• You may have to login or register before you can post and view our exclusive members only forums.
    To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Paco Herrera & Juan Carlos Valeron

Status
Not open for further replies.

King Binny

Part of the Furniture
Honorary Member
CIX7342WEAEEpgf.jpg
[article]Las Palmas have rewarded coach Paco Herrera with a new contract following the club's promotion to the Primera Division.

The 61-year-old joined Las Palmas last summer and guided the team from the Canary Islands back into the top flight after an absence of 13 years.

Herrera's previous deal was set to expire this summer.

A statement from Las Palmas read: "Coach Paco Herrera and his assistant Angel Rodriguez have extended their contracts with UD Las Palmas for the 2015-16 campaign.

"The agreement also includes the option of extending the deal for a further season if the team retains its Primera Division status."

Las Palmas won a second division playoff final against Real Zaragoza on away goals last week, just 12 months after missing out in exactly the same fashion.

Los Amarillos last played in the Primera Division in 2002, and have joined Real Betis and Sporting Gijon in winning promotion to the top flight.

Herrera, a former assistant to Rafael Benitez at Liverpool, has experience in the Primera Division having coached Villarreal and Celta Vigo earlier in his career.[/article]

CHs2lUDWcAIb1Ax.jpg

[article=https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/football-valeron-set-farewell-tour-las-palmas-promotion-094507796--sow.html]Sunday's second-division playoff triumph for Las Palmas not only means they will be back in La Liga next term but will also give Spanish fans a chance to bid farewell to one of the most gifted midfielders of recent times.

Juan Carlos Valeron, who turned 40 last week, was a nervous substitute pacing the sidelines as his boyhood club beat Real Zaragoza 2-0 in the second leg of the playoff final to level the tie at 3-3 and snatch a place in La Liga on the away goals rule.

Forward Sergio Araujo volleyed in the crucial goal five minutes from time at the Estadio Gran Canaria, sparking wild celebrations among the fans, who were cruelly denied promotion in 2013-14 when Cordoba struck in stoppage time in their playoff final almost exactly a year earlier.

Las Palmas return to the top flight after a 13-year absence and president Miguel Angel Ramirez confirmed that Valeron, who came through the club's academy before spending most of an injury-hit career at Deportivo La Coruna, would play on next season.

"He will play next year in the first division so that he can say farewell to all the stadiums in Spain," Ramirez told reporters.

Known as "El Flaco" (the skinny one), Valeron was one of the most graceful attacking midfielders of his generation.

As well as a Las Palmas legend, he was hugely popular with Deportivo fans, greatly respected by opponents and regularly won applause from rival crowds in recognition of his sublime talents.

He also had short stints at Atletico Madrid and Real Mallorca and played 46 times for Spain, scoring five goals and featuring at the 2000 and 2004 European Championships and the 2002 World Cup.

His career looked to be over when he suffered two serious knee injuries in 2006 but he returned to action after two years out and several operations.

"This is why we are all here," Valeron said after the final whistle on Sunday as players, coach Paco Herrera and his staff and fans rejoiced around him.

"It was a very tense match but we had to get through it in whatever way possible," he added.

"The biggest joy we have is to be able to make so many people happy."[/article]

Dated 2005
[article=http://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/may/22/sport.comment1]At the end of Liverpool's semi-final victory over Chelsea, the usually discreet Paco Herrera, who travels around scouting for players and hardly ever crosses paths with the squad, was suddenly visible. Herrera, who has taken on board the job of rebuilding the inadequate database of potential transfer targets, could not stop himself rushing on to the pitch to share with the players the overpowering joy of qualifying for the Champions League final. As they walked off, he greeted every one with almost embarrassing enthusiasm.

It is unclear exactly where Herrera fits in the hierarchy. Is he chief scout or an assistant coach? 'He is my adviser,' says Benítez.

Herrera, a former player with Sporting Gijon and Levante, has coached teams in the Spanish first and second divisions (Merida, Badajoz, Extremadura) and his knowledge of European football, his reading of games and his coaching talent, have proved an essential helping hand to Benítez.

José Ochotorena is goalkeeping coach for Liverpool and the Spain team. He, too, has a good relationship with the players and sometimes takes on the role of agony aunt. Pako Ayesterán, who has worked with Benítez for the past eight years, takes charge of training, looks after the physical shape of the squad and also has a say in tactics. 'He is the best coach I have ever had,' says one senior squad member.

Now that Thompson is back on the satellite rolling results programme Soccer Saturday , Lee is free to concentrate on his work for England and Corrigan is a peripatetic goalkeeping coach, the British influence comes from Alex Miller, the former Aberdeen manager, who helps Benítez and the team to understand the demands of a domestic competition that has taken time to master, as well as playing a fatherly role with the English-speaking contingent. Miller is a survivor from the old regime, promoted to first-team coach from director of scouting. Benitez has shaken up the whole club, restructuring every aspect behind the scenes. He has been helped by the adulation of the fans, the success, at least in Europe, of his first season in charge and, most important, the total power offered to him by chief executive Rick Parry. But while he has taken the headlines, he could not have achieved the first stage of the transformation without the help of those he relies on in the background. Even when the staff increases next season because of the excessive demands on Herrera and Ayesterán, the former Valencia coach will try to find someone with similar characteristics, despite the interest of old Liverpool players in being part of probably the biggest revolution in the recent history of the club.

'I am proud of our technical staff and thankful to them too,' Benítez says. 'Paco Herrera is doing a very important job in the shadows. He not only talks to agents and finds out about players, he chats to me about tactics and analysis of games. Plus, off the pitch he has given players, especially the ones coming from Spain, the confidence, the tranquillity they sometimes lack. He is like a father to some.

'Ochotorena trains the goalkeepers, but he has a great personality and also helps with the analysis of situations. Alex Miller gives us the British point of view and a local vision of what we are doing. There is a good harmony among us and I would include there the physios, doctors, kit men, et cetera. It was going to be very difficult to be as comfortable and happy as we were in Valencia, but I can certainly say I have found another place that is treating us as well and that we are enjoying as much.'

The long professional relationship with Ayesterán is one of the key reasons for Benitez's success at Tenerife, Valencia and now Liverpool. They have accumulated a wealth of information about training systems and tactics. 'We are still open to anybody that can teach us new ways to do things,' Benítez adds. 'Pako is very dedicated, very knowledgeable and always learning. Without any doubt he is the best physical trainer there is, and now he works here as an assistant manager, I place on him many of the jobs I used to do at Valencia. I need to delegate as I am now the general manager. Ochotorena, Herrera and the others get all sorts of information and Pako Ayestarán is the one who gathers it all together and gives it shape.'

The directors at Valencia used to complain that Benítez never stopped asking for the latest computer, the newest software. Although he used statistical analyses in rotating his Valencia team, it is not the machines that hold the secret of his success but the humans next to him.[/article]
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom