I think ultimately what it comes down to is the support of the player which was clearly noticeable during the celebrations after the Depor game. Him and Palop seem to have quite the “brotherly love” thing going on. Consistency is key and like you noted Jeremy, Real Mierda throw millions at their coaching staff every year and still aren’t progressing anywhere.

I’m not going to lie, I was definitely one of those fans calling for Manolo’s head throughout much of the season but when I actually sat down and thought about this past year and analyzed everything properly, this makes much more sense than firing him. Now with full confidence from the board, hopefully the fans will get behind him too and seeing as the players clearly like him, he’s in a good position to call the shots without worrying about anyone breathing down his neck. His tactics are questionable at more times than not but we’ve achieved the results albeit sometimes playing boring football but none the less, we finished where we aimed to.

I guess I should have also noted that Kanouté and Fabiano only started playing together towards the end of the season because they suffered with many injuries throughout and never really had the chance like they did last season to work their magic together. Fingers crossed that they keep fit for next season and we’ll see some Ramos-era football being played again with goals galore.

anyway, for the next year, i hope:

1. jimenez gets lots of input about who we pick up over the summer (and, as was probably more important last summer, who we sell). next season will be his first with HIS team, if he gets a voice in how it’s built.

2. the club honors their end of the contract. due to some of the questionable tactical calls this last year and our late-season let-down (or the perception of those things), i’m guessing the “fire the coach” folks will be operating with a pretty short fuse. unless it’s very justified, i’d hate to see us change leadership mid-season. manolo has earned us a very strong final position this season, and i hope he gets the slack he deserves from that, even if we start slow in la liga and drop our first CL game.

3. finally, i hope jimenez’s experiments in a wingless formation are not an indication that he’d like to see less of the width play we’re so adept at, or some new tactical approach. i LIKE the way we play, and i think we’ve got the talent at those positions that compliments our style. i don’t think it’s likely jimenez has this in mind, but it’d be a shame if he tried to overhaul things too much.

4. uh…SILVERWARE!!! : )