Spartak and Guillermo Abascal are now a thing of the past, a relationship that will most likely never be repeated. But after leaving the Moscow club, the 35-year-old coach, of course, did not put an end to his career. He returned to his homeland to manage a Spanish national team for the first time. Previously, Abascal worked only abroad: in Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Russia. The appointment to Granada is probably Guillermo’s biggest challenge: how does he face it?
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Abascal certainly dreams of making a name for himself as a coach in the Primera Division. But there is still no interest from there, so I had to take what they give me. And they called him up to the team, which at the end of last season occupied the last 20th place in the elite and flew to Segunda. Now Guillermo must return Granada to Primera. In principle, this Club is no stranger to floating between different divisions of the Spanish Championship: it already rose to the top in 2023, 2019, 2011 and before.
Granada signed Abascal to a short-term contract, for just one season. It turns out that the Club does not have 100% confidence in the coach’s candidacy, unless, of course, it was Guillermo’s own initiative. In the press conference dedicated to his appointment, Abascal described himself with two words: “emotion” and “passion”, and he also admired the fact that the entire city supported Granada.
Last season, no coaches stayed at the club. Granada started the championship under the leadership of Paco López, who was dismissed in November. The next coach, Uruguayan Alexander Medina, lasted until March and the team finished the season with José Ramón Sandoval. Even this specialist did not stay behind after the departure.
During the summer transfer market, Granada earned 20.8 million euros from the transfers of its players. However, the most expensive was the sale of Brian Zaragoza, who left for Bayern in the winter market. The agreement was then formalised as a lease contract with an obligation to buy for 13 million euros. Other important players who left the team were goalkeepers Augusto Batalha (returned after his loan to River Plate) and André Ferreira (Valladolid), defender Bruno Mendes (Toluca) and midfielder Gerard Gumbau (Rayo Vallecano). But the Club kept its key figures.
Granada spent just 1.1 million euros on the new arrivals. They paid 500,000 euros to Eibar for goalkeeper Luca Zidane (Zinedine’s son) and 600,000 euros to Tenerife for defender Loïc Williams. Eight more players arrived as free agents or on loan, including the recently signed Reinier from Real Madrid and Georgiy Tsitaishvili from Dynamo Kyiv. Abascal’s team also included midfielder Manu Trigueros, a well-known player from Villarreal. All in all, a good selection for the task of returning to the top flight.
Granada started the championship with a home game against Albacete. Abascal opted for a 4-4-2 tactical system. The match was easy at the beginning: Miguel Rubio put the home team ahead in the 29th minute. However, at the end of the first half, a mistake occurred: Granada lost twice in six minutes. In the end, Abascal’s team lost, significantly outperforming their opponents in shots (20:9, on target – 9:3).
Guillermo Abascal in Granada
Photo: Joaquin Corchero/Europa Press via Getty Images
After the defeat against Albacete, Abascal uttered some strange words, trying to figuratively convey to the fans that the path to victory involves overcoming failures:
“Sometimes you have to eat shit to taste ham. We have to realise: there are things you can control and others you can’t. We conceded a goal after a throw-in, it was a lack of concentration. We will try to do better what is under our control…
The referee should have equal conditions in the decisions, but that was not the case. After the first half we lacked concentration. We dominated, we attacked, but we were not effective. If we are efficient next time, the result will be different.”
For the ham, Abascal and his team went to El Ferrol in the round of 16 to play a match against local team Racing. There Guillermo really tasted victory. The coach kept the same system and the visitors won 1:0 thanks to a goal by Ricard Sánchez 10 minutes from the end. At the same time, this time Granada lost in shots (11:17, but on goal, 6:2).
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In the third half, Abascal once again cooked up something unpleasant for his fans. Granada lost at home to Huesca again, 1-3. The home team missed the first goal in the middle of the first half, and at the end of the hour, the opponent scored the second. Then Martín Ongla, with his quick return goal, gave Granada hope again, however, in the 90+8 minute, Huesca finished off the opponent. In terms of shots, Abascal’s team did not really outperform the guests, although they were forced to win back most of the match (14:13, 5:5 on goal).
During the match against Huesca, some fans shouted for Abascal’s resignation. Guillermo himself admitted that the team has problems with standards. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Except that if at Spartak it was not possible to score from set pieces, here it is about defending against the opponents’ throw-ins.
“We are worried about the set pieces,” admitted Abascal. “They have conceded four goals in two home games. We will pay more attention to this aspect than we do now.”
Two consecutive home defeats at the start of the Segunda season are an anti-record in Granada’s history. This is definitely not what Abascal was hired for. The team is in 12th place. The goal is to get into the top 2 to be able to go straight to Primera. At the very least, finish in the top 6 and reach the playoffs to get a third ticket to the first division.
Murto Uzuni, Granada
Photo: Joaquin Corchero/Europa Press via Getty Images
In terms of squad value, Granada is second in Segunda, only surpassed by Almería, according to Transfermarkt. All players in the team are valued at a total of 47.7 million euros. Abascal has nine foreign players at his disposal, including four players from different national teams.
However, the results are not encouraging and the criticism of the team’s current play is not what the former Spartak coach would like to hear and read.
“Guillermo Abascal’s team played a disastrous match without a roadmap and did not know how to react when Huesca put them in a difficult situation,” writes Ahora Granada. “Granada once again embarrassed its fans… The red-and-whites concentrated on the ball and controlled it. But they did not have enough offensive potential to score. In the second half, Granada was in a hurry, had no plan of action and did not know how to organize the game that was expected of them.”
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The journalists sum up: Granada has names, but no team. It seems that Abascal will not stay longer at the Spanish club than Dejan Stankovic at Spartak. Today another test awaits him: a home game against Deportivo. If after that there are still three points left, the resignation is definitely close.
