I never thought I’d feel this low, this empty. As a football fan, I've felt the pain of losing a Champions League final, of being humiliated by bitter rivals, of last minutes losses, and of the sale of great players, but this is something else. There's a desperation to the feeling. Sitting around waiting for the league table to change, for something to change. Nothing changes and Real Betis have sunk into Segunda, and it's been coming. Four years of fighting relegation has finally taken its toll.
Edit: I was hoping this would've been somewhat therapeutic, but it wasn't, but bear with me.
Why did it go wrong?
It feels like an intentional sabotage. I mean, you couldn’t have planned it any better.
Manager:
First thing’s first. Nogues will not have his contract renewed now that he has relegated the club, and the only way to bring some optimism to the situation is by handing Lorenzo Serra Ferrer a four-year contract, giving him two years to bring Betis back into La Liga.
Squad:
GK: Ricardo, Casto
DR: Nelson, Damia, Ilic
DC: Juanito, Nano, Rivas
DC: Melli, Lima
DL: Monzon, Vega, Oscar Lopez
DMC: Aurelio, Juande, Canas
MC: Capi, Arzu, Rivera
AMR: Edú, Juanma, Odonkor
AMC: Sergio Garcia, Emana
AML: Gonzalez, Caffa, Xisco, Juanlu, Segura
FW: Oliveira, Pavone, Dani
That's a list of every player currently on our books. Had we avoided relegation, we also could have officially confirmed the capture of the following players on free-transfers: Goitia (Malaga), Bruno (Almeria), Iriney (Almeria), and Haggui (Leverkusen). They are options no more. (Both Almeria men having just come out to say so.)
Steps to take:
[center]CASTO/Adrian
DAMIA/Isidoro - MELLI/Alex Ortiz - LIMA/Rivas - VEGA/Toni
CANAS/Signing - JUANDE/Signing
JUANMA/Israel - CAPI/Rodri - CAFFA/Juanlu
SIGNING/Segura/Dani[/center]
Reasons to be (foolishly) optimistic:
[center]
We’ll be back, and I can’t wait to see you guys when we get there. So, while I wipe away a tear from my cheek, as the last few hours have been so incredibly depressing, I ask you; join me, as we go on a discovery of Segunda, conquer the beast, and come right back up for more La Liga fun.
Now, more than ever: Viva er Beti manque pierda![/center]
Edit: I was hoping this would've been somewhat therapeutic, but it wasn't, but bear with me.
Why did it go wrong?
- Lack of investment in training facilities.
- Segregation of nationalities.
- Offering six year deals to the worst players on the books (Juanlu), not offering any deals at all to the best players (Edú).
- Ostracising players from training.
- Preparing for a campaign by playing friendlies against teams you've never heard of.
- Pre-season training in weather that leaves you spending one third of the time drinking water, another third rest, when all the time you should be training. Too cheap to send them to a training camp somewhere more bearable in Europe.
- Having 32 players on the books when 22 (+ maybe three B team players) would suffice.
- Five managers in three years of football, two being random B team promotions.
- Employing a puppet president.
- Pretending to have buyers for the club.
- Continuous investment in attack and wing-backs, when the glaring weaknesses for five years have been in the centre of midfield and the centre of defence. The question will be asked, how did a team with Betis' quality get relegated? Well, you can have whatever attackers you want in a side, but when you're essentially void of a midfield and defence, then you will not win much. It's not possible.
- Pumping profits from Betis into your foreign companies. Surely it's the other way around that sounds better?
- Players who just didn't give a fuck.
- Lopera.
- Lopera.
- Lopera.
It feels like an intentional sabotage. I mean, you couldn’t have planned it any better.
Manager:
First thing’s first. Nogues will not have his contract renewed now that he has relegated the club, and the only way to bring some optimism to the situation is by handing Lorenzo Serra Ferrer a four-year contract, giving him two years to bring Betis back into La Liga.
Squad:
GK: Ricardo, Casto
DR: Nelson, Damia, Ilic
DC: Juanito, Nano, Rivas
DC: Melli, Lima
DL: Monzon, Vega, Oscar Lopez
DMC: Aurelio, Juande, Canas
MC: Capi, Arzu, Rivera
AMR: Edú, Juanma, Odonkor
AMC: Sergio Garcia, Emana
AML: Gonzalez, Caffa, Xisco, Juanlu, Segura
FW: Oliveira, Pavone, Dani
That's a list of every player currently on our books. Had we avoided relegation, we also could have officially confirmed the capture of the following players on free-transfers: Goitia (Malaga), Bruno (Almeria), Iriney (Almeria), and Haggui (Leverkusen). They are options no more. (Both Almeria men having just come out to say so.)
Steps to take:
- Beg Ricardo Oliveira and Sergio Garcia to stay. It won't work, but start from there.
- Remove Juanito, Rivera, and Edú as they move from the club on free-transfers
- Remove Monzon as his loan deal is up and we won't be able to shell out money for him now.
- Remove Ricardo, Nelson, Aurelio, Sergio Garcia, Emana, and Gonzalez. They are international quality, and won't hang around.
- While Oliveira did stay with Zaragoza for half a season, there's no doubt he won't want to go back to Segunda. Remove.
- Pavone, Xisco, Odonkor, Ilic, and Arzu have all asked to leave already during the season. Bye.
- Oscar Lopez and Nano aren't even good enough for Segunda. Bye.
- Bring back Caffa and Dani from their loan deals and use them. Possibly re-register the likes of Juanlu as backup.
- A bit of a reshuffle.
- Christ, this is depressing. Anyway, moving on. Bring in the following players from the B/youth side: Adrian, Isidoro, Alex Ortiz, Toni, Israel, and Rodri. All who have played in La Liga and Copa del Rey in the past few years.
- Sign the very best the Madrid and Barcelona B teams have to offer, as well as one goalscorer. We need goals to get back into La Liga. Goals, goals, goals. There's no reason to believe we can't get maybe €60-70 million from selling players, so we do need to invest some of that money.
[center]CASTO/Adrian
DAMIA/Isidoro - MELLI/Alex Ortiz - LIMA/Rivas - VEGA/Toni
CANAS/Signing - JUANDE/Signing
JUANMA/Israel - CAPI/Rodri - CAFFA/Juanlu
SIGNING/Segura/Dani[/center]
Reasons to be (foolishly) optimistic:
- We could win a title next season. That’d be fucking cool.
- It allows us to start at 0. To create a new ethos and direction for the club.
- It may just give this club the reality check it has needed for such a long time.
- No derby with Sevilla next year, but there is one with Cádiz. Much more beautiful and colourful. (Scraping the bottom of the barrel here.)
- This might just have been one step too far for Lopera. He may not get away with this one. LOPERA, VETE YA!
- It'll give players from our B and youth teams a chance to step up to the plate. Time unearth a gem or two?
[center]
We’ll be back, and I can’t wait to see you guys when we get there. So, while I wipe away a tear from my cheek, as the last few hours have been so incredibly depressing, I ask you; join me, as we go on a discovery of Segunda, conquer the beast, and come right back up for more La Liga fun.
Now, more than ever: Viva er Beti manque pierda![/center]
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