Sporting’s relegation was all their own work, a result of institutional crisis, social divide and financial limitations. Survival, then, for Depor and LeganésThere were two minutes left on the penultimate night when Fernando Amorebieta approached the bench one last time. Any news? He would have heard if there was and deep down he knew what they were going to say, but he had to ask. By the touchline at Ipurua they waited, phones and radios at the ready, and the scene was repeated in the corner of the ground where 300 fans stood. On the pitch, their minds were drawn to San Mamés or El Madrigal, clinging to a hope they couldn’t see. This time, though, there was no miracle,...
For the first time in weeks, it feels like there will be a relegation battle in Spain after all. And Leganés will be in itSporting Gijón haven’t got a prayer, but they might just have a little hope at last. The miracle arrived in the week they stopped asking for it – and the week they needed it most. The week Granada and Osasuna needed it, too. “Resurrection Sunday”, one headline called it, and it was huge: a match that felt like all their fates hung on it, even with 17 weeks still to go. “We have to win, come what may; we can’t afford another defeat,” the Sporting coach Joan Ferrer, ‘Rubi’, said. “Salvation will depend largely on what...
With the La Liga club struggling, the local-born manager who took them back to the top has departed, saying the team do not reflect him any moreThe revolution ended in tears. “This is hard,” Abelardo Fernández said, voice breaking, fingers rubbing at his eyes and kneading at his temples while the president gently laid a hand on his neck. “I’m not crying because I’m no longer the coach of Sporting Gijón,” he insisted, “I’m crying because of the affection I have for everyone here.” Wednesday morning at Mareo in the green, rolling hills south of Gijón where cowbells ring, and the man who declared “Sporting are revolutionary, like Asturias” , who rescued and represented the club, who often seemed to...