Quique Setien has already begun his reign at Villarreal, taking charge of six games before the World Cup break, but he will be hoping for a fresh start.
The former Barcelona manager nearly lost his job after just one win in his opening five matches, with owner Fernando Roig reportedly alarmed at the way Setien was managing the team.
That in part was down to a seemingly innocent mistake. The Cantabrian manager has been painted as out of the loop, and lacking versatility in terms of his style, with some players even filtering their concerns about the manager to the press.
As per Relevo, Setien got off on the wrong foot with one of Villarreal’s young stars, Yeremy Pino. Setien mistook the Spain international for a youth player initially, before calling him ‘Yeray’, causing a ripple of laughter amongst his teammates. For his part, Setien did not even notice.
Hence it made it into the media that Setien did not even know who some of the players were. As this news reached President Roig from the dressing room, he called Setien to make very clear: ‘please, call him Yeremy’.
‘Everything has an explanation’ reacted Setien. The Cantabrian told Roig that it was a simple lapse of the mind, as ‘Yeray’ was one of the waiters he would speak with on a daily basis in a cafe at home in Cantabria for the past two years.
Setien then went about making amends, apologising and clarifying with Pino that nobody at the club knew more about the young Canary Islander than he did.
Relevo also pointed out that most of this information was based around Yeremi Pino – the 20-year-old has officially changed his name to Yeremy.
While Setien might have patched things up with Pino for now, what is clear is that he cannot afford many more similar errors. With the dressing clearly already somewhat sceptical about him, further incidents, no matter how unintentional, will cause the players to lose respect for him. A good start to the new year will be essential to his chances of success with the Yellow Submarine.