Celta Vigo. LaLiga’s perennial “darkhorse for a European place” in August, but a team that invariably finds itself looking nervously over one shoulder at the relegation battle by the spring.
The Galicians have only managed one top half finish in eight years and have survived several closer than expected brushes with the drop. From big names to distinctly left field appointments, the Celta board has tried it all over that period in terms of their coaching choices, without stumbling on a solution that has convinced for any serious length of time.
Just maybe, this time will be different. Claudio Giraldez, LaLiga’s youngest boss, has now been in the Balaidos hotseat for seven months since replacing Rafa Benitez with the club 17th in the table in March.
Giraldez’s win ratio during that period stands at an impressive 47%, a percentage point up on what he managed with Celta’s B team during a nearly two year reign that was abruptly ended by his promotion to the top job earlier this year.
He’s now been a LaLiga coach for 19 games, exactly half a season, and a points total of 30 over that period represents European form, at least on the evidence of last season when Real Sociedad qualified for the Europa League with 60.
Risk-taking Giraldez a breath of fresh air
Celta fans won’t be getting too caught up in talk of their status as potential European challengers just yet. They’ve heard all that before, only for disappointment and at times reality to sink in, not least last term when Benitez was the vastly experienced head coach supposed to deliver bigger things during the club’s centenary year.
Benitez’s tenure meandered to an uninspiring end, with Celta fans growing tired of the hard luck stories as wins continued to elude them. As it turned out, Giraldez was the ideal antidote to the problems of Benitez’s misfiring team.
Having only just turned 36 at the time of his appointment, the Galician native has been nothing short of a breath of fresh air, placing his faith in many of the young players that he worked with in the B team, whilst adopting more adventurous tactics than his predecessor.
While his initial success could perhaps be attributed to some kind of honeymoon phase as Celta comfortably beat the drop, Giraldez has only doubled down on his methods this season.
His side reached the second international break as LaLiga’s fourth highest scorers with 16 goals, but also with the joint fourth worst defensive record with 15 conceded. Only matches involving Barcelona and a rejuvenated Villarreal have served up as many goals as Celta games so far.
The young guns taking their chance
Celta have won as many games as they’ve lost this season, so once again talk of a serious European push may be just a tad premature. Unquestionably though, there is a serious project underway at Balaidos and if there’s anything to unite a disillusioned fanbase, it’s the emergence of a crop of talented, homegrown players.
Under Giraldez’s guidance, the Celta B team was recognised as one of the strongest reserve sides in Spain. They reached the Primera Federacion play-offs in both the 2022/23 and 2023/24 campaigns and there have been moments over the past two years, when the relegation of Celta’s senior team to the Segunda Division has looked every bit as likely as the promotion of their B team to the same league.
In the event, neither happened and the rules would have prevented both from appearing in the same division in any case, but that unlikely situation does provide a bit of useful background to events at Balaidos since Giraldez stepped up to the top job.
Right from day one, the 36-year-old looked to his former charges for inspiration. His first game, away to Sevilla in March, saw three changes from Benitez’s final eleven, as academy graduates Carlos Dominguez, Hugo Sotelo and Hugo Alvarez were all handed starting roles in a 2-1 win.
It was an immediate break from the safer approach of Benitez and a host of other youngsters have made the step up to taste senior action since then. Aside from Dominguez, Sotelo and Alvarez, we’ve also seen former Celta B teamers Pablo Duran, Alfon Gonzalez, Sergio Carreira, Damian Rodriguez and Javi Rodriguez make multiple starts in LaLiga this season.
21-year-old Ilaix Moriba and 20-year-old Williot Swedberg’s talents were nurtured elsewhere, but both have also clocked up more than 300 minutes of top flight action for Os Celestes this term.
Aspas as dependable as ever, as Iglesias and Mingueza step up
With so many homegrown players starting to emerge at a club that only last year cashed in on hot prospect Gabri Veiga to the tune of €30m, there’s no shortage of choices when it comes to picking the best of Celta’s academy graduates.
The answer is obvious of course. It’s Iago Aspas, who at 37 remains one of the best forwards in the league and continues to add to the immense legacy he will eventually leave behind at his boyhood club.
With four goals and two assists so far this term, Aspas is already well on course to hit at least 15 goal contributions in the Spanish top flight, for the 11th time in his Celta career. The forward has had to carry a sinking ship at times in seasons gone by, but he looks to have a bit more help this year.
Borja Iglesias has also netted four times, having failed to score a single goal in league football during the 2023/24 season. The Betis loanee, himself a product of the Celta youth system, is clearly enjoying life back in Galicia.
The biggest revelation for Celta Vigo so far this season though, has surely been Oscar Mingueza. Giraldez has used the former Barcelona man as a wing-back on both flanks and Mingueza has been playing the best football of his career, with two goals and four assists helping attract the attention of Luis de la Fuente who called the 25-year-old up to the Spain squad for this international break.
Rotation, rotation, rotation
With a deep squad stacked full of young talents and a packed schedule that has already seen LaLiga squeeze in two midweek matchdays, it’s perhaps no surprise that the Celta boss has opted for a rotation policy with his lineups over the opening two months of the season.
With Giraldez though it seems, there are rarely any half measures. Celta’s eleven has often changed wildly from match to match, even following victories, and there is no clear consensus as to what their strongest side might be.
Even Aspas, who Giraldez recently described as “a unique player, a difference-maker” has been rested twice, while Mingueza and Alvarez are the only others to have started more than six of Celta’s nine league games.
While he does now appear to have settled on Vicente Guaita rather than Ivan Villar in goal, even the three centre-backs chop and change at a rate that defies most conventional wisdom in a position where continuity and the steady building of relationships is largely viewed as a positive.
For now at least, Giraldez will rightly argue that results clearly show that his methods are working.
He’s expected to sign a new contract in the coming weeks and this weekend told local media “I would like to have challenges and I would like them to be here and that we could grow here and take Celta to a higher level than where we are”.
With so many players still in the very early stages of their top flight careers, it’s hard to state with any degree of certainty what the ceiling is for this Celta side this season, or in years to come.
What seems clear though, is that they are heading in the right direction at last and appear to have a safe pair of hands at the helm in the shape of one of Spain’s brightest young coaches.
Featured image of Balaidos via Juantiagues, CC BY-SA 2.0
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