Football Season Guide

Leganes are preparing for their third LaLiga season and they’re doing so without Asier Garitano, the coach who took them from the third tier to the top tier of Spanish football, and who then helped them stay there. He is off to Real Sociedad, so Leganes turned to Mauricio Pellegrino, who had an unsuccessful stint at Southampton last year, but who had done well when he coached Alaves in the 2016/17 LaLiga season. He set that Alaves side up to play quick and direct counter attacking football, using pacey full-backs, and he’ll surely do likewise at Leganes. Already Leganes have signed several wide players with pace this summer, suggesting that their plan is to attack from the flanks, while they’ve done extremely well to land centre-forward Guido Carrillo on loan from Pellegrino’s former club Southampton, a player whose cost a transfer fee of around £19 just a few months ago and who immediately makes Leganes more dangerous in attack. Even so, Leganes’ squad is still one of the weakest in the division and they’ve lost a few 2017/18 starters this summer, either because they’ve been purchased by bigger clubs or because their loan deals have expired. When it has come to replacing them, Leganes have taken a few players from the teams who were relegated last year, deals which represent good value, but which also demonstrates the level they’re operating at. It’ll be another year of merely hoping to survive for Leganes, but they have shown over the past two seasons that they should never be ruled out, no matter how small their budget and no matter how poor their squad looks on paper. Having only lost six of their 19 home games last season, they have one of the most significant home advantages in Spain and that could be worth several points.