Calleja is back in charge at Villarreal

Salvador Dali may have been a master of surrealism, but even he would have been hard-pressed to imagine the events that have taken place in Vila-real today. Luis García Plaza took training today as usual, little knowing he’d be fired moments later. He departed following a hastily arranged press conference where he said all the right things but looked as bemused and startled throughout as the press corps in attendance.

Then, an hour or so later, Sr. Roig, alone, sat at the same table in the same press room and announced the rehiring of Javi Calleja as head coach. He’s ‘optimistic,’ he said, claiming that ‘the decision taken after 15 matches (fire Calleja, hire García) was “appropriate”, and the decision taken after 21 matches (fire García, hire Calleja) was also “appropriate.”

Not surprisingly, the assembled press had a hard time making sense of that. Sr. Roig was quite clear that today’s decision, at least, was his alone (which was not something he said when Calleja was fired). Does this mean Sr. Roig has effectively demoted his son, who was taking over responsibilities, and is calling the shots alone?

And an interesting statement from Sr. Roig (apparently as regards the players): “I’ll tell you something, talk less and do more. (We need) less politicians, more businessmen.” !!

There’s clearly a lot going on behind the scenes at Villarreal.