José Manuel Esnal
José Manuel Esnal Pardo, also known by his nickname Mane ( born March 25, 1950 in Balmaseda ) is a Spanish football coach. Substations at clubs like Barcelona Espanyol, Athletic Bilbao and Levante UD, he led the underdog Deportivo Alavés into the final of the UEFA Cup in 2000/ 01, which was lost after golden goal against English side FC Liverpool 4:5.
Coaching career
José Manuel Esnal began his coaching career at the age of 29, with his first job of the coach of the local football club of his hometown Balmaseda in the Basque Country was. After two years of success and thoroughly winning work in Balmaseda Esnal 1980 committed as the new coach of the Basque youth team, where he remained a year in office as a result. 1982 signed the young coach a working paper at FC Barakaldo, a somewhat nationally known club from the Basque Country. When then third league José Manuel Esnal was also only one year under contract and missed the return to the second division. Then Esnal coached from 1982 to 1984 Sestao Sports Club.
In 1984, he took over for the first time the fortunes at Deportivo Alavés, that association, which was to celebrate the greatest achievements in their history under Esnal years later. Manes first term in Vitoria- Gasteiz, however, was characterized by massive financial problems, which made great success impossible, and lasted only one year, the Deportivo Alavés spent in the Segunda División. As a result Esnal stood on the sidelines of UE Figueres, with which he ascended in the 1985/86 season from the third to the second division and the club which was until now never been second-rate, could establish itself there for two years. 1987 Esnal then stepped back to Figueres and again took over the post of coach of the Basque youth football team, where he worked from 1987 through 1988. Then he signed a contract with UE Lleida and remained there for seven years until 1995.
Work at UD Lleida
In Lleida Mane inherited in the fall of 1988 Koldo Aguirre and took a team of this in a relegation battle Segunda División located. And indeed, had to be taken up at the end of the 1988 /89 transition in the third division. But the club's management held on to coach José Manuel Esnal and could see confirmed in the ensuing third league season when UE Lleida División group 2 of the Segunda B first five points finished ahead of the second team of CA Osasuna and direct resurgence managed. As a newcomer to the team by José Manuel Esnal hit surprisingly well in the Segunda División 1990/91, because after all game days you ranked in the table in sixth place in the table and had to participate in the play-offs to the Erstligaaufstieg only three points missed against CD Málaga. The following season it was then fifth and failed again by only a few points on the participation in the promotion round, Betis Sevilla this time was three points better positioned.
1992/93, things went even better for the UE Lleida by José Manuel Esnal, because the team dominated the Segunda División for the entire season, and stood at the end of the top of the table with five points ahead of the second climber Real Valladolid, as well as many points before the first relegation place, occupied by Racing Santander. In the promotion season, UE Lleida was characterized primarily by an excellent defensive distributed over the season you had to take only twenty goals. Also the offensive with 56 goals scored was almost peak value in the league.
So UE Lleida was thus for the first time in the Primera División again since 1951, the top division in Spanish football ascended. There you but did not quite convince and finished second in the Primera División 1993/94 only a nineteenth place, which was not enough to avoid relegation. Thus UE Lleida had after only one year excellence direct transition take back to the second division, just as the club División in his first interlude in the Primera in the season 1950/51 was issued. Back in the Segunda División Lleida played back with top and was in the season 1994/95 Fourth, where you missed the promotion by just one point against UD Salamanca. After this brief failure in the struggle to climb the term of office of José Manuel Esnal ended at UE Lleida after seven years, he signed a contract for the new season at RCD Mallorca.
Mallorca and Levante
In Mallorca, José Manuel Esnal took over a second division with the claim that the return to the Primera División to accomplish. The season was 1995/96 also relatively tidy and was concluded with a third place, which meant participation in the play-offs for promotion. There you but failed 1-0 and 0-2 at Rayo Vallecano, which thus avoided relegation from the top flight itself. After the ascent missed parted RCD Mallorca by José Manuel Esnal and replaced this by Víctor Muñoz, with which one could not only celebrate the return to the excellence, but also the entry into the final of the Copa del Rey.
