Osasuna are on the hunt for a manager for the first time in six years after Jagoba Arrasate revealed that he would not be taking the club up on their desire to extend his contract. It will be just the third appointment in Braulio Vazquez’s tenure as sporting director, after bringing in Diego Martinez and Arrasate.
Several factors are attributed to his decision, beginning with the huge blow of being eliminated in the play-offs of Conference League at the start of the season hitting him hard. The second is that he does not feel he has been able to evolve the squad this season. Arrasate was also struggling to find the same energy as he had last season to take on the challenge of improving Osasuna.
There is an early favourite for the job which dates back to one of Braulio’s previous experiences though – Rubi. The pair worked together in 2014 at Real Valladolid and Relevo report that Braulio has been impressed with him ever since. Valladolid finished 5th in Segunda that season, but could not win promotion through the play-offs.
Rubi has been out of work since deciding to leave Almeria last summer, having won promotion with them and then guided them to safety in La Liga last season. Between those two jobs, he has had spells at Levante, Sporting Gijon, Huesca, Espanyol and Real Betis, with varying degrees of success. Rubi was also an assistant coach to Tito Vilanova and Tata Martino at Barcelona, but his most notable work was probably guiding Espanyol to a European finish in 2019 across the city.
