Sevilla—The Revival? (God I Hope So)

By: Ryan | January 24th, 2008

I know I haven’t been around these parts much lately. Normally I attribute it to my horrendous school schedule, but this time, I can’t.

For the last week, I’ve been trying to write a post about my beloved Sevilla, but couldn’t muster up the strength to do so.

I for one don’t know what is going on lately with this club. Everytime we look to have a turn around, we screw things up again. Last week’s 3-2 loss to Getafe in the 92nd minute was just heart-breaking for Sevilla, and for myself and the rest of the fans.

Lets take a quick look at the last three games.

The 0-0 draw to Barça in the Copa del Rey was simply a matter of us not finishing on our chances. We played tight defensively and did not give up the easy goal. We needed a goal and couldn’t get it, even though Chevantón was standing in front of the goal without any care and still couldn’t finish.

The 2-0 loss to Athletic was shocking, but not totally unexpected. Anytime you go up to San Mames, you can be in for a tough game, and a depleted Sevilla, minus Kanouté, Koné and Keita, lacked any sort of scoring power. We knew this was going to happen when they left for Africa. The goals were a bit weak, but we still attacked and had chances, we just couldn’t finish.

The 3-2 loss to Getafe was a result of a great performance by Getafe and a sub-par performance by Sevilla. We managed 2 goals, one by Drago in the 89th minute.

I want to say that once Kanouté, Keita and Koné come back from Africa, all will be well with Sevilla. But why do I have a feeling that isn’t going to be the case.

More After The Jump

Now the news today is Luis Fabiano is toying with a move to the Premiership. He says that he won’t leave in the middle of the season but that he can’t simply toss aside the thought of moving. Where have I heard that before??? (Juande Ramos??)

Talk today turns to a possible replacement for Manolo Jimenez. Sevilla are looking at Ernesto Valverde, current Espanyol coach, or Marcelino, who is the current coach at Racing Santander. I’ll talk about the two of them in a forthcoming post.

How can anyone really badmouth Jimenez? Once you get to a point with your players, they are the ones that are doing the work on the field. The blame doesn’t lie with Jimenez, but it is something with the club right now that’s holding them down.

Maybe it’s just Sevilla’s time to get back to medocrity? Meodcrity shouldn’t be an option for Sevilla after being the current UEFA Cup holders, or Copa del Rey holders, or Supercopa de España holders. Maybe Sevilla rose too high, too fast, being the proverbial star that rises too quickly and fades away.

But really, maybe some of you Offsiders can clue me into what’s going on with Sevilla?? What are your thoughts??? What can we do to improve?

I don’t want to dwell on this too much, but going from third in the league to 11th in one season is a bit disconcerting to me.