
This has been a complicated market. Signing with zero euros and getting it right is very difficult, and we get it right much more than we miss. I think it has merit on the part of the sports management. People are not aware of what it has cost for some players to come. Plus they arrived late. It was not easy for them to adapt.
Is your Espanyol missing a goal?
No. I think that if we look at the number of goals, we are not bad. And we have gone to the field of Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Betis. Performance away from home is not real.
Does the pressure affect you?
I notice the pressure I put on myself. When I lost at the Peña Deportiva, the relevance was not as much, but I was just as affected. I put a lot of pressure on myself to achieve my goals. We talk about it with the family. I explain a team situation to them and they tell me “you can’t control everything that happens on the field”, and it’s true, but we have to try to control what can happen or almost everything. The pressure that affects me is mine. I am very demanding of myself, very much so.
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And the criticism on the networks?
I don’t have social networks. At home we don’t have it. The things that come to me are from friends, but I try not to let them boss me around, neither for better nor for worse. I try to stay as far away as possible.
Is there ever a time when you don’t think about football?
Except when I sleep, I only think about football.
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