He Dad going to talk. Paul Dad Pezzolano looks out from the balcony of the Valladolid town hall. Below, thousands of faithful among a purple smoke spit by flares. The Real Valladolid coach takes the microphone and shouts “Pezzolano resignation!” with which the fans have punished him from the beginning to the end of the successful season. The fans, at first stunned, take advantage of the toast and cry out against the coach, who continues the chant until he gathers behind his players. The sequence has surprised both outside of Valladolid and little in the city’s football world: a good part of the stands do not love the coach who has returned them to the elite. The asterisks of this apparent contradiction: that he himself relegated him a year ago, that the team has not shown a line of play and that the Uruguayan has not communicated with the people nor has he established ties with the fans. Now, leader and promoted, he has one year of automatic renewal.
The scene has been repeated at the Nuevo Estadio José Zorrilla and also when Pucela played away. The well-finished campaign has gone through months of doubts, with terrible images at home and without achieving a solvent trend of sensations beyond the results. The numbers have been good but the background has been heavy. “Pezzolano, resignation!” has been repeated practically week after week, with varying percentages of support among the fans but with enough decibels to resonate in the stadiums. Sources close to the locker room assure that the group is with him and that he has their support. The footballers asked for clemency for his boss but he did not help to calm things down either: beyond his poor sporting performance, his statements at a press conference or gestures on the bench inflamed his detractors. Real Valladolid broke its subscriber ceiling in the Second Division in September with 20,000 cards issued despite the fact that Pezzolano himself signed the relegation. The fans, with good memories, tried to forget that the Uruguayan joined the team one point away from relegation, as a replacement for Pacheta, but that with him he lost the category and did not shoot on goal in the final two matches, against Almería and Getafe , ended with insufficient draws.
The season began with a streak of weak games, even with Pucela in relegation, and a germ fueled all season by the inability of the squad and the coaching staff to win and convince was ignited. Real Valladolid is the thirteenth best team in the history of Spanish football and in relegation situations, especially after two consecutive falls with only one year in First Division, there is a high level of demand. Therefore, with the team in a high zone but almost never in direct ascent until the emphatic final stretch, the recurring chant against the coach continued, whose position even shook on two occasions. At the beginning, when he escaped after agonizing victory over Cartagena at home and breaking a disastrous streak. And in March, after failing in Ferrol and going on a streak without winning away since November and not taking advantage of the opportunities in the league. But Ronaldo’s trusted man remained in office despite the fact that the championship has passed without clear dominators and a lot of equality at the bottom, with little average quality but many surprises due to the lack of forcefulness of those at the top. “Let’s hope that the cries against me can be resolved, and for that the results will help. “There are people who come to let off steam,” said the Dad to the usual question at a press conference. The blanquivioleta arreón after the debacle in Galicia, with 24 of the last 30 points and undefeated in those 10 days, did not hide the chant, but even became a kind of shamanic ritual. When the players faltered or the coach made a controversial decision, he would repeat the refrain. Beyond the result, the fans evaluated those unfound sensations, but they continued to fill Zorrilla, conquering rival fiefdoms and thousands of people received the team bus in their last home games. The coach, meanwhile, continued making friends. “We are lacking a competitive fan base,” he pontificated before the microphones.
The penultimate round of shouting took place this heart-stopping Sunday, with the transistors narrating a carom that would return Pucela to the elite in the event of victory. In case of victory. The best local team and second in the table lost at home against the bottom team, Villarreal B, the worst away team. “Pezzolano, resignation!” resounded again when the reserve team overturned Moro’s initial goal. In 10 minutes, the two goals that led to promotion. The fans, regardless of the results, celebrated the jump in category without forgetting the coach, who euphorically put his hand to his ear and waved his arms. More more. After a while, at a press conference, he stated that his three young children never went to the stadium so that they would not hear such criticism of his father. This is how he explained the balance of the course in terms of his detractors: “Uruguayans have things that are not found in another part of the world: rebellion and, as you say, cojones. […] There are human beings working here, players and coaches, and I have never seen them go somewhere else to do what was done this year. There was a lot of manipulation behind; this was not normal, of you [los periodistas] nor of the people.”
More noise occurred the next day in the Valladolid town hall, when he took the microphone to return to the fans the chant that had been poured out for months. The coach has one more year on his contract as a clause for returning to First Division and does not plan to resign. “I feel very identified with the demands of the club, so I am very happy,” he stressed, and returned to the testicular argument to thank in his own way the spirit of the fans: “Many people supported a lot and deserve to celebrate, this city deserves it.” . You have to have balls to be there.”
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