Following the departure of Luis Garcia Plaza in early December 2024, Deportivo Alaves moved quickly to appoint Eduardo Coudet in the hope that the Argentine could steer the club to safety. “Chacho” not only kept El Glorioso up, but also led them on a late-season surge, with just four defeats in their final 15 games — a run that saw them finish 15th on 42 points, notably above Girona and Sevilla, albeit by only a point.
Subsequently, Coudet was signed up to a new contract a week after the final LaLiga fixture at the end of May, tying him to the club until June 2026.
Coming into the new season, Alaves found themselves in need of an overhaul. The departures of last season’s top scorer Kike Garcia (to Espanyol on a free), Santiago Mouriño (Atletico Madrid activated a €4m buyback clause and immediately sold him to Villarreal), Abdel Abqar (Getafe, free), Tomas Conechny (Racing Club de Avellaneda, €3m), and Aleksandr Sedlar (Tractor C.S.C., free), all meant that there was a need to bring in reinforcements at Mendizorroza.
Further funds were notably raised when Joaquin Panichelli was sold for a handsome fee of €16.5m to Strasbourg, albeit due to clauses with River Plate and Racing de Cordoba, Alaves will actually only receive 50% of that sum.
Despite the incoming cash, the club’s spending was relatively reserved for the majority of the summer, or perhaps it would be best summarised as ‘frugal’. However, the last few weeks of the transfer window saw increased activity from the Basque side.
The club brought in Youssef Enriquez from Real Madrid for €3m, Carles Aleña from Getafe for €1m, Jon Pacheco on loan from Real Sociedad, and added the services of 29-year-old Argentine striker Lucas Boye, as well as 32-year-old Mariano Diaz on a free.
The further arrivals of Pablo Ibañez (free transfer from Osasuna) and former Atletico Madrid full-back Jonny Castro Otto (free transfer from PAOK), provided some more depth and experience to the squad. They capped off their summer by signing Denis Suarez, after the Galician had reached an agreement with Villarreal to terminate his contract.
On paper, the majority of Alaves’ transfer activity this summer makes sense; Coudet has arguably brought in players who are an improvement on those who left. However, it’s perhaps still fair to say that the club is taking a couple of gambles.
Firstly, and arguably the biggest of those is Mariano, a player that was seemingly happy to remain at Real Madrid and not play football, whilst he was picking up a not-so-insignificant salary, before briefly joining Sevilla.
The Dominican Republic forward made 14 appearances across all competitions for the Andalusians during the 2023/24 campaign but failed to score, and then spent a full year out of the game. Questions have been raised about his sharpness, given his limited playing time in recent years, but if he can rediscover his focus and enjoy football again, he could prove to be a real asset.
The likes of Boye and Aleña are also somewhat of a risk too. Boye has plenty of experience since leaving South America and coming to play in Europe, having had spells at Torino, Celta Vigo, AEK Athens, Reading, Elche and latterly Granada. However, despite the number of clubs he has played for, he has never been prolific.
His best LaLiga returns came whilst he was at Elche, with seven league goals in each of his three campaigns in the Primera with Los Franjiverdes. Given that he spent last season in the Segunda Division and notched up 10 goals for Granada, it is fair to say he is unlikely to be able to offer enough firepower to keep the pressure off Alaves in the league table.
Nonetheless, he is a hard-working forward, and if he can strike up a good partnership with the other attacking players in the squad, he could be a foil for others to score more goals.
Two other signings – Carles Aleña and Denis Suarez – could be considered gambles too.
The first of the two former Barcelona prospects, Aleña, has spent the last four and a half seasons at Getafe, but only featured in 10 LaLiga games last season as Jose Bordalas struggled to find a role for him. That is despite Aleña being a versatile and technically gifted midfielder, and perhaps simply down to a clash of styles with Bordalas’ infamously ‘industrial’ team selection and strategy.
Aleña did join Alaves on loan for the remainder of last term and made 14 appearances for El Glorioso, starting all but two of the fixtures he was available for, and Coudet predominantly used him on the left.
At times during the loan spell Aleña looked effective, even creating two of the goals in a 3-3 draw away to Leganes in his first start for the club, but it did often look like he was missing a spark. Nonetheless, it was enough to convince the Alaves board to reach an agreement to bring him to Mendizorroza on a permanent deal this summer.
On matchday one of the 2025/26 season, he provided the assist for Toni Martinez who scored the first Alaves goal of the campaign as they opened the scoring in what would turn out to be a 2-1 win at home to Levante.
Coudet’s side followed that up with a 1-0 defeat away to Real Betis, before holding Atletico Madrid to a 1-1 draw at Mendizorroza on matchday three. At that point, no player in LaLiga had made more accurate crosses (nine) than Aleña and the midfielder’s presence in the team could be seen as growing as each game went by. The draw against Atleti was an example of how his precision passing is key to Coudet’s plans, and it is essential that he stays fit.
On the note of fitness, the late addition of Suarez has the potential to be a hit, but the 31-year-old has been something of an enigma in recent years. He is a player who was highly coveted in his youth and showed great promise, but due to a combination of injuries and the dispute between the player, his representatives and Celta Vigo President Carlos Mouriño a few years back, he has not played a great deal of football in the last three years.
In fact, despite being involved in 21 LaLiga games for Villarreal last season, Suarez started just seven and only played 603 minutes across the campaign – an average of just 16 minutes per game.
Suarez made his Alaves debut in the final minute against Atleti and featured for 45 minutes against Athletic Club last time out. After coming on as a substitute for the second half, the Galician was instrumental in what was a huge result.
It was his deflected cross that was turned into the net by Athletic’s Alex Berenguer, meaning Coudet’s side managed to come away from San Mames with a 1-0 win, taking them to seven points from four games.
The positive start to the season has been impressive and it is a credit to Coudet’s managerial style – he of course had a similar impact whilst at Celta Vigo a couple of seasons ago, but when things began to deteriorate, it was a relatively swift drop-off.
Alaves are currently riding the crest of a wave and will be hoping both Coudet and the players can maintain this momentum, but with Coudet’s intensity and the mixed history of some of the players in the squad, there is an element of uncertainty.
It wouldn’t be fair to call this a ‘motley crew,’ but there are certainly risks being carried. El Glorioso fans will be hoping that the strong start to the campaign provides a solid enough foundation for the team to build on as the season progresses — especially when the inevitable dip in form and injuries begin to take their toll. For now, though, there’s little reason to worry and every reason to enjoy the team’s performances.
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