Villarreal are one of the teams who seemed to benefit the most from this season’s coronavirus three-month break. They had never been higher than seventh before it, but were excellent after the restart and ultimately finished fifth.
Villarreal put together an excellent squad, one which really should be finishing around fifth place. So, there was pressure on coach Javi Calleja when they had their inconsistent start. A Copa del Rey exit in the quarters against second tier side Mirandes upped that pressure further.
Yet, Calleja stayed on and helped guide this team to an excellent restart, as they won five of their first six games after returning. That propelled them into the European spots and it was mission accomplished by the end of the campaign.
Even so, Villarreal took the decision to sack Calleja the day after the season. He’d achieved par for the course, but left too many doubts and they’re now looking to bring in a big name coach.
Besides the summer coaching search, Villarreal will also have to improve squad depth for next season since they’re back in European competition. They benefited from having free midweeks this year and need better depth, plus they’ll have to replace some of those who are set to leave.
The good news is that Raul Albiol and Pau Torres are set to stay and to continue the excellent central defensive partnership they struck up this campaign.
The future could be bright for Villarreal. It just depends on how well they complete their summer assignments.
