Talking with Manolo González is like talking to someone without filters. He is not interested in media exposure, social media, or all the extras that surround elite football. “What I like is coaching,” says the Espanyol coach directly in an interview. Direct and approachable, this is the man who has brought hope back to a club and fans who have experienced all sorts of emotions recently.
Since his arrival, he has won over the team. “I don’t know, I do what I always do: try to make the player comfortable within the group and, above all, talk to them directly and with respect,” he explains. He doesn’t believe in insurmountable distances between coach and player, but neither in being too friendly: “If you become friends with half the team, you have to leave. You can no longer decide objectively.”
He is clear: the group is above any individual. “If a player is above the group, everything starts to go wrong,” he states. In his understanding of the locker room, the key is credibility: “If you see that what you tell them is not reflected on the field, you also have to leave. It will surely die out.”
A Coach Without Social Media and with Espanyol in His Heart
Unlike most current coaches, Manolo González ignores social media: “They are garbage. They distract you, waste time, and allow a free pass to say disrespectful things.” His energy is focused on his work, his team, and his club. Because yes, his club is Espanyol. He arrived at the club, initially to coach the reserve team, out of conviction, even though it meant rejecting better offers. “I always wanted to be here. When they called me, I rejected offers from higher categories. I can say that I lost money to come to Espanyol,” he confesses.
And it’s not the first time he’s turned his back on something that doesn’t convince him. As a child, he had the option to sign for Barcelona and didn’t think twice: “My coach told me and I replied that I wasn’t going there. I’ve never liked Barcelona. It’s not that they’ve done anything to me, but I didn’t go and I wouldn’t go now either. I know they’re not going to call me either, but I really wouldn’t go.”
The Storm After Girona and His Vision of Football
Manolo González knows what it’s like to walk a tightrope. In the first half of the season, after a bad game in Girona, his continuity was in the air. “It was complicated. I’ve never been fired from a club and at that moment I was upset. Reaching the elite costs you a lifetime and you see that in a moment everything can go to waste,” he admits. But the club decided to continue trusting him. “I don’t think it was for money, simply the sporting director believed in us,” he points out.
He assures that his great achievement has been to make the players believe in what they do: “We have adapted. We changed tactical things, like not pressing so high, modifying defensive concepts or not being so central with the ball, but they bought it and put it into practice.” And if that earns him the label of defensive, he has no problem: “I prefer to be called defensive and have the team in Primera.”
His role models in football are also not surprising: “My reference coach is Unai Emery. He has played great football in all the teams he has been in.” And now, in the lead-up to a new match against Girona, Manolo González is clear about what he wants: “It’s a special game. First, because it was our worst game. And second, because they are a Catalan team like us. We have to go out to win, convinced of who we are.”