Deportivo de La Coruña

ken_shabby

Trying to find La Liga thread and couldn't but I though I'd throw this in. I'm sure a few of us can remember the Super Depor of the nineties, winning a couple of Copa's as well as a Spanish Liga, and falling in a Champons leaue semi final against Oporto.
The club have been on an awful run and dropped in to the Spanish regional third division in 2020, the same time as Lee Bowyers Charlton dropped into league 1. And they have shown a similar inability to climb back out - poor football, a brush with relegation and a dedicated fan base vbeing served up rubbish. They reached the play offs in the last two seasons without looking convincing and lost both times.

This season started the same way and there was discussion about whether another relegation was looming and huge calles for the manager to go, but since january, they have been on an unbeaten run which saw them climbfrom mid table to leaders, and yesterday they beat Barça B (that's how far they have fallen) 1-0 at home with a goal form Lucas Perez to seal promotion with two games to spare.

Huge joy in A Coruña, and celebrations from me here in Catalunya. Next season they will have to adapt to the heights of league two football but they are finally back in professional football.

FORZA DEPOR!

iaitch

Was it them that turned over a big deficit against Milan in the UCL, something like 4-1 down from the first leg?

Kap10

Good to see them coming back.  I saw them at Barcelona early in their decline and they lost 4-2. 

ken_shabby

Yeah, the lost 4-1:in the San Siro and won in the return leg 4-0. Crazy days.
I saw them win 2-0 in the Camp Nou a few years back. A mate lent me his season ticket charged me 30€) under strrict instructions not to celebrate if we scored.

ShootersHillGuru

ken_shabby said:

Yeah, the lost 4-1:in the San Siro and won in the return leg 4-0. Crazy days.
I saw them win 2-0 in the Camp Nou a few years back. A mate lent me his season ticket charged me 30€) under strrict instructions not to celebrate if we scored.

We. We !!!!!!!!

MarcusH26

Is that the Lucas Perez that had a fairly unremarkable spell at Arsenal? 

carly burn

Never knew that.
Have they also seen an ownership shit show merry go round similar to us Ken?

Chaz Hill

Family that ran one of the bars in the village where our Spanish house is come from up north and are big Deportivo fans. Went with the father and two sons to see Deportivo at Granada and Malaga back in the day. Great set of fans. Talking of Malaga they have been pretty much in the same boat as Deportivo recently.

ken_shabby

MarcusH26 said:

Is that the Lucas Perez that had a fairly unremarkable spell at Arsenal? 

That's the one. Left Depor to go to Arsenal after a relegation and never really picked up at Arsenal. Theres a nice story attached,. He was playing in the Primera with Cadiz but voluntarily paid of his contract in order to help his home town club climb back up the leagues.
The rumour doing the rounds today is that it cost him 400,000 euros to leave Cadiz and play for Depor, so yesterday was a bit of vindication for him. I expect him to have a stand named after him there one day 

Chris_from_Sidcup

ken_shabby said:

Trying to find La Liga thread and couldn't but I though I'd throw this in. I'm sure a few of us can remember the Super Depor of the nineties, winning a couple of Copa's as well as a Spanish Liga, and falling in a Champons leaue semi final against Oporto.
The club have been on an awful run and dropped in to the Spanish regional third division in 2020, the same time as Lee Bowyers Charlton dropped into league 1. And they have shown a similar inability to climb back out - poor football, a brush with relegation and a dedicated fan base vbeing served up rubbish. They reached the play offs in the last two seasons without looking convincing and lost both times.

This season started the same way and there was discussion about whether another relegation was looming and huge calles for the manager to go, but since january, they have been on an unbeaten run which saw them climbfrom mid table to leaders, and yesterday they beat Barça B (that's how far they have fallen) 1-0 at home with a goal form Lucas Perez to seal promotion with two games to spare.

Huge joy in A Coruña, and celebrations from me here in Catalunya. Next season they will have to adapt to the heights of league two football but they are finally back in professional football.

FORZA DEPOR!

So the third tier where they've been the last few seasons is semi-pro?

I assume Deportivo have still been pro though, especially if Lucas Perez is playing for them? But even so it's pretty wild that a country the size of Spain only has 2 professional leagues.

swords_alive

Difficult place to get to from the UK, A Coruña, when i looked a few years ago; involved flying to Madrid and changing there, and not possible some of the year (from memory and that would have been 15-20 years ago). Can't recall why i was keen on the idea specifically. (Was Chris Powell playing for England in Portugal and i was looking for alternative routes maybe?) Galicia generally seemed hard to get to.  Not sure if there is a train service to Coruña these days?

iaitch

You're in the right place to enquire about train services.

