“Diego isn’t here any more, Robert Moreno is,” Robert Moreno said, but now he has gone too, Granada announcing that they had sacked their coach in a brief statement released at 12.37am on Saturday shortly after landing from Valencia. Eighteen minutes later, the B-team coach Rubén Torrecilla was named as his replacement. Moreno hadn’t lasted long – it is five-and-a-half months since that line, tone set early, and six-and-a-half since his first game – but it was longer than he had ever lasted before and longer than many expected, or wanted. Two days on, no-one has said goodbye.
When he left the training ground on Sunday, Moreno did so quietly. He had taken charge of 29 games at Granada, 27 in the league and two in the cup, which at least was 13 more than his previous job, at Monaco. He was in the job before that, his first as head coach, for nine matches but those had been successful and his departure was supposed to be good news even for him. Assistant at the selección, he was made Spain’s caretaker until his friend Luis Enrique felt ready to return following his daughter’s diagnosis with cancer. There came a point when he didn’t seem to see it that way, though, which is why his tenure ended the way it did, in tears.
