The date is May 19th 2000 and the Spanish province of A Coruna is absolutely rocking. Infinite celebrations echo from all around as resident’s come together to celebrate a historic moment, the areas highest profile football club, Deportivo La Coruna, has that very day just won their First La Liga title in ninety four long years. In doing so they certainly seemed to have banished inconsistencies of past years and certainly capitalised on the sixth placed finish of the previous year, and most saw this as the start of Coruna announcing themselves as one of Europe’s top sides. How wrong that prediction would turn out to be. The apparent demise of Deportivo did not begin directly after their La Liga win however, far from it in fact. The 2000/2001 season saw them make their long awaited debut in the Champions League. A campaign which saw them dispose of the likes of Milan and PSG, the latter seeing them mount a historic comeback from 3-0 down to win 4-3, on their way to a more than respectable quarter final finish (coincidentally they were knocked out eventually by fellow fallen giants Leeds United). Impressing in Europe was matched by an impressive runner up spot in La Liga that year also behind Real Madrid, and in Diego Tristan they had a player who looked capable of achieving great things, as nineteen goals that year, his first, certainly suggested.
The following season saw the progression of the Club continue further still, with them again claiming second spot in an ever improving La Liga and fighting their way to another very respectable Champions League quarter final finish, although they could easily have gone further. However despite the impressive league campaign and a solid European venture, by far the most defining moment of the 2001/2002 season occurred on the 6th March 2002, when Deportivo faced a highly fancied Real Madrid side in the final of the Copa Del Rey. The date of the game fell exactly on the 100-year anniversary of Los Meringues, and despite many touting a comfortable win in favour of the birthday boys, Deportivo held their never and achieved their second Copa Del Rey triumph.
All the signs looked promising once again for the club, with Tristan notching himself 21 goals in that season and Juan Carlos Valeron had become a pivotal man in the side at last. So expectations were at an all time high come the 2002/2003 season. And after a mixed campaign on the domestic and European front which saw the squad torn apart by injury they managed to finish an overall respectable third in La Liga and a slightly disappointing second group stage exit from the Champions League (although they did manage to record a historic 3-2win in Munich against Bayern).
Despite that European disappointment the season was regarded however as a relative success considering the injury hardships, and they were amongst the top three clubs in Spain for a fourth consecutive year. As expected, the talismanic frontman Roy Maakay departed Deportivo for the bright lights of Munich at the end of that season after being at the heart of all recent successes and it remained to be seen whether the Galicians could cope without him. 2003/2004 proved to be the final season of the proclaimed “glory days” of Deportivo La Coruna. An absolutely phenomenal Champions League campaign saw them reach the Semi finals for the first time in their history. Coupling the absolute shameful embarrassment of an 8-3 defeat to eventual finalists Monaco and a 4-2 defeat in the San Siro with an unbelievable second leg turn around at home defeating AC Milan by an empathic 4-0 scoreline. The adventure eventually culminated in a last four defeat to winners Porto, which let Deportivo focus on finishing strongly domestically. They achieved this and for the fifth season running featured in the top three, third on this occasion.
Since that fairytale season, Deportivo have truly fallen a long way out of Europe’s elite and now find themselves staring down the barrel of relegation and the thoughts of starting the 2008/09 campaign back in the Segunda Division look ever more likely. The big question I seem to hear being frequently asked among fans unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Spanish football is why Deportivo have fallen so rapidly from grace in such a frighteningly short space of time. Those of you reading who perhaps remain cynical about Spanish football may not be so surprised to learn that many place the blame firmly at the door of an over ambitious club president, in this case a Mr Augusto Lendoiro.
Ever since he took the helm Lendoiro proved himself to be a very ambitious, flamboyant character who was keen to bring a high calibre of player to the club and see them compete with the very best. For years the man was a hero to all at the Club, he fulfilled promises by firstly stabilising the finances of the club and increasing attendance’s, before finally getting the club back into the top flight of Spanish football. Then bringing in big names such as Bebeto and Mauro Silva and eventually the likes of Andrade Rivaldo and Maakay, spending lots of money efficiently. And so this continued and Lendoiro eventually presided over the glory days of Coruna, financing the new young talent that arrived at the club during this time. He had done now what he had set out to achieve, he had let Deportivo to the top European stage.
It looked for a while like there was no end to Deportivo’s potential and ability, until the summer of 2004 manager Javier Irueta made it known that he required the squad to be strengthened in order to really compete once again. But now the cash was not coming from Mr. President, and instead Lendoiro blocked funds for major signings and even went about releasing a number of key players. At the time, the president claimed that he wanted the Club to follow a different path, rather than constantly spending and buying big players he wanted the club to instead focus on developing its youth. And despite Lendoiro’s insistence that this was a choice he had made rather than something he had been forced into, it soon became painfully apparent that his extravagant spending had totalled up debts in excess of more than 130 million euros, which was simply disastrous for a club such as Deportivo.
What followed explains the sorry state of affairs Deportivo find themselves in today, many of the high earners at the club were released which in turn significantly weakened the standard of the squad and manager Irueta jumped ship immediately, which all led to results getting worse and worse. Hence Deportivo being where they are in La Liga now, and a good chance of the m taking a place in the Segunda divison come the time next season comes around. So perhaps he is to blame, although you have to remember what the man did for the club previously. Ultimately I think, the underhand lying he did was his downfall.
