Unexpected promotion meant Osasuna were always going to struggle in La Liga this season. Now, with 12 games still to go, that struggle seems over
Enrique Martín Monreal was in Madrid when his club called, the phone ringing as he headed back to the hotel from an awards ceremony held by Marca in early November. He hadn’t won – the award for the second division’s best manager in 2015-16 went to Leganés’s Asier Garitano – but he had been a candidate, having unexpectedly brought Osasuna back up to primera, and that was quite something. Besides, he was there representing the club and in the absence of the president, Luis Sabalza, who had a cold, there could be no one better. Represent the club? For many, especially in the stands at El Sadar, Enrique Martín was the club.
Gravelly-voiced and potty-mouthed, attitudes and hair from a different era, emotional and earthy, famous for tackling a player as he went up the touchline, there’s something about Martín they identify with, and he identifies with them. “I was born an Osasuna fan and I’ll be an Osasuna fan the day I snuff it,” he once said. Born in Pamplona, he came through the youth system to the first team. Five years later, Real Madrid came for him but Osasuna refused to sell, not least because fans wouldn’t let them, and he stayed for 11 years, later becoming technical secretary, youth team coach, B team coach, and first team coach. Twice. In 1996-97, he saved them from relegation from the second division and in 2015-15, he did the same.
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