When Rafa Benítez arrived at Liverpool in 2004, he did not know that he was paving the way for Spanish coaches to colonize the Premier. The “reds” had not won the European Cup for 20 years and he got it the first time with that miracle in Istanbul, where Liverpool matched the three goals that Milan had scored in the first half before defeating them on penalties. He later won a Cup and a Community Shield, the English Super Cup. But the best was already done.
Almost 20 years have passed and now Spanish coaches are the majority in the Premier. With the arrival of Javi Gracia at Leeds there are already six those who direct teams of the highest English category. There are more Spanish coaches than English in the Premier and the whole of the British only exceeds the Spanish by one.
The number has grown with the passing of the days. At the beginning of the season there were only two Spanish coaches who led the first division of English football: Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta. They are, curiously, the coaches of the two teams that are playing for the title. With the season advanced they have been joined by Emery at Aston Villa; Lopetegui, at Wolverhampton; Rubén Sellés, in Southampton; and Javi Gracia, the last to arrive to train at Leeds, where he also led a match as Paco Gallardo’s interim.
Guardiola is the example that has reinforced the confidence in the Spanish coaches that began with Benítez and continued with Roberto Martínez, although the case of the new Portuguese coach is different, because most of his playing career was spent in England and his work began there as a technician.
Pep has not won the European Cup, as Benítez did, but he has won 11 titles in England since he arrived on the City bench in 2016. He has won four Leagues, one Cup, four League Cups and one Community Shield.
«There is no better place to play and train than in England. I cannot compare it with Spain or with Germany. Especially because of how people defend you even if you don’t win. They don’t whistle at you, they are with you,” Guardiola acknowledged in an interview with City television in 2019.
“I remember how difficult the first season was, we lost to Monaco in the Champions League and we didn’t do well in the Premier, but the people supported us and in the stadium they cheered us on. In addition, there is no press during the week. It is the perfect place to work. I didn’t win a title in my first season and I don’t forget that the people supported me. In other places the fans boo you if you don’t win, but here they always support you», added the Spanish coach.
Arteta learned by his side. First as a footballer and then as a coach. The current Arsenal coach was a Barcelona youth squad when Pep was in charge of directing the Barça midfield. Guardiola was his reference, but he didn’t leave room for anyone else and Arteta had to leave. Then they met again on the City bench. “When I see Pep’s influence on football in the last 20 years, it’s incredible because you know that he has changed everything,” admits Mikel.
His good work and that of other previous coaches has encouraged English clubs to continue hiring Spaniards. And, in some cases, they don’t care what they might cost. Aston Villa paid without hesitation the six million euros of the termination clause of Unai Emery to get him out of Villarreal in the middle of the season. Without even waiting for the break that came in November for the World Cup. The Basque coach’s salary is seven million euros per year, far from what almost any team in the Spanish League could offer him.
The economic potential of the Premier and the good level of Spanish coaches makes it logical for them to come together. The training work in Spain has been imitated since the beginning of the first century by Germany and later by England. Its coaches and the then president of the Federation went to Las Rozas on several occasions to meet with Ginés Meléndez when he was coordinator of the Spanish youth teams and with the president at the time, Ángel María Villar. The methods that led Spain to dominate youth football were the basis on which the English relied to build a winning youth academy.
Since the beginning of the century, the English have won the U17 and U20 World Cup in 2017, the U19 European Championship in the same year and in 2022, and the U17 European Championship in 2010 and 2014. And with the senior team they were finalists at Euro 2020 and quarterfinalists at the last World Cup in Qatar.
England has achieved the level of football that they envied in Spain, but their coaches have not reached the same level. That’s why they turn to the Spanish.
After Emery, Lopetegui arrived to make his debut at Christmas as Wolverhampton coach. The signing of the former Spanish coach was an old wish of the English team, which he was about to lead before taking charge of La Roja.
In recent weeks Rubén Sellés and Javi Gracia have joined the list of Spanish coaches in the Premier. Sellés manages Southampton, in which he started the season as assistant manager, then took over the team as caretaker manager and was almost immediately appointed first team manager. He has spent almost his entire career outside of Spain, in countries like Russia, Denmark, Greece, Azerbaijan or Norway before coming to England.
Javi Gracia had already managed Watford in England and Leeds thought of him after it was impossible for them to hire another Spanish coach, Andoni Iraola. The last to arrive to colonize the Premier from the benches.
Xabi Alonso, the only one in Germany
The Premier League not only enjoys Spanish coaches, but also The sports management of Leeds is occupied by a Spaniard, Víctor Orta, and he also has Gaby Ruiz in his team of scouts. Two former commentators in the media who now take care of the sports management of the team that has signed Javi Gracia for the bench. In other top-tier countries, the presence of Spanish coaches is not as widespread. The most striking case is that of paul longoria, who was a scout for Newcastle first and then worked in Italy with Atalanta, Sassuolo and Juventus. now is the president of Olympique de Marseillewhere Andoni Zubizarreta also served as technical director.
Outside of the Premier, the most prominent coach is Xabi Alonso, who took charge of Bayer Leverkusen replacing Gerardo Seoane, a Swiss of Spanish origin. Xabi is only the second Spanish coach that he has led in the Bundesliga. The first was Pep Guardiola, who directed him in his last stage as a footballer at Bayern Munich. Leverkusen, whom he took in relegation, is in the middle of the table.