Jiménez to Stay!!

By: Anthony | May 26th, 2009

I’m in shock right now, I don’t know about anyone else but I for one did not see this coming.

The club announced today that Jiménez’ contract will be extended for one more year meaning he will stay on until the end of the 2009-2010 season. The board met with President José Maria del Nido explaining the positive’s and negative’s in regards to keeping Manolo on board or finding a suitable replacement. Monchi was apparently the most keen to keep Jiménez on and his opinion, being a highly respectable figure in Spanish football and most importantly in our organization pushed more weight than that of other board members. By the end of the board meeting it was said that a unanimous decision was made in favour of keeping Jiménez for at least another year and putting certain clauses and targets in his contract which could see him stay longer.

I have been a huge Manolo hater this year and sometimes rightfully so; his lack of inspiration and dumbfounding tactics certainly gave the fans and upper management every reason to be concerned.

It seems that all of that has now been forgotten since we clinched third place this past weekend with a 1-0 win over Depor. That in turn secures our direct qualification for next year’s Champions League which was our original and main goal going into this season.

Jiménez took us to the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey where we were demolished by Athletic Bilbao and we also bowed out of the UEFA Cup in the group stages where we finished 3rd behind Sampdoria and Standard Liege. These two massive upsets alone were enough to have us fans out in numbers calling for Manolo’s head but it seems that this overshadowed everything positive he had helped us achieve in Nervión.

We got what we wanted in Champions League football for next season and it’s a bonus to directly qualify so technically this season was a successful one. Not only did Jiménez achieve our goal for this year but it should also be noted that his heart lies deep within the club, something you don’t find in many coaches these days.

This was Jiménez’ first real season in charge after taking the reigns over from Juande Ramos last season when he left us stranded and moved to Tottenham. He was coached us for a total of 90 games, winning 51, drawing 13 and losing 26 which all in all gives him a win percentage of 56.66% – not bad at all. Those statistics alone suggest that he should be kept on as manager but it is not a question about achieving good results, but rather great ones. Outside of the “top two” who of course consist of Barcelona and Real Madrid we are the best team in Spain as suggested in the past several seasons and “good” results aren’t satisfactory enough anymore, we need to be challenging and aiming to push up the table and in Europe.

In regards to the financial aspect of this deal, it is a good bit of business by President Del Nido. Manolo Jiménez is one of the 5 lowest payed coaches in La Liga having previously been in charge of our academy team, Sevilla Atlético. He will no doubt receive some sort of a pay rise but he definitely won’t be turning into Bill Gates overnight meaning we still have expendable cash to play around with in the summer transfer window.

Speaking of transfers, I think we should also note that a third place finish in the league is actually a better result than it appears to be considering we lost Dani Alves, Christian Poulsen and Seydou Keita last summer – three massive pieces to our previous hugely successful squad. Jiménez played the cards he was dealt and although he didn’t always trump when he had the opportunity, he has ended up with the winning hand.

Del Nido however did confirm that we would not have a large budget this year so the odds of actually winning the Champions League are slim but he emphasized that there should be no doubt in regards to the fact that we will definitely strengthen the squad for next year. We have always been known for finding the hidden gems of the world like Fabiano, Kanouté and Alves so I am not worried in regards to our transfer policy going into the summer window, especially having Monchi calling the shots. Our golden days a few years back was a team who had solid chemistry, not filled with superstars and we all know where that took us both domestically and in Europe. If Monchi and Del Nido can add some talent to the squad and give Jiménez sufficient time to integrate them into the squad, we should be looking pretty for next season. Obviously the right-back spot and a solid central midfielder are our main priorities but another striker seems imminent and same with a central defender.

This may not be a bad thing for us and actually with all things considered, I am happy to see Jiménez stay. It is better to imply the same coaching style next year to keep that consistency within the squad rather than bring a total newcomer in and have to start from scratch.

¡¡Qué bien Manolo!!