End of stage at Girona: Míchel Sánchez does not continue after relegation to Second Division

GironaMíchel Sánchez is no longer the coach of Girona, after the Girona club and the coach from Vallecas have parted ways with the relegation to the Second Division. Míchel sadly ends a beautiful spell on the bench. This is the first official move by the entity, which has decided that the sporting director, Quique Cárcel, will continue to lead the project from the offices. Who will replace the man from Madrid is currently unknown. His assistants, Salva Fúnez, David Porcel, and Juan Carlos Balaguer, also leave Montilivi.

Míchel is a special coach, and he has been the protagonist of the entity's most glorious era, with an enviable track record that has made him the second coach with the most games in Girona's history, with 221. He took over in the Second Division five seasons ago, promoted them to the First Division on his first try, and even qualified them for the Champions League, in a fantastic 2023-24 season where the team finished third with 81 points, the prelude to visiting European cities like Paris or Milan. The people of Girona will never have enough words to thank him for everything he has made them experience.

Míchel is not only loved for that: above all, he is loved for a way of being that has captivated all the white-and-red fans, who embraced him from the first moment and turned to him as if he were a lifeguard after many years of suffering. The first step the coach from Vallecas took to win everyone's admiration was to use Catalan in his day-to-day life, as an exercise in integration into a city that will forever be a little his. The second was to put into practice an extraordinary football that generated absolute consensus worldwide: Girona, at times, played like angels. Montilivi will not forget that either, not accustomed to seeing their team play with a bib, because it bordered on perfection.

But just at the moment when Míchel's work touched the sky, the fall began. A disastrous planning when there was more money in the strongbox, combined with poor sporting decisions and the lack of flexibility of a coach who dug in his heels in a very specific way of doing things despite not having the right pieces to implement it, meant that the project was on the verge of exploding last season, when Girona avoided relegation to the Second Division by a single point.

It seemed impossible to do worse, but this year the club has achieved it. The squad was not ready until well into September, after throwing away several matchdays that, at the end of the championship, proved to be crucial. Míchel, at one point, raised his voice; but that was a mirage, because he almost ended up apologizing: with an increasingly sad demeanor, for the first time he showed clear signs of weariness. The external message, the more delicate the situation, the emptier and more contradictory it was. The internal one did not solve anything either.

If everything is put on a scale, the end is painful, cruel and undeserved given the magnitude of the feats achieved in the first part of a cycle that will be part of the history books of Girona. But it cannot be said that the relegation is unfair, because no one knew how to turn around a situation of free fall. Not even Míchel, who could do everything before, managed to rescue the club from an agonizing relegation.

Quique Cárcel continues

The news is piling up at Montilivi, because to the coach's future is added the future of sporting director Quique Cárcel, questioned and externally pointed out as one of the main culprits. Internally, however, confidence remains intact: Cárcel, as Cadena SER has reported, will continue in his position and will be in charge of building the squad that tries to return Girona to La Primera División. It will be his thirteenth season in the offices of the Barcelona native, who still feels strong.

In the coming days, his public appearance is expected to try to clarify some of the doubts surrounding the Girona club. This Friday will be six days since the relegation to Segunda, and none of the owners have offered any explanation. Ferran Soriano, representative of the City Football Group, has tweeted reactions to Pep Guardiola's departure from Manchester City; Marcelo Claure only has eyes for Bolívar, because he hasn't said anything about Girona since he was seen in the Bernabéu box a month and a half ago, and Pere Guardiola has also not been a spokesperson. Meanwhile, the fans are fuming.