The celebration was almost as futile as the goal it followed. Ezequiel Ponce, the Argentinian forward, had scored neatly, slipping past his marker, picking his spot, and, as he turned away, he put his finger to his lips, signalling to the crowd that they cut out the booing. The derisive whistles only increased.
Ponce, author of Granada’s only goal in last weekend’s 3-1 home defeat to Valencia, later apologised for the gesture. He was obliged to. His team had already conceded three, their supporters are exasperated and the fact that the striker who wears their No 9 jersey had just recorded his first goal in his 20 appearances since the opening day of the season was hardly cause for ovations.
The club remain the lowest scorers in Spain’s top flight, marooned one off the bottom of the table, seven points from safety.
Manager Lucas Alcaraz, the fourth different man in the job in the last 10 months, quit after the humiliation by Valencia, and on Sunday, for the visit to Los Carmenes by Celta Vigo, the unlikely figure of Tony Adams will be giving orders, picking the starting XI from a squad that has provided no fewer than 33 different players to the first-team in the 31 matchdays of the Primera Liga so far.
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Adams, one-club man and a popular figure as a defender at Arsenal from the 1980s to the early 2000s, is quite the globetrotter, having worked in various coaching and advisory roles from Wycombe Wanderers to Azerbaijan to China.
But he has been in Spanish football, as a sort of sporting director at Granada, for only five months. As an emergency manager for a fight against relegation, he seems a left-field choice.
For a start, he speaks very little Spanish. The most quotable manifesto statements from his introductory press conference last week, where he said he would push the players hard, were translated rapidly for those who might have struggled to get it.
But it might also be noted that, in the polyglot parade of nations that is Granada’s staff, speaking Spanish might not be such an advantage.
This the club that made history in Spain’s Primera Liga earlier this season by lining up a full XI without a single player born in Spain.
Granada’s cosmopolitan character, and its high turnover, may be part of their problem. Until last summer, they were under the control of the Pozzo family, Italians whose main interest was in Udinese, of Serie A, and who attached Watford, of the English Premier League, to their network of clubs.
Players have hopscotched from Udinese to Granada and Watford, and from Watford to Andalusia in recent years.
Yet if Granada supporters often suspected they were becoming a feeder institution, it worked well enough to achieve successive promotions and then keep them hovering just above the drop back to the second tier for the last four seasons.
The Pozzos’ major shareholding was then sold to Jian Lizhang, a businessman with interests in football in his native China, where he originally employed Adams in an advisory capacity at Jian’s club, Chongqing Dangdai Lifan.
Adams was moved over to Spain in time to cast an eye over the comings and goings at Granada in the last transfer window.
Some distinguished internationals, such as Adrian Ramos, the Colombian striker from Borussia Dortmund, and the seasoned Ghanaian Mubarak Wakaso came in, but Granada have been in relegation form for all but a month or two or the season.
“We’ve let in 65 goals,” points out Adams. He has made it his priority to tighten up the back line.
He will not, he insists, carry on as manager after the summer. Adams has also declared he will try to favour those players who have a long-term future at Granada over the next seven games.
The squad is full of loanees, so some fans may be grateful to see who is committed, although they would be entitled to wonder, if Adams is balancing the need to cultivate footballers with longer contracts and to urgently gain results, what to read into the arrival of a pair of Adams’s English compatriots at Granada practice.
Nigel Reo-Coker and Kieran Richardson, a pair of out-of-contract former Premier League midfielders, turned up for trials at the club where the revolving door for entrances and exits just keeps on turning.
Player of the Week: Suso, AC Milan
. Luca Bruno / AP Photo
It is a historic city derby, with AC Milan officially coming under the ownership of their new Chinese backers. AC Milan and Inter Milan, sixth and seventh in the table, will on Saturday joust over what may be one remaining place from Serie A in next season’s Europa League. The team in red hope their Spanish revelation can influence this derby as much as he did the last.
Two for Berlusconi
Suso scored twice in the meeting of Milan and Inter in November, after which the outgoing, long-serving Milan president, Silvio Berlusconi made a point of offering his personal congratulations for a pair of elegantly taken goals, one with Suso’s preferred left foot, the other with his right. Alas for Milan, Inter came back from behind to draw 2-2.
Rising Rossonero
Those goals confirmed this as a breakthrough season for Jesus Joaquin Fernandez Saez de la Torre, to give Suso his full name. He turned 23 shortly before that first Milan derby of the Serie A season and has established himself as indispensable to the plans of manager Vicenzo Montella. But his place at Milan has not always looked so stable.
On the margins
Last season, when Sinisa Mihailovic — the fifth of seven Milan managers since early 2014 — was making decisions, Suso was on the fringes. His precise left foot, adhesive control and enterprise from set-pieces were assets left largely on the substitutes bench. Last January he went out on loan to Genoa. His showings there made Milan appreciate what they had missed.
Reared in red
Suso had experienced something similar earlier in his career, an elite club growing lukewarm on his potential and loaning him out. Born in Cadiz, in south-west Spain, he was headhunted by Liverpool at 16, and the Anfield club were delighted with his rapid progress through their youth ranks. He made his senior debut at 19, and impressed in the 2012/13 campaign, though with attacking positions being strengthened at the club, he was lent out to Almeria the following season.
Merseyside to Milan
On his return to Liverpool, he struggled for starts. Milan came in for him in January 2015, when he had six months left on his Liverpool deal, and though the first 18 months of his time in Italy would be frustrating at times, he has now established himself as a popular favourite with fans, liked for his hard work and willingness to take on opponents from wide positions.
Spain calling
In Spain, his success is appreciated. Suso’s name has been on the longlists compiled by national manager Julen Loptegui for the last two international dates. He is yet to make his Spain debut, and acknowledges that he faces competition from a fleet of other dainty, diminutive attacking midfielders, but he has time on his side.
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