Pacheta: The Last Man Standing as Segunda División Sacks Its Managers for Fun
While Segunda División clubs have been trigger-happy with 13 managerial changes this season, Granada have stuck with Pacheta — and it might just pay off.
While the rest of Segunda División has been playing a relentless game of managerial musical chairs, Granada have quietly done something radical: kept faith with their gaffer.
A Division Eating Its Own Managers
Liga Hypermotion has been absolutely brutal on coaches this season. Thirteen managerial changes and counting — the latest being Cuco Ziganda at Cultural Leonesa on Monday, following hot on the heels of Luis García Tevenet getting the boot at Valladolid last week. It’s carnage down there.
To put it in perspective, here’s the full roll call of clubs in the bottom nine who’ve already pulled the trigger on their manager:
- Zaragoza
- Mirandés
- Cultural Leonesa
- Valladolid
- Huesca
- Real Sociedad B (a slightly complicated one — Jon Ansotegi went up to the first team, Gorrotxategi stepped in for one matchday, then Ansotegi came back down)
- Andorra
- Leganés
Every single struggling club in that bottom bracket has made a change. Every one of them, that is, except Granada.
Pacheta: Defying the Chop
Pacheta’s start to the season was, to put it diplomatically, a bit of a nightmare. Granada went six games without a win — the worst opening run in the club’s history in the second tier. Elsewhere in Spain, that kind of form gets you shown the door sharpish. At Los Cármenes, they handed him a cuppa and told him to crack on.
For large chunks of the campaign, the Andalusians were sitting in the relegation zone. The pressure was real. And yet, something interesting happened — or rather, didn’t happen. The board didn’t wobble. The fans didn’t turn. Every time Pacheta’s name came over the tannoy at Los Cármenes, he got a warm reception, and he’s acknowledged that support publicly on more than one occasion.
Why This Matters
There’s a broader point here that’s easy to miss in all the noise. Of those eight clubs that changed manager mid-season? None of them have dramatically turned their fortunes around. They’re all still scrapping in the relegation mire. Which rather begs the question: what exactly is the point of the sack?
Granada’s approach — patience, continuity, a clear plan from a manager who knows what he’s doing — looks increasingly shrewd. Pacheta, from Salas de los Infantes up in Burgos, has been around the block enough times to know how to grind through a rough patch. The club backed him when it would’ve been easy not to, and right now that looks like a smart bit of business.
Whether it ultimately keeps them up remains to be seen. But in a division that’s been trigger-happy to the point of self-harm, Granada’s calm head might just be their biggest asset.