The resurgence of ''Super Depor''.

Dr Gonzo

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PRELUDE
Pedro Manuel remembered vaguely to say the least, the events following the relegation of Deportivo La Coruna’s relegation to the third tier (Segunda Division B) of Spanish football. Basically, he remembered entering the Tribuna bar, two blocks away for Riazor, after the game that sealed their fate.

He remembered he had a flash of the glorious years, when they were crowded campeones of Spain, them, a small team from a relatively small city, toppled the giants of Madrid and Barcelona. The games in Champions League, the epic battles against A.C. Milan when they overturned a 4-1 loss by winning 4-0, the players he had seen wearing the blue-white stripes, Rivaldo, Makay, Valeron, Djukic, Naybet,Djalminia, Bebeto, Tristan, Donato, Da Silva and so many others. This was not 50 years ago, it was 15 years ago, still fresh, still painful when you compared it with what was happening now. Now, they are playing in a semi-professional division for God’s sake!

Then, he started drinking his sorrow away, along with other sad and depressed Depor fans, who couldn’t yet understand what just happened. Maybe they didn’t want to. But, they were down and that was a fact.
He had no idea how many beers he had, when he decided to give a speech, right then and there in the bar. He had no idea what he wanted to say to his fellow drinkers but he knew the speech will be about his beloved Depor and how the tide will turn and they will become Super Depor again one day. He just couldn’t find the words but he was sure that they will come to him as soon as he could lift himself from the stool he was sitting. He tried, he really tried, to find his balance, but alcohol and gravity took over and he fell.
With a bang.
Just like his beloved team.
And he couldn’t remember anything else.
 
INTRODUCTION

I was inspired to write this story by this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObeR8meCaTc
so i think it will be unfair not to mention them.

A few things for the team first: by https://www.90min.com/posts/the-ris...from-super-depor-s-la-liga-glory-01e8pnts2mrp
Deportivo La Coruña were crowned champions of Spain for the first and only time in their rollercoaster history on 19 May 2000, a fitting way to define the ‘Super Depor’ era that had seemed destined to sadly end without the success it deserved.
A Coruña is not a massive place like Madrid or Barcelona, or even Valencia or Sevilla, and only just creeps into the list of the 20 most populous cities in Spain. Similarly, Deportivo are not among La Liga’s historic giants and today are struggling in the Segunda B division (3rd tier of Spanish Football).

Very close to half of the club’s history has been out of the top flight in Spain. A golden era that began with promotion for the first time in the late 1940s and peaked with a second place finish in 1949/50 was later followed by a frustrating existence as a yo-yo club in the 1960s.
By 1981, having been relegated to the third tier of Spanish football for the second time in seven years, Deportivo were in danger of fading from the scene completely. In 1987/88, only a very late goal on the final day of the season prevented relegation to the third tier for the third time.
At the same time, Deportivo were in extreme financial trouble. Relegation in 1988 might have killed them off completely, but then things changed for the better in a rapid way under the presidency of the initially reluctant Augusto César Lendoiro.
The early 1990s brought promotion back to La Liga for the first time in 19 years. And while Deportivo initially struggled in the top flight and only avoided immediate relegation by beating Real Betis in a two-legged playoff, they went on to challenge for the title the very next year in 1992/93.
The capture of Brazil star Bebeto, who won that season’s Pichichi Trophy with 29 La Liga goals, was a significant one. Future club legend Mauro Silva had also arrived from Brazil in 1992 and a perfect balance between rising stars and established La Liga veterans brought in was found.

In 1993/94, Deportivo should have won La Liga. Only a weak missed penalty from Miroslav Djukic in the closing stages of the final game of the season cost them – the 0-0 draw they got wasn’t good enough and Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona ‘Dream Team’ took the title on goal difference.
Another second place finish followed in 1994/95, with the club also third in 1996/97. But the ‘Super Depor’ era looked to be waning by the end of the decade. In three out of five seasons in the mid to late 1990s they finished outside the top five in La Liga and as low as 12th in 1997/98.
Bebeto had left in 1996, returning to Brazil after 86 goals in four seasons. But, crucially, the club got a new lease of life when Javier Irueta was appointed manager in 1998.
Recruitment at that time remained smart, yet moved away from the influx of Brazilians that had brought Bebeto, Silva, Djalminha and Flavio Conceicao to the club, the latter three of whom still remained, and towards younger Spanish or existing Spain-based players.
Step forward Spanish trio Victor, Manuel Pablo and Enrique Romero.

