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The Cádiz Chronicles with @Vam_os - Part 4 (17th August, 2017)

Welcome back! This is part 4 - the last installment - of a series on Cádiz by the founder of injuriesandmore.com, a website that focused on sports medicine and Spanish football. On Twitter, he is @Vam_os - go ahead and follow him!

This part is about the state of Cádiz and their priorities for the upcoming season. And it hereby concludes The Cádiz Chronicles...


Are Cádiz where you want them to be?

Although everyone at the Ramón Carranza was up for promotion to the top league, I think personally that Cádiz’ main priority lies in establishing themselves as a strong second division club first and foremost before aiming any higher.

That’s going to be the key. It’s not to say promotion to La Primera would be a bad thing; but the whole infrastructure at the club needs to be able to maintain that if and when that time comes.

That’s the view also taken by the club president, Manuel Viscaino and it’s reassuring to know that he feels that way. In a recent interview he said that clubs who try to go up to La Primera too quickly soon end up in Segunda B; and consolidation in the division is something I’ve referred to earlier.
In that sense, the youth and reserve sides are going to play a vital part. Nowadays having a youth policy is vital in order to have players coming through that will eventually be able to compete at first-team level; and movement towards the first team from Cádiz B will be essential for that pathway to succeed.

Behind the scenes there’s been a lot of club development going on, both on the field and off it. Led by Dr Fernández Cubero, the Sports Science and Medicine side of the club has really advanced and these days Cádiz also have a sports nutritionist - Antonío Ballesteros - and a podiatrist in addition to the usual strength and conditioning / medical and physiotherapy staff.

The new Cádiz women’s team have also just completed their first season. Despite missing out on promotion it was a good start for the girls. In the year of the UEFA Women’s Euro 17, girls’ football is at the fore so well done to the club for embracing the women’s game in the first place.

Hopefully it won’t be too long before Cádiz will be taking on the established women’s clubs like Rayo Vallecano, Athletic Club, Betis etc.

For the first team though, Álvaro Cervera has turned out to be a good choice and I think most Cádiz fans would agree with that. Like everywhere else, all clubs have their peaks and troughs and at one point last season Álvaro did offer to resign when things weren’t going particularly well. Overall, however, he’s made his mark on the club and I think everyone’s happy to see him continue.

The annual Carranza trophy where Cádiz invite opposition from the higher divisions to compete was a good test this year. Despite losing by the only goal to eventual trophy winners Las Palmas, Cádiz gave a good account of themselves in the second match against Villarreal. Although losing 3-0 to their opponents from La Primera, performances in both games were encouraging. With the new season imminent, this will give everyone heart. At this stage, anyway, the vibes are good and it’s all set for the big kick-off at Córdoba on the 19th of August.

Although winning promotion in 2016 was great at the time, I also think that everyone needs to move on from that. I think there's a need to put this behind a little now and concentrate on seeing Cádiz established as a good, solid, La Liga 2 outfit with all the political issues resolved. A repeat of last season with a strong finish and hopefully another play-off slot would be ideal.

Vamos !!

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