Mane took over in the summer of 1996 as coach at UD Levante in Valencia. With the then second-class suburb Esnal club finished second in the Segunda División ninth place and had nothing to do with on - even with something descent. At the end of the season, the paths of Levante and José Manuel Esnal parted again then and this began the most successful period in his coaching career.
Success with Deportivo Alavés
On his return to Deportivo Alavés Esnal began in the second division spanish football league where the club had occupied in the preseason only a disappointing thirteenth place in the table. But all of a sudden and quite unexpectedly, the team of Mane increased significantly in the 1997/98 season and placed at the end of the season sensationally topped in Segunda División with 82 points on the credit side. Whole nine points separated the team from the first relegation place, occupied by UD Las Palmas. For the first time since the mid- fifties the Basque club was so caught up again in the Spanish first division and succeeded at once to establish themselves. Unlike his tenure in Lleida Esnal rose with his team not climb right back down, but finished in sixteenth place in the table, one point separated Alavés FC Extremadura, who won the first relegation place. Then a year later in the Primera División 1999/2000 the underdog was surprising sixth in Spain's top flight and thus laid the foundation for the international success that was to follow a year later. As the sixth Primera División was Deportivo Alavés eligible to start for the UEFA Cup in 2000/ 01, where one but not in the design was one of the favorites.
In the UEFA Cup to Deportivo Alavés turned away first as very strong, but also quite weak home against relatively weak opponents. In the first round they defeated Gaziantepspor of Turkey, in the second and in the third Lillestrøm SK Rosenborg Trondheim, each from Norway. In the fourth round waited with the French representatives Girondins Bordeaux for the first time a strong opponent to the team of José Manuel Esnal that one but 6-2 after return game surprisingly strong beat. Then we went in the second round against Inter Milan. After a 3-3 victory at home in Estadio Mendizorrotza Esnals team in Milan 2-0 and came on. After Rayo Vallecano was thrown relatively easily from the tournament in the quarterfinals, and the German representatives 1.FC Kaiserslautern came in the semifinals powerful under the wheels. With 9:2 after return game, Alavés prevailed over the Palatinate and was thus in the final of the UEFA Cup. There, the team met to players such as Jordi Cruyff, Cosmin Contra and Javi Moreno on the English side FC Liverpool. By experts judged as chance, Deportivo Alavés designed the Finals balanced and provided with an extremely spectacular Liverpool battle for the second most important European title. Alavés was four times back tenaciously as often and thus developed the extension in which you had to act to end in double outnumbered. When everything was already hinted at a penalty shootout, met Alavés defender Delfí Geli into his own net and decided by golden goal the final in favor of Liverpool FC.
Had come so rapidly as the rise of Deportivo Alavés from the second division to the European Cup finalists, so fast it went but then again down. Gradually, the players of the winning season 2000/ 01 migrated, the club found itself more and more in a relegation battle again. In the season 2002/ 03 they finished at the end of second to last place and had to start back to the second division the course, only three years after the big final in Dortmund. José Manuel Esnal was dismissed seven games left in the season and by Jesús Aranguren, the rudder but could not turn things around. Deportivo Alavés could from this descent still not properly recover again, but now plays in the Segunda División again at least.
Another career
After his release at Deportivo Alavés José Manuel Esnal was two years without a job. Only in 2005 he took over as coach at UD Levante for the second time. With Levante Esnal rose in the Segunda División 2005/ 06 in third place behind Recreativo Huelva and Gimnàstic de Tarragona on, but left the club at end of season again.
In La Liga 2006/ 07 in charge Mane Athletic Bilbao and thus returned to the Basque Country, where he had spent the majority of his coaching career. In Athletic Bilbao but get no success, Esnals team found itself quite early into the season, against all claims at the end of the table again and the coach himself also did not survive the entire season. His successor, Joaquín Caparrós saved Bilbao to Esnals dismissal finally just ahead of the threat of relegation.
Its up today last coach station had José Manuel Esnal 2008-2009 at Espanyol Barcelona, where he also not met with great success. In January 2009, the coach was fired standing on the eighteenth place in the table and replaced by the Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, Espanyol have led to the tenth place. Since then, José Manuel Esnal is without a job as a football coach.
Achievements
- Final of the UEFA Cup: 1x
- Segunda División: 2x
- Segunda División B: 2x