Serbian midfielder Slavisa Jokanovic and Dutch forward Roy Makaay both came from Tenerife in 1998 and 1999 respectively. Argentine forward Turu Flores came from Las Palmas, fellow countryman Gabriel Schurrer from Racing Santander, Portuguese striker Pauleta from Salamanca and Moroccan centre-back Noureddine Naybet from across the border in Portugal.
Deportivo attacked the 1999/00 season. Only a late equaliser from Raul stopped them beating Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in September, while Barcelona were beaten 2-1 at the Riazor in October thanks to a double from Makaay, who netted 22 times in the league that season.
Deportivo thrashed Madrid 5-2 at home in February and beat Valencia in March. Both clubs would represent Spain in the 2000 Champions League final in Paris at the end of the season.
Deportivo sealed their historic title on the final day of the season by beating Espanyol. They only needed a point to do it, but where glory cruelly eluded them six years earlier, the team made absolutely sure this time and won 2-0. Donato, part of the 1993/94 side, and Makaay scored.

It is the 1990s that are more associated with the ‘Super Depor’ tag. But while securing La Liga glory in May 2000 was the ultimate target achieved, it was not the end of the story.
It paved the way for a more consistent era of Deportivo strength. In the 1990s, second and third place finishes had been tempered with the occasional ninth or 12th, but between 1999 and 2004, the club were a top three La Liga side for five consecutive seasons. No other side matched that.
The title winners were boosted during these years by the arrivals of big players like Diego Tristan, Sergio, Walter Pandiani, Joan Capdevila, Jorge Andrade, Jose Molina, Albert Luque, Aldo Duscher and perhaps most of all by Juan Carlos Valeron.

In their first ever Champions League season in 2000/01, Deportivo reached the quarter finals, topping both group stages in the process at the expense of Juventus and AC Milan.
They again reached the last eight in 2001/02. Irureta’s team fell to Manchester United at that stage, although they had beaten the Red Devils home and away in the first group stage and got to the knockouts at the expense of both Juventus and Arsenal in the second.
All told, Deportivo faced Manchester United six times across those two Champions League seasons, won three of the meetings and lost three. They were, without a doubt at that time, one of the best and most potent sides in all of Europe.
After 39 goals across all competitions in the 2002/03 campaign, Makaay was actually poached by Bayern Munich for close to €20m, a club record fee for the Germans.
Still, Deportivo went to the Champions League semi-finals without their former top scorer, producing one of the competition's all-time great comebacks in the quarter-finals to beat AC Milan 5-4 on aggregate.
In the end, it was only a single penalty across two legs against Jose Mourinho’s Porto that stopped them from potentially going all the way.

After that, things began to unravel for Deportivo. The break-up of a second great team was inevitable and they fell away after 2004 to become more a mid-table La Liga side, finishing no higher than seventh between then and their eventual return to the Segunda Division in 2011.
Like many others, Deportivo have since paid the price for consistently suspect recruitment and poor leadership. The early 2010s saw another yo-yo existence, while four consecutive seasons back in La Liga thereafter all ended in a relegation fight, falling back down to the second tier in 2018 with Clarence Seedorf (who had been on the end of the European comeback at Milan 14 years prior) as manager.
Now, 32 years after a late escape saved them from Segunda Division B, Deportivo are staring down that same third tier barrel once more.

Our story begins with Deportivo being in the Segunda Division B 1st group....
 
