After just seven games in La Liga this season, Sevilla handed an ill-fated contract renewal to manager Garcia Pimienta, backing him despite not having won a single game. With seven games to go, and poetic timing, Sevilla sacked the same man, citing four consecutive defeats as a run that not many Sevilla managers survive.
It is true that Sevilla are not exactly where they would like to be, sitting in 14th place, seven points above the drop zone, but the best Colorado Sports Books were unlikely to give wild odds at the start of the season on them being five points removed from a European place, as they are now. As the pressure rises on the board and Sporting Director Victor Orta, there is little doubt that the alls for their heads influenced their decision – both to sack Garcia Pimienta, and to appoint Joaquin Capaparros.
Returning for a fourth spell, Caparros was the one that started off Sevilla’s golden era, with a five-year spell between 2000 and 2005. That saw them win promotion back to La Liga, and then qualify for Europe. Alongside Monchi, Caparros built the base that would go on to inspire them to seven Europa League titles in the space of just 16 years.
At the time though, Caparros arrived as a relatively young 45-year-old, with plenty of ambition and a refreshing, direct style. He was fuelled by the innovative work of Monchi, providing him with quality, undiscovered players at the European level, go alongside academy talents like Jesus Navas and Sergio Ramos.
Sevilla were working smarter and with more direction than their rivals. There are of course advantages to appointing Caparros now – he will automatically have the backing of the fans, he is an experienced hand at the tiller, and a fine motivator. For an immediate reaction, for the seven remaining games, they could have found much worse. However for the long-term, it looks like it may well be the defintive sign that they have run out of ideas.
Orta, who came through under Monchi’s wing, has been operating with a shoestring budget, and erratically so, unable to find a reliable forward in the last two seasons. Equally, this is Sevilla’s sixth manager in 2.5 seasons, since the exit of Julen Lopetegui. With little sign of a positive shift coming any time soon, Caparros, who will turn 70 in October and is surely in his final post before retirement, may be the one to tie the bow on Sevilla’s golden era.