Celta Vigo threatening to capsize as Titanic disaster looms
When it rains, it pours. Spain has been beset by their worst drought on record in the last few months, but that has been replaced by the onset of thunderstorms and heavy rain in places - Madrid was subjected to 30 litres of rainfall in just 30 minutes this week.
Arguably no place in Spain knows more about rain than Galicia though. Beautiful, green, but far from the common image of constant sun the country as a whole projects. And at Balaídos, a stadium no stranger to a downpour, that stormy weather has Carlos Carvalhal at the centre of it.
Even if Etta James makes it sound divine, gloom and misery is bringing with it fractures in the Celta camp. On Sunday Iago Aspas, unable to play more than cameos currently due to a back problem, let his tongue loose - ‘I said it in August, I said it in January, this team lacks quality, and it wasn’t addressed.’ Not only an indictment of his own colleagues, but perhaps more pointedly a finger in the direction of Sporting Advisor Luis Campos and President Carlos Mouriño.
Peruvian midfielder Renato Tapia gave an impassioned speech on Wednesday about battling for the city, for the badge, and for Galicia - ‘here you come to fight’. Tapia said that while he respected Aspas’ thoughts, ‘it was not a question of quality’, but rather they were being affected by off the field issues, and asked the fans to turn out at Balaídos on Sunday night.
There they will face Barcelona in a showdown that means survival for Os Celeste. They remain a point above the drop zone, but know that a Real Valladolid win will obligate to them to at least draw and probably beat the Blaugrana. While it is true that Barcelona were rather lamentable against Real Valladolid last week away from home with nothing on the line, in terms of quality, Celta have the toughest fixture.
The hard thing to grasp, the warped vision of that early April sun, with temperatures climbing, is that Celta were cruising, basking in the heat. At that stage they were the third-best team in La Liga in 2023, and looked an outside shot for the last European place. Carlos Carvalhal was being lauded as one of the shrewd appointments of the season, and Gabri Veiga one of the revelations of the season.
Recent weeks have seen less of Mouriño feverishly telling the world of his €40m release clause. Since, Celta have won once in 11 games, picking up six points from that run. That sole win was against an already sunk Elche, a single goal of five scored in their last nine. Plagued by poor finishing, a clumsiness has snuck into the Celta defence, and all of sudden burgaled the entire unit of their steel. On Sunday night, their best defender Joseph Aidoo will likely be missing through injury.
Should Celta go down, it would be a collapse of Titanic proportions. It has not gone unnoticed just how much talent Afouteza produces this season, with three of the top four in the Zarra race coming through the system, but it could even affect Celta B. They are due to face Eldense in the Primera RFEF play-offs, but if Celta do go down beforehand, then their two legs would become redundant, and so would a potential final against the winners of the ‘mini-Clásico’, Real Madrid Castilla or Barça Atlétic.
Perhaps what is worst about all of this is that going into the final day, sources of optimism come not from themselves, but other teams. Primarily that Valladolid do not pick up points against Getafe. The two loudest arguments for them to get a result against Barcelona are that a maimed Aspas saves the day as he is want to do, but perhaps more so that their opponents are admiring the sea views rather than focused on their affair. Stormy weather for Carvalhal and Celta, they have four days and one game to weather it.