CharltonMadrid

Pleased for them after a tough few years. The third tier is known as 'el pozo' here (the well). Easy to fall into to buy very hard to get out of!

ken_shabby

swords_alive said:

Difficult place to get to from the UK, A Coruña, when i looked a few years ago; involved flying to Madrid and changing there, and not possible some of the year (from memory and that would have been 15-20 years ago). Can't recall why i was keen on the idea specifically. (Was Chris Powell playing for England in Portugal and i was looking for alternative routes maybe?) Galicia generally seemed hard to get to.  Not sure if there is a train service to Coruña these days?

Went a few years ago as my wife bought me tickets for my 50th birthday. A mate of mine flew in direct to La Coruña but the flights aren't very frequent, and the train trip is very slow from Madrid too. From memory it used to be better to fly into Santiago, which is an hour from Coruña.
PS my birtday trip was a blast apart from the football, when Depor were trashed 8-0 by Barcelona. I have never seen a team I supported concede 8 before, and even less so at home (my previous worse was a 1-5 stuffing of Charlton by Luton back in the seventies, as I fortunately only saw the 6-0 against leeds on the TV)

ElfsborgAddick

ken_shabby said:

swords_alive said:

Difficult place to get to from the UK, A Coruña, when i looked a few years ago; involved flying to Madrid and changing there, and not possible some of the year (from memory and that would have been 15-20 years ago). Can't recall why i was keen on the idea specifically. (Was Chris Powell playing for England in Portugal and i was looking for alternative routes maybe?) Galicia generally seemed hard to get to.  Not sure if there is a train service to Coruña these days?

Went a few years ago as my wife bought me tickets for my 50th birthday. A mate of mine flew in direct to La Coruña but the flights aren't very frequent, and the train trip is very slow from Madrid too. From memory it used to be better to fly into Santiago, which is an hour from Coruña.
PS my birtday trip was a blast apart from the football, when Depor were trashed 8-0 by Barcelona. I have never seen a team I supported concede 8 before, and even less so at home (my previous worse was a 1-5 stuffing of Charlton by Luton back in the seventies, as I fortunately only saw the 6-0 against leeds on the TV)

Looks a relatively new ground, unlike a lot of grounds in Spain that are an open bowl. 

ken_shabby

They did it up extensively in the '90's. It was a bow with an athletics track round the outsidem but they closed off the ends and got rid of the athletics track. They played a couple of matches in the 82 world cup there. 

Todds_right_hook

I’m looking forward to the deportivo ongoing progress in Spanish league 2 thread

The Red Robin

Used to love watching them in the early 2000s. Djalminha especially. 

Chippycafc

They should have won more titles, I still recall the year they blew it when they drew the last 3 games and Barcelona won the last 3 to pip them on GD. great strike force then of Bebeto and Romario.

Valley11

Remember the swash-buckling side that had Roy Makaay and Diego Tristan. Good to hear they’re on the way back. 

AddicksAddict

ken_shabby said:

Yeah, the lost 4-1:in the San Siro and won in the return leg 4-0. Crazy days.
I saw them win 2-0 in the Camp Nou a few years back. A mate lent me his season ticket charged me 30€) under strrict instructions not to celebrate if we scored.

I’m not sure you understand the meaning of “lent”. 

AddicksAddict

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

ken_shabby said:

Trying to find La Liga thread and couldn't but I though I'd throw this in. I'm sure a few of us can remember the Super Depor of the nineties, winning a couple of Copa's as well as a Spanish Liga, and falling in a Champons leaue semi final against Oporto.
The club have been on an awful run and dropped in to the Spanish regional third division in 2020, the same time as Lee Bowyers Charlton dropped into league 1. And they have shown a similar inability to climb back out - poor football, a brush with relegation and a dedicated fan base vbeing served up rubbish. They reached the play offs in the last two seasons without looking convincing and lost both times.

This season started the same way and there was discussion about whether another relegation was looming and huge calles for the manager to go, but since january, they have been on an unbeaten run which saw them climbfrom mid table to leaders, and yesterday they beat Barça B (that's how far they have fallen) 1-0 at home with a goal form Lucas Perez to seal promotion with two games to spare.

Huge joy in A Coruña, and celebrations from me here in Catalunya. Next season they will have to adapt to the heights of league two football but they are finally back in professional football.

FORZA DEPOR!

So the third tier where they've been the last few seasons is semi-pro?

