A day with Diego Martínez

Diego Martínez is a man who appears to have all the time in the world.

Waiting on a sun scorched patio, beneath a club emblem and motto which reads “Eternal Fight”, 25 staff are enjoying a buffet of Galician empanada, Oxtail burgers and tortilla Española, washed down with ice cold cola and local lager. The lunch has been paid for by Martínez, but he hasn’t yet joined the party.

He’s with us, patiently posing as we film the final shots of what’s already been a long day - we began filming seven hours ago. We’re at Granada Club de Fútbol, filming a story for the UEFA Europa League Magazine Show. Granada face PSV Eindhoven in eight days. PSV may have won the European Cup in 1988 but for Granada this match will be their first ever in official European competition. 15 years ago the club was playing “on mud pitches in the fourth tier.” Their resurgence has been extraordinary, thanks in large part to Martínez.

I’m expecting him to rush off once the filming is concluded, but he’s in no hurry and as he has throughout the day, finds time for a laugh. Recalling that the camera-operator is a Liverpool supporter he jests that perhaps he’ll manage The Reds at some stage in the future, “managing a team like that might be easier than the job I have now!” It’s mid-October and we’re sweating in short sleeves. I remind Diego not to forget his winter jacket when he goes to Liverpool. He bursts out laughing and invites us to join his staff at the buffet.

As he walks off he leaves a huge impression. His interview lasted 50 minutes, packed full of intelligent, original, thought provoking content. “I believe in humility and ambition. You might think that those two things live in contrast to one another, but I think they go hand in hand in perfect harmony.” Both humility and ambition are evident throughout the day, “no team wins every single match, so let’s not aspire to that. The most ambitious thing you can do is make sure that today you complete the best possible training session.”

From where I stood, today’s session looked outstanding. First team players Luis Milla and Roberto Soldado concur, purring that every session at Granada is top quality: “we’re extremely well looked after at this club. Every detail is thought of”.

In the morning gym session each player was given a sheet of paper detailing every exercise and stretch they should do, “injury prevention work” as Milla puts it. During the session on grass, Martínez communicates with a clarity and lucidity I’ve rarely seen. He’s so succinct in his ideas and so clear in expressing them. I watch him direct an exercise involving a high press and quick transition culminating in a cross from the wing. “We are a team built upon persistence,” he tells his players ahead of the session. “One bad result here or there won’t knock us off our path, because we never give in. Persistence and insistence is the difference between a team that fulfils its potential and one that doesn’t.” Crucially, the drill looks fun. The players are active and they’re enjoying themselves, but Martínez doesn’t hesitate to stop proceedings to point something out, and with such clarity and charisma it’s easy to understand his message.

We arrived at 8am, a few minutes before the boss. After a PCR test conducted by a club doctor we’re invited to film with Martínez and his technical staff in their office. The door is adorned with a T.S. Eliot quote: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” Atop Martínez’s desk sits a pile of literature about Rinus Michels, Jorge Valdano, Marcelo Bielsa, Gregg Popovich and others. This is access I’ve never previously witnessed from a top flight manager. Using video footage he controls via a tablet, Martínez dissects a small-sided training game and discusses possible improvements in build-up play from defence. His microphone is on and he’s happy for us to film everything, “just don’t show Sevilla” he jokes!

Sevilla is Granada’s next opponent, three days from now - “a beautiful game to contest, but an even better game to win.” It’s an Andaluz derby, and a fixture of poignance given Martínez’s trajectory.

He owes much to Monchi, Sporting Director at Sevilla, who saw in Martínez “something no-one else had seen, and gave [him] a chance. That’s what Monchi does, he sees potential and he trusts in it.”

Martínez worked his way up from coaching in Sevilla’s youth categories to eventually working as Unai Emery’s Assistant Manager between 2012 and 2014, a period that culminated in winning the UEFA Europa League. “I remember everything about that final. It’s so vivid I can even smell it. I can see the Sevilla supporters to my left cheering the team on. I recall everything, in high definition, it’s so sharp.”  To lift the trophy, Sevilla played 19 matches, won two penalty shoot outs, eliminated rivals Real Betis at the Benito Villamarín, and defeated favourites Benfica in the final, in Turin. It was an underdog triumph which perhaps reflects much of Martínez’s identity.

He recognised early that his calling was coaching, not playing: “I could see that the world of football was better off without me in it as a player, but I’ve always been fascinated in coaching and helping people realise their full potential.”

At 20 he left Galicia and enrolled to study Sports Science at the University of Granada. His first club, Imperio Albolote, is just 12km from where we are now, and his wife is from Granada.

“I believe in following instinct, and I didn’t have to think at all when the phone call came from Granada.” It was the summer of 2018 and Martínez and his wife were in Pamplona, where the then 37 year old had just led Osasuna to within a point of the Second Division Play Offs. “We’d actually decided, after I left Osasuna, that we’d move to Granada and live there until I got a new job. An hour later Granada CF called! Sometimes things feel like fate.”

Since taking the job 26 months ago, he’s led “The Nazaríes” into the top flight, to the semi-finals of the Copa Del Rey and into Europe. At 39, he’s one of the continent’s brightest managerial prospects.

In Eindhoven, he will meet Roger Schmidt, PSV’s German manager. “I’m so excited to face Schmidt, he’s a coach I admire. I remember when his RB Salzburg team beat Ajax 3-0 away from home [2013/14 UEFA Europa League Round of 32]. I was so impressed with the performance I showed it to my players in the Sevilla Youth Team to demonstrate the kind of high press I wanted to implement.”

Martínez’s passion for his job is evident. He seems to be enjoying every element and frequently returns to the idea that “the most important thing is the players. Everything we do as coaching staff is geared towards them, their performance and their happiness. It’s the players, after all, who get the results.”

“We have to go small step by small step, what matters is what we do today. Our only objective is to reach 42 points and avoid relegation. We won’t be an established top flight club until we’ve been in the first division for eight years or so.”

Martínez may be settled in Granada, but it’s difficult to imagine him still managing the club eight years from now. His reputation in the game is growing, and there is a sense that management at bigger clubs lies ahead.

We’ve tidied up our equipment and join the Granada staff at the buffet. Cleaners, receptionists, security guards, press managers, analysts, kit-men, ground staff, physiotherapists – everyone is there and they’re making us feel welcome. Martínez is at the centre of conversation, sharing anecdotes and laughing heartily. “This is vital” he confides, “and people sometimes overlook it. In any profession, if you’re in a position of seniority, a decision-maker, then you have to spend time with everyone at your organisation. You need to listen to them, hear their stories, hear their jokes and understand who they are. You need to value them and let them know they’re valued. If you don’t, then the whole basis for collective ambition falls down.”

Martínez is the last one to leave the buffet, helping to tidy up the leftovers. When I depart the training ground at 5.30pm it is deserted, but the manager’s car is still there, “I am grateful that my passion is my vocation.”

He’s the first one in and the last to leave which, perhaps, is why Diego Martínez appears to have all of the time in the world.