The international break is over and every day that goes by we get closer to the 25th of November, the Saturday that, at Mestalla, could be the last for Rafa Benítez as the manager of RC Celta.
As the Celta specialized journalist Andrés Weiss says: “Being a fan of Celta implies 89 minutes of displeasure and a single one of joy”, but this season has been quite the opposite: an overall brilliant match in which the team’s efforts fade away at the last minute.
RC Celta have dropped points during stoppage time in three consecutive matches (a loss against Athletic Club, a draw against Sevilla and another defeat against Girona), and there comes a point in which playing good football is not as important anymore and getting points at any cost has become the priority.
Rafa Benítez arrived at the club in a very important year for its fans, the centenary, with the task of establishing a project based on a winning formula and allowing the fans to dream big. The results have been dreadful. But the continuous good performances still allow any Celta fan to get their hopes up.
The club is now immersed in a maze in which teams teand to take the easy way out: sacking their manager if they do not earn any points.
But, does Benítez have enough pieces to help the team reach greater heights? Is the manager the one scoring the goals or can he just put his players in advantageous positions that they must exploit on the pitch?
Obviously, the results of the team are not independent from a manager who has made interpretation mistakes from time to time (although Celta have competed in all of their matchups) and frequently takes too long to make any substitutions (probably influenced by the lack of resources he has available when it comes to making rotations).
The match against Valencia could make or break RC Celta’s season. They could win their second match away from their home ground and create some distance with the fight for relegation or add another accident to the list that has become a martyrdom for their fans in every coming match day.
Celta must decide what to do. They either bet on a long-term project, with Rafa Benítez or an academy raised coach like Claudio Giráldez (that has lead their second team to fight for the first position in Primera RFEF) as their manager, or roll the dice and pick an inexperienced coach with whom their fans pray for a miracle like the one that took place in 2013 (when they had a 4,01% chance to remain in the First Division).
Both cases have already been defended, Valencia will dictate sentence.
Translated by Nuño Alonso.
Main image: @RCCelta.
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