I assume Deportivo have still been pro though, especially if Lucas Perez is playing for them? But even so it's pretty wild that a country the size of Spain only has 2 professional leagues.

The anomaly is us pro teams in four, five, maybe even some of those in the two sixth, divisions. Everywhere else, except perhaps not Scotland, don’t know about their divisions below their premier league, are semi-pro below the top two. 

thai malaysia addick

Very refreshing to read this thread. They were a great side for those years when they reached the top.

cafcfan1990

AddicksAddict said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

ken_shabby said:

Trying to find La Liga thread and couldn't but I though I'd throw this in. I'm sure a few of us can remember the Super Depor of the nineties, winning a couple of Copa's as well as a Spanish Liga, and falling in a Champons leaue semi final against Oporto.
The club have been on an awful run and dropped in to the Spanish regional third division in 2020, the same time as Lee Bowyers Charlton dropped into league 1. And they have shown a similar inability to climb back out - poor football, a brush with relegation and a dedicated fan base vbeing served up rubbish. They reached the play offs in the last two seasons without looking convincing and lost both times.

This season started the same way and there was discussion about whether another relegation was looming and huge calles for the manager to go, but since january, they have been on an unbeaten run which saw them climbfrom mid table to leaders, and yesterday they beat Barça B (that's how far they have fallen) 1-0 at home with a goal form Lucas Perez to seal promotion with two games to spare.

Huge joy in A Coruña, and celebrations from me here in Catalunya. Next season they will have to adapt to the heights of league two football but they are finally back in professional football.

FORZA DEPOR!

So the third tier where they've been the last few seasons is semi-pro?

I assume Deportivo have still been pro though, especially if Lucas Perez is playing for them? But even so it's pretty wild that a country the size of Spain only has 2 professional leagues.

The anomaly is us pro teams in four, five, maybe even some of those in the two sixth, divisions. Everywhere else, except perhaps not Scotland, don’t know about their divisions below their premier league, are semi-pro below the top two. 

The Spanish third tier is now pretty much professional though, has been for about 5 years. 

Chris_from_Sidcup

AddicksAddict said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

ken_shabby said:

Trying to find La Liga thread and couldn't but I though I'd throw this in. I'm sure a few of us can remember the Super Depor of the nineties, winning a couple of Copa's as well as a Spanish Liga, and falling in a Champons leaue semi final against Oporto.
The club have been on an awful run and dropped in to the Spanish regional third division in 2020, the same time as Lee Bowyers Charlton dropped into league 1. And they have shown a similar inability to climb back out - poor football, a brush with relegation and a dedicated fan base vbeing served up rubbish. They reached the play offs in the last two seasons without looking convincing and lost both times.

This season started the same way and there was discussion about whether another relegation was looming and huge calles for the manager to go, but since january, they have been on an unbeaten run which saw them climbfrom mid table to leaders, and yesterday they beat Barça B (that's how far they have fallen) 1-0 at home with a goal form Lucas Perez to seal promotion with two games to spare.

Huge joy in A Coruña, and celebrations from me here in Catalunya. Next season they will have to adapt to the heights of league two football but they are finally back in professional football.

FORZA DEPOR!

So the third tier where they've been the last few seasons is semi-pro?

I assume Deportivo have still been pro though, especially if Lucas Perez is playing for them? But even so it's pretty wild that a country the size of Spain only has 2 professional leagues.

The anomaly is us pro teams in four, five, maybe even some of those in the two sixth, divisions. Everywhere else, except perhaps not Scotland, don’t know about their divisions below their premier league, are semi-pro below the top two. 

Italian Serie C is professional as is the German 3rd tier.

cashncarry

Funnily enough I'm in Coruna now first stop on our cruise

ken_shabby

carly burn said:

Never knew that.
Have they also seen an ownership shit show merry go round similar to us Ken?

Yes and no. Back at their height in the nineties, their president (Augussto Ceasar Lendoiro) made a very clear case that the club didn't want to be open to being sold as it might bring in buyers who didn't have the club's best interest at heart, so it seems to have been run witha few shareholders and very limited possibilties to be bought. However, they somehow overspent drastically before that became a common thing. Roy Mackaay being sold (he wanted and deserved a contract upgrade but there was no money for it) was a sign that things were going pear shaped, and the club began to release the better players and replace them with the sort of dross Charlton have treated us to for years. They are still massively in debt as far as I know, but pating it off a few euros at a time. 
But the president is voted for by the general assembly and they aren't on the market to be bought.
But they won't be going on a spending spree to try and get back to the Primera as far as I know, unless things have changed behind the scenes.