Osasuna sacks Mendilibar after three league games

José Luis Mendilibar has become the first managerial casualty of the Liga season after just three matches. The president of Osasuna CF, Miguel Archanco, announced Tuesday that the club’s board had reached a unanimous decision to dispense with Mendilibar’s services after a dreadful start to the season that reaped three defeats, leaving the team at the foot of the table with just one goal scored and seven conceded.

Archanco admitted in a press conference that no substitute for the Basque coach had yet been hired. Whoever the club approaches has quite the task on their hands: Osasuna’s run in Primera has been based largely on its home form and a resolute defense. Traditionally, the opposition goal has not been a happy hunting ground for Osasuna and the sale of Kike Sola to Athletic Bilbao will hardly help in that respect.

Mendilibar arrived at Osasuna in February 2011 as a replacement for the sacked José Antonio Camacho. His previous coaching experience had taken him from Bilbao Athletic via Lanzarote and Eibar to the Athletic first team, then Valladolid and Osasuna. In his first half-season he managed to stave off the threat of relegation and eventually guided the team to ninth, bettering that in his first full season with a seventh-place finish, one spot away from a European campaign. The 2012-13 season brought less fortune, and Osasuna’s place in Primera was only guaranteed on the penultimate match-day.