Relegation
“I’ll summarise the season very clearly. I don’t believe we deserve what we’re experiencing right now. A lot of bad things have been done throughout the season. I’ve seen this game many times. Evidently, the team didn’t go down today, the team went down a long time ago for a thousand reasons we won’t go into now. The trajectory throughout the season has been poor, and there have been numerous attempts to resolve it. I keep focusing on one thing – I was lucky enough to have been able to coach a group of fantastic footballers, who don’t deserve this. On many occasions, football can give when you’re not deserving, and take away when you are. I cannot blame the players for anything individually. The effort they’ve put in to every training session has been at a maximum. Today we saw the players on the ground at the end of the match, having given the best of themselves. We likely went down due to our inability. We don’t deserve this”.
#LevanteMálaga
“A fortnight ago we found ourselves level at 2-2 against Dépor, then in the 85th minute, they went and scored the 3-2 winner. And in the 90th minute against Las Palmas. I understand there’s anger, but I don’t believe this team has been inferior to the rivals we’ve faced. It could also be despair. The changes I’ve made have also been to enhance the attack. Congratulations to Levante. It was a very difficult game for them and they didn’t lose face, despite a few bad moments. They believed in victory and reaped their reward”.
Distraught dressing room
“The players are devastated. I have a great team in there. Training the way they train, every day, being so many points away from safety. That’s hard to find. Normally you come across a divided dressing room, there would be fights, bad form or a lack of discipline. I think they’ll continue like this until the end as they are excellent professionals and excellent people”.
Back up again
“Many teams have gone through this. Many teams have done a lot of bad things and the result has been relegation. Málaga is a major Spanish team and it’s only a matter of time before the squad goes up again. I hope things are done well and a sense of calm is maintained. Málaga will be back to where it deserves to be”.
Fans
“I apologise to the fans as we haven’t given them what they wanted. We gave our all. If you enter the dressing room you’ll see the players are desolate, as they have been match after match. As footballers and as a coach we leave a lot to be desired, yet we had relegation almost sealed today, but we fought for victory. We’ll do the same until the last minute. We owe it to the team and the fans”.
