The History of Sporting: 1998-2006, "The Dark Years"

It was a dull afternoon in September 1998 when Sporting played against Toledo in the first match of the season. It was not a typical Sunday football afternoon. Sporting were playing their first match in the Second Division after more than 20 years in the top flight of Spanish football. At the end of the match, the goaless draw seemed to predict what was going to happen over the following ten years.
These were tough times for Sporting supporters (Sportinguistas). Managers and directors spent money without any control and Sporting was near to folding several times.
The situation became critical during the summer of 2001. The local council had to buy the Mareo training grounds and the official trade-marks in order to provide to the club the necessary money to pay players and staff.

During the following years, the situation did not improve at all. David Villa (above), the new young promise had to be sold to Zaragoza for only €3 million in another desperate bid to raise cash. In the summer of 2005, the administrators took control of the club's finances in order to assure payments to staff and creditors.

Without a stadium, training grounds and trade-marks, a club in administration celebrated a hundred years of history. It was one of the most poor and depressing celebrations. The thoughts of the fans were centred around the potential disappearance rather than commemorating this historic birthday.

The external control of finances saved the club. This process stopped the club spending money and an austerity policy was imposed at El Molinón. It remained important to gain promotion to the first division and this was achieved in 2008, as I outlined in earlier posts, during "The Preciado's Era"

The History of Sporting: 2006-Present, "The Preciado's Era"

In this post, I intend to start a set of short articles on the history of Sporting for the fans. Besides, these compositions will be written backwards, starting in the present time and advancing through more than a hundred years of red-and-white history until 1905.

Thus, this first chapter summarizes the history between the years 2006 and 2011, or as I have called it: “The Preciado’s Era”.

In the summer of 2006, Sporting started their ninth season in a row in the Second Division. They were times of a huge economic crisis for the club, and an average attendance of 12000 long suffering fans was common in El Molinón. Signing players was an impossible mission and a few managers had declined coaching Sporting citing the lack of opportunities to create a strong squad. Although Manolo Preciado was not the first choice for the club’s board of directors, he was the only one who accepted the challenge.

With a squad full of young players, the goal was to avoid relegation to the third tier of Spanish football. Some players arrived that summer such as Barral or Diego Castro, at that time unknown by most of Spanish football fans. That season, Sporting avoided relegation with only two matches to spare, but this marked the first step towards change.

The following year, with a group of young players with experience of the Second Division, the dream of promotion was realised. That was the year of the heroes Kike Mateo, Bilic, Matabuena and Roberto among others. Sporting fans lived the dream in the evening of the 15^th June 2008 in an agonic last match against Eibar at home. The club returned to the place that it deserves the top flight of Spanish football.

The first season in La Liga could not have started worst, five defeats in a row conceding seven goals against Barcelona and six against Real Madrid. Nevertheless, a team without experience and a serious lack of skills overcame theses disadvantages. The last match of the season against Recreativo was frenetic. Sporting conceded the first goal, but turned the game around, thus achieving their objective of remaining in the top division.

Having being a year in the First Division, Sporting incomes increased considerably. Mareo training grounds were upgraded, some quality players such as de las Cuevas and Rivera became affordable and a solid squad was built for that year. Although we were not safe until two matches before the end of the season, the impression was different to the previous year. Sporting had changed.

And finally, Sporting’s progression continued during the third season in Primera. Although the best signings of this year did not play satisfactorily, there was a solid base that achieved a degree of success that season.

Nowadays, the club is consolidated in Primera. Mareo and El Molinón have been upgraded; we have international players, several official stores all around Asturias and more than 26000 season ticket holders. The club and the fans need to acknowledge the debt that they owe to the coach and to the players of the early years of “The Preciado’s Era”.