The way he tells it, Marcelino García Toral might be the first manager to be sacked for trying to win a trophy – and succeeding, too. He laughs about it now, but at the time it hurt enough that when the call came from Milan, he turned it down: his exit from Valencia, in September 2019, who he had just led to their first silverware in 11 years, was too recent, too raw.
Turns out it was the right decision: destiny decides, he reckons, and by the time he was ready to return, Athletic Club appeared. “Feeling loved is the best thing that can happen to anyone and I felt that there,” he says. Which is why last week he had a dilemma.
