Diego Martinez; The man that should be given the keys to Vicarage Road
luorns.substack.com
Diego Martinez, or Diego Martinez Penas to use his full name. His background in football in his early career is the classic “I could have went pro but I broke my leg” but this time it’s actually true. Martinez at the age of 20 retired from professional football due to injury after spending many years at Celta Vigo and one season at Cadiz. Knowing his career was 50/50 — Martinez started coaching Imperio Albolote’s youth teams, then got an opportunity to coach the youth teams of Arenas Armilla, moving up in the ranks to assistant manager in 2005, and then the manager for one season from 2006-2007. Martinez then 25/26 did a decent job, winning 20 in 38 games, whilst only conceding 26 in the process. That was the main thing early on in his career, being defensively brilliant, but don’t confuse that with being boring as I’ll discuss his playstyle later. Following a good opening first team job at Armilla, Motril of Spanish fourth division came calling, where he stayed for two years — but it wasn’t until October of 2009 that the Spaniard was noticed by Director of football genius Monchi for his coaching ability at a young age. Martinez joined the backroom staff at Sevilla, and was then handed the task of managing their youth teams for a season, before being named assistant manager of Sevilla replacing the departing Javi Navarro, and being the right hand man to mentor and close friend Unai Emery. In their first full season together, Emery and Martinez won the Europa League, so much so the following season Martinez was given the opportunity to manage Sevilla B with one day eventually taking over from Emery.
Diego Martinez; The man that should be given the keys to Vicarage Road
Diego Martinez; The man that should be given…
Diego Martinez; The man that should be given the keys to Vicarage Road
Diego Martinez, or Diego Martinez Penas to use his full name. His background in football in his early career is the classic “I could have went pro but I broke my leg” but this time it’s actually true. Martinez at the age of 20 retired from professional football due to injury after spending many years at Celta Vigo and one season at Cadiz. Knowing his career was 50/50 — Martinez started coaching Imperio Albolote’s youth teams, then got an opportunity to coach the youth teams of Arenas Armilla, moving up in the ranks to assistant manager in 2005, and then the manager for one season from 2006-2007. Martinez then 25/26 did a decent job, winning 20 in 38 games, whilst only conceding 26 in the process. That was the main thing early on in his career, being defensively brilliant, but don’t confuse that with being boring as I’ll discuss his playstyle later. Following a good opening first team job at Armilla, Motril of Spanish fourth division came calling, where he stayed for two years — but it wasn’t until October of 2009 that the Spaniard was noticed by Director of football genius Monchi for his coaching ability at a young age. Martinez joined the backroom staff at Sevilla, and was then handed the task of managing their youth teams for a season, before being named assistant manager of Sevilla replacing the departing Javi Navarro, and being the right hand man to mentor and close friend Unai Emery. In their first full season together, Emery and Martinez won the Europa League, so much so the following season Martinez was given the opportunity to manage Sevilla B with one day eventually taking over from Emery.