Celta Vigo’s rebirth makes them a surprise in LaLiga

There’s a crystal clear reason why Celta Vigo finished the second round of matches top of LaLiga, playing beautiful, thrilling football in front of a full, noisy, proud Balaidos stadium.

A reason, too, why Monday’s thrilling 4-3 defeat at Villarreal — in which Dani Parejo’s winning goal in the 10th minute of injury time sent the home side top of the table above the visitors after three games — won’t change a single thing. Not the ambition, the bravery, the three-man defence. Nor the idea that this little seaside club from Spain’s north-western fishing territory can actually tilt at winning a trophy and, in the meantime, give all of us glorious, uplifting entertainment.

That reason is Marian Mouriño — a Spaniard educated in Orlando and Miami, veteran of business in Mexico, one of only two female club presidents in LaLiga and something of an eight-month whirlwind at the club she adores and which she’s making pretty inspirational.

On taking over from her 80-year-old father just before the turn of the year, she wasted no time in taking Celta by the scruff of the neck, shaking off the cobwebs and, ruthlessly, scrapping the last two big projects that her idiosyncratic, out-of-touch dad had instituted in the final months of his 17-year presidency. Sentiment is patently a swearword in that family.

Namely, she sacked Rafa Benítez, historically the club’s best-paid and most high-profile coach. She then dispensed with the idea that Celta’s entire football philosophy should be part-time guided from a distance (950 miles) by the Paris Saint-Germain director of football, Luís Campos, in what kind of looked like him turning his mind to Celta Vigo in his spare time.

“No bloody way!” said the 49-year-old who was born in Madrid, grew up in North and Central America but who’s devoted to making Celta Spain’s most exciting club outside the big three.

Out went Benítez with the club two points off relegation — crash, bang, wallop. In came academy coach Claudio Giráldez, with the Sky Blues then winning or drawing seven of their final 10 matches last season and starting the first two of this season with full points and glorious, champagne football.

Out went Campos and in came ex-LAFC football director Marco Antonio Garcés — a personal bet of Ms. Mouriño, which flowed from a visit to Los Angeles to study him working at The LAFC Performance Centre at California State University so as to reassure herself that she was about to employ a fearless, ruthlessly ambitious person.

How is it going? Well, so far this season there hasn’t been a better piece of skill in the 20 LaLiga matches than when Williot Swedberg, Celta’s slender Swedish creative magician, flicked a no-look assist into the path of Iago Aspas to ensure a win over Alavés on match day one.

A moment of genius from the same vibrant imagination and skill set which Ronaldinho, Zinedine Zidane, Lionel Messi or Francesco Totti possessed. That good.

And it’s part of how president Mouriño wants her boys in blue to play — the other part being music to her, and the fans’, ears.

Her mantra is: “We are committed to being braver, we want to win every single game. We go out to win every single time. That’s our unshakeable mentality. We are all super-clear on this — the coach, the director of football and the board.

“It’s no longer good enough to win a match and then as far as the next game is concerned the attitude is ‘well…. let’s see what we can do…’ No! When I took over we organised lots of focus groups and all of the feedback was that Celta had become something neither the fans, nor we, recognised — something a bit sad! The self-image had somehow become that we were a team which would suffer, which was resilient, which battled to survive.

“Instead, from when I took over in December, we want to be brave, we wanted our stadium to be a place were teams were afraid to come to, where every rival knows that they won’t take points away easily!”

Obviously, I don’t know which club each of you reading this supports, but we don’t all follow the big clubs, the ones who regularly win trophies. So, reading those words — doesn’t the blood course faster through your veins? Isn’t that the message you’d want from the people who run your club, who impose the culture in the training ground and the dressing room?

To play well, play to win, have faith in the academy, make the stadium one hell of a test for every visiting rival, talk to the fans, listen to their views — to be brave, be ambitious and don’t settle for anything other than a fierce, winning attitude to every single challenge?

My own view is that anyone, any owner, director, player, manager, coach, or fan who doesn’t inherently think like that should suffer an immediate, irrevocable life-ban from our sport — which is why, even when they inevitably hit bumpy times this season, I’m attracted to what Mouriño, Garcés and coach Giráldez are trying to achieve.

There are too many in football who think, train and play with percentages on their mind — “stay in your lane,” “don’t over-reach,” “keep the defeat within reasonable proportions when you visit the Bernabéu, Metropolitano or Camp Nou”, “we play in another mini-league, we don’t need to compete with the big boys” and, worst of all, “defend, defend, defend, then blame the ref.”

After Celta soundly thrashed Valencia on Friday night, a genuinely uplifting, skillful and powerful performance, their all-time club legend, Aspas, commented on his scoring and goal-assist performance: “Basically since Claudio Giráldez took over I’ve been enjoying myself!”

It shows. While Benítez was mired in a contest of egos and trying to impose himself on Aspas (along the lines of “this is my club now and I’m going to bench you or isolate you as much as I like in order to win this battle of wills”) Giráldez has reconstructed the playing style to ensure that their genius 37-year-old thrives. It’s been gorgeous to watch.

Twelve goals or assists from Aspas in the 12 games since Giráldez, who’s a year-and-a-half younger than the team’s best player, took over in March. The coach has been a special project for the woman who’s revitalising Celta at hurricane speed.

“Immediately I took over I started talking to him and asked him for lots of information: how he viewed the first team under Benítez, how he’d handle it if he, one day, were in charge?,” said Mouriño.

“It was evident that Claudio was someone Celta could not afford to lose. I worked to make sure that he knew we valued him. That he felt involved in the project. When the change was needed because Rafa [Benítez] wasn’t getting three points often enough, I looked at the history of clubs who’d appointed from their academy and chosen a young guy who perhaps didn’t have such an amount of experience and what the conclusions were from those other clubs having done so.

“What was clear was that Claudio ticked so many of the right boxes. The fans loved him, his football in the youth team was brave and fun, he was hard-working, clear-minded, he knew what he wanted, he was demanding of his players and staff, he loved Celta and he’s ambitious.”

These are the perfect components for a club now run by a dynamic, ambitious, fully-focused leader who wants glory for Celta Vigo and, long term, is going to provide those who follow LaLiga with loads of enjoyment. Get on board now folks.