Chapter 1-A great start


001 SD the start.jpg



It is clear for me than Depor does not belong to the 3rd tier of the Spanish football. The first thing i tried to do, is come up with a tactic that would enable the team to paly attacking football and dominate the opponent and breeze ourselves to promotion ASAP.
tactic.jpg


i call this one ''Sniper'' because it tries to utilise the role of Regista as a Quarteback really, finding the Raumdeuter on the left with long though balls, while we try to apply pressure on the right, thus creating space for the RMD to move and operate. No transfers were made, firstly because the team does not have any money and secondly because there is enough quality to see us through this league. Additionaly, i had decided that this season will be a test for every player involved in order to have a clear view of what i can expect from them in the Segunda B, next year. Hopefully.

Preseaon went very well, no real problems with injuries and some decent results in the series of friendlies
friendlies.jpg


and the team started to gel, quite nicely. We were more than ready for the season and i wanted the team to start making a statement from the very beginning.
And a statement we did! From the start of the season to December 13th we were unbeaten and quite unplayable!
14 straight wins
10 clean sheets
36 goals for and 6 against
Top of our league and a Regional Cup to boost, my first objective which was to make this team start winning things again, was on the right track!
the run.jpg

1st silverware Dec2020.jpg


Diego Rolan
with 10 goals and 2 assist in 14games and Borja Galan (usually playing as an RMD) with 8 goals in 11games lead our offense
while Mujaid Sadick is the solid DC every good team neads. The experienced Costarican, Celsio Borges is our Regista.

But, the first ''big'' test comes in the Copa Del Rey with Cartagena coming to town, a Segunda B team, at the bottom of the table, but still, a league above us.
Copa del Rey 1st round.jpg


And they destroyed us, 1-4!!
We were losing 0-3 in the 32nd minute. A penalty by the 39year old(ffs) Ruben Castro in the 3rd minute, another goal by Jack Harper three minutes later, Alex Gallar made it 0-3 before halftime and i just could not believe it. Overconfidence, arrogance, you can call it what you want, but we were out of the cup with a humbling and humiliating defeat. We were so outplayed, i just couldnt believe it....

The match against Unionistas was the last of the first round. We won 2-0 and in the end of first round we were sitiing quite comfrotably, unbeaten, in the top of our group.
But the defeat in the cup, a rout really, left me wondering... The winter transfers were just around the corner...
 
Chapter 2-Road to promotion.

One of the first priorities of the club, was to extend the contracts of key players in order to ensure that they would stay in the team and be able to built something. So, extending Diego Rolan's (AF) and Musaid Sadick's (DC) contracts to 2024 was key for us. They took out a big chunck of our wage budget but i had no choice really, if i wanted to be competitive.
In the winter transfer market since we didnt have any real money to spend and the team really didnt need anything to secure promotion for what i've seen so far in mid-season, i decided to look for free players that could help us in the next, tougher season.
So in June 2021 the following will be joining us:

Emanuel Iniguez DCR/WBR
Emanuel Iniguez.jpg



Carlton Morris Striker
Carlton Morris.jpg



Antonio Sivera Gk

Antonio Siver.jpg


Manuel Ugarte
MC(absolute bargain, his contract was expiring in July and as soon he was available to sing for free, i literally nicked him)
Manuel Ugarte.jpg


And last but not least Socratis Papastathopoulos DC, a little aged but i am counting in his experience and his leadership
Socratis Pap.jpg



But, all the above have to wait for the summer.
The first game of the 2021in Riazor, was a blunder. Lost 0-1 by Compostella was a bit of a shock really, since we played way better than them.
Two consecutive wins on the road, restored our team confidence but it was shortlived because we losta again at home, by Salamanca 1-2!

The team responded great in February, got 4 wins out of 4 games, scoring 12 and conceding only 1.

jan-feb.jpg


March 2021 didnt start that great (lost at home by Valladolid B 1-2) but this defeat was the last one till the end of the season!
In fact, we had one draw against Burgos at home and won the other eight remaining games running a streak of 7 wins straight that carried us to Segunda division, with flying colours!

end of season.jpg


Depor wins it!.jpg



After many years, the future is the Depor camp, seems bright!
 
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