This was one of the topics that Andoni Zubizarreta talked about during the meeting he held at the current Celta manager's home. Although the club's sporting directors have already drawn up a list of potential transfer targets and transfer-listed players, as well as several other changes, the new manager's input will be key given that he likes to get involved when building a new squad.
The first thing to be discussed will be which members of the coaching staff and other team assistants are staying on as part of the new regime. Then they will move on to transfer listing players, potential new signings, players who are out on loan and which academy players are ready to step up to the first team.
The coaching team is set for a major overhaul. Martino will leave with the assistants that arrived with him. Luis Enrique will arrive accompanied by his usual four assistants: Juan Carlos Unzué, who is his assistant first-team coach at Celta, Roberto Moreno, who assists him with tactics and has worked alongside him since his time at Barça B, Rafael Pol, the fitness coach who has worked alongside him at Roma and Celta, and Joaquín Valdés, a psychologist who works with the squad on a daily basis.
Luis Enrique is a confessed Real Madrid hater. Despite playing for 'Los Blancos' for five seasons from 1991/92 to 1995/96, he signed for Barcelona the following summer. The people in charge at the Bernabéu were looking at renewing his contract, but the Spaniard changed camps. He even underwent his medical in secret. The 'Merengue' fans have never forgiven him. In the capital he became known as a traitor.
The man who now manages Cetla scored five goals against Madrid wearing the Barcelona shirt, two of them at a livid Santiago Bernabéu. The tension which overwhelmed the crowd never affected him. Rather, it seemed to motivate him.
President Lorenzo Sanz criticised his performance, describing it as a provocation. "If he wants, I'll cry when I score," was Luis Enrique's response. Relations between the two parties are beyond repair. "I don't hold good memories of my time at Real," recollects the Celta coach. Not only did he shine as a player at the Nou Camp, he became an idol for the 'Culé' fans. "I see myself on stickers and on television and I feel weird in white. I think the blue and purple suit me much better."
Luis Enrique has always been jeered at the Bernabéu, and it appears to motivate him. He already said it when he was playing: "For a Barça player, it is always rewarding to be jeered in this stadium." As a coach, he described the 2-6 win by Guardiola's side over Madrid as a "football orgasm".
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