Slumping in La Liga, Villarreal have attempted to turn back time by re-hiring Javier Calleja 50 days after giving him the boot
“I know it’s not normal, that it doesn’t feel right, but Fernando Roig does the opposite of everyone else,” Fernando Roig said – and this time at least the president of Villarreal wasn’t wrong. Tuesday morning at the old orange grove they made their home and Luis García was packing up after training, worried about the situation his team was in but satisfied with the session and sure they could survive, when his phone rang. “Things have to change,” he’d said two days before, and things were about to change. Just not that much. And not how he hoped. Fernando Roig Jr was calling with bad news, a message from his dad: Villarreal’s coach was now their ex-coach. And their ex-coach was now their new coach.
Nineteenth, five points from safety, Villarreal sacked García on Tuesday after 49 days in charge and replaced him with the man he had replaced, the same manager they’d sacked just 50 days before. When the players arrived on Wednesday, Bobby Ewing was in the shower and Javier Calleja was on the pitch. Considered not good enough on 10 December, they’d decided that, actually, he was good enough on 30 January. Now it was time to move on, act like he’d never been away, pretend the bit in between hadn’t happened; to cling to the hope the mistake had been identified and rectified and lessons learned. Maybe Calleja had seen from the sofa what he hadn’t seen from the bench. “I’ve watched every game,” he said.
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| GOAL! |
Santi Cazorla delivers, Vicente Iborra finishes
Villarreal have the lead! #LaLiga pic.twitter.com/CNvYwOiMGB
| GOAL! |
Espanyol are back in it, and in bizarre fashion...
Villrreal's Daniele Bonera has followed up the free-kick into his own net ♂️ pic.twitter.com/AFYkW3ttDy
| GOAL! |
WHAT A FINISH
Roberto Rosales has netted a beauty to pull Espanyol level against Villarreal! #LaLiga pic.twitter.com/p7do0dKsOB
Huesca 4-0 Valladolid, Levante 0-0 Getafe, Real Sociedad 2-1 Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona 2-2 Valencia, Celta Vigo 1-0 Sevilla, Villarreal 2-2 Espanyol, Real Betis 1-0 Atlético Madrid, Eibar 3-0 Girona, Real Madrid 3-0 Alavés
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