Another club with another coach, but rules of the game are same, i.e., fire non performing players and not spare even the coaches. Spanish league club Deportivo La Coruna has given this unwelcomed treatment to its coach Jose Luis Oltra after their miserable performance in the Spanish league. The manager, who joined the club last season, paid the price for letting the club on the bottom with just 12 points in 17 played matches. Despite a good start, north-west club could not maintain what it should have and collected just three points out of its eight matches. With an overnight sacking, Oltra becomes the third coach of Primera Liga to be sacked in this manner. Earlier two other clubs Valencia and Espanyol have fired their coaches Mauricio Pellegrino and Mauricio Pochettino for poor performances of their respective clubs. Club president Augusto Cesar Lendoiro issued a statement post sacking, he said, “We think it’s an ideal time to go ahead with such a change.” He also hinted about a replacement.
The 43 year old former coach of Tenerife and Almeria has been in the news for some time now coz of his probable dismissal and he finally pays the price of his wrong doings. Perhaps, many of his last few matches’ decisions were criticized by everyone, including media. Moreover, it is a critical stage for northwestern Spain club, coz it is just three points away from safety and it has to clash with host Malaga at Riazor stadium on Jan 5, and if losses again, there would a big problem for SuperDepor.
According to preliminary news, Domingos Paciencia has been named as the replacement coach for the rest of season. Domingos, who has worked for Sporting Club Portugal, has experienced a similar treatment when his club could not perform well in the Portuguese league. However, he also has some achievements in his name, like taking Sporting Braga to the second place in Portugal along with qualifying the club for the group stage of the Champions League, and this looks to be the only reason Deportivo has chosen him. So, despite, Oltra has shown his surprise over sacking, Deportivo has taken another step by signing his replacement without losing any time. Its president said over the replacement, “We don’t like changing coach, but we need to kick-start the season and the change of mentality that comes with a new coach.”