Valencia's Marcelino is shaping up to be the next big manager out of Spain

Marcelino García Toral's impressive progress at Valencia has reinforced his potential to be the next break-out manager from a Spanish generation which has produced Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Ernesto Valverde and Unai Emery.

Marcelino's coaching career has evolved more slowly than others but there is a growing sense that his next opportunity could take him to one of the big three in Spain or overseas to another of the main European competitions.

He was close to landing the Inter Milan job two years ago until vice-president Javier Zanetti pushed to hire another Italian for the role and it went to Luciano Spalletti, and he was one of the final two when candidates when Spain opted for Enrique after the World Cup.

His style, promoting fast and dynamic football with two strikers and a commitment to attack, has also alerted interest in England.

Tottenham are understood to have checked him out as they weighed up possible options in case Mauricio Pochettino was lured away and there was contact from Arsenal's director of football Raul Sanllehi before they settled on Emery to replace Arsene Wenger.

At 53, Marcelino has been coaching for 18 years and his experience covers more than 400 senior games. A low-key playing career at Sporting Gijon was ended prematurely by injury and he turned to coaching.

His leap to prominence came in 2006 when he was promoted with Recreativo de Huelva and kept them in La Liga. He finished sixth in the first of two spells with Racing Santander and won promotion to La Liga for a second time with Real Zaragoza.

Momentum stalled with a disappointing spell at Sevilla but has been revived by his impressive recent work at Villarreal and Valencia.

He took Villarreal back into the top flight in 2013 and secured three successive top-six finishes, which culminated in a fourth in 2016, a campaign when his team also reached the Europa League semi-final and were beaten by Liverpool.

Marcelino has since restored credibility at Valencia, a famous club which had lost its way. In his first season, he led them to fourth, back into the Champions League, and he won sports newspaper Marca's prestigious Coach of the Year award.

In this, his second season, at the club he has led them to the Copa del Rey final for the first time in 11 years and into the last four of the Europa League where his team will take on Arsenal, managed by Emery, one of his predecessors at Valencia.

He has signed a new contract which ties him to the Mestalla until the end of next season but interest is gathering.