A Canarian nightmare

In what has been a terrible season both the major Canary clubs have suffered relegation and protests at how the clubs are ran.

Las Palmas have become a yo-yo side in recent years but the one comfort when they’ve been relegated in previous years is the knowledge that their rivalry and derbi with Tenerife can be resumed in Segunda. This time as Las Palmas were relegated even that crumb of comfort was taken from them with their rivals relegated the week before without having kicked a ball in anger.

In what has been a disastrous season for both the Canary clubs on and off the pitch one will find itself in Segunda and one will find itself technically out of professional football and in the third tier.

For Las Palmas, the summer was promising, Garcia Pimienta had left for Sevilla but in came Luis Carrion a charismatic coach who had done a fantastic job at both Cartagena and Real Oviedo who he very nearly took back to the promised land. In the market the club had made some exciting signings with Fabio Silva a striker who cost Wolves £40 million joining on loan alongside Liverpool midfielder Stefan Bajcetic and of course the Scottish duo of Scott McKenna and Oli McBurnie.

The core of the team looked strong and with the club adding players who had performed well at Segunda level alongside experienced La Liga players in Adnan Januzaj, Jaime Mata and Jasper Cillessen the feeling was the club would be in midtable safety.

Unfortunately Pio Pio took their form from the back end of last season into the new season with them. Las Palmas had failed to win any of their final 14 matches and after a promising start had ended up finishing 16th.

Carrion lasted nine matches, he failed to oversee a victory in any of them, the club also lost what would turn out to be vital defeats against relegation rivals Leganes and Alaves during those nine games.

Diego Martinez a coach who appeared on a downward trend after his exploits at Granada came in and had an instant impact, after failing to win in twenty one games they won his first three including the Copa del Rey first round. They looked revitalised under his leadership and when they recorded a shock victory away to Barca many thought they were on their way to safety.

Although Las Palmas are known for playing the game a certain way they were winning games with grit and determination traits not often associated with them but if they were on top of the world that night in Montjuïc the only way was down.

Las Palmas headed to face Elche in the last 32 of the Copa and they were taught a lesson by former assistant coach Eder Sarabia. Playing a style more associated with the Canarian side than Elche they crushed Las Palmas 4-0 and despite some rotation the starting eleven was strong.

Whether that match shattered the teams confidence or not they went thirteen matches without winning dropping points against a Real Valladolid side almost nobody drops points too and drawing at home to Alaves in what felt a must win.

Pio Pio and Oli McBurnie did rally with successive wins but the ship couldn’t be turned round and what looked to be a promising season ended with relegation.

While questions will be asked of how with some of the players at their disposal such as Alberto Moleiro the team has gone down it’s also worth remembering the team will have suffered with the news during the season that influential and much loved captain Kirian has suffered a relapse with cancer. Footballers are human and it can’t have been easy particularly for an island side where naturally things are more insular.

The main questions so far have been aimed at the president Miguel Angel Ramirez and his running of the club, Ramirez has a mandate until 2030 but some fans want him and Sporting Director Luis Helguera to leave.

With 10 players either out of contract or their loans ending plus players such as Alberto Moreiro and Oli McBurnie who will attract the interest of others it promises to be a big summer of change at Las Palmas.

Speaking of big changes, Tenerife will also have a season of huge upheaval following another disastrous season. What had been arguably the most stable club in Segunda became a basket case almost overnight thanks to previous owner Jose Manuel Garrido. Garrido had previously invested in Castellon and Albacete both of which ended badly and has admitted to avoiding tax in the past. The owner was close friends with lower league coach Oscar Cano so despite the Sporting Directors resistance Cano was appointed Head Coach ahead of the season.

Tenerife had spent 12 successive seasons in Segunda and almost made it to La Liga in 2022 but as Garrido took more control of the club the team started to suffer. While Tete had an aging side they also had plenty of quality and not many expected them to be in trouble this season despite the off field troubles. Tenerife sold young centre back Loic Williams to fellow Segunda side Granada, talented keeper Juan Soriano ran his contract down and signed for La Liga outfit Leganes and mainstay of the side Alex Corradera was controversially sold to Russian side Khimki after the transfer window had shut in Spain.

While off the field was engulfed in ever more chaos, on the pitch the Cano era was disastrous with four defeats and a draw before the club pulled the trigger on his reign. In came Pepe Mel a coach who had previously been at the club but a man more known for long term changes to teams rather than a fire fighter. He had done a similar role for Malaga and left them in the relegation places before he was fired there. While Mel undoubtedly brought calm and improved the style of play while also blooding youngsters such as Aaron Martin and Dani Fernandez results didn’t improve enough for him to keep his role.

At points during the season Tete had seen more extraordinary AGMs than victories and during one of these it was announced that Mel would no longer be in charge after the Burgos game. This was news to Mel but ultimately while it might not have been handled right he was again the wrong man.

Shareholders and fans had managed to wrestle back control of the club and remove the influence of Garrido and his henchman and the new board appointed Alvaro Cervera a former coach who is best known for his spell in charge of Cadiz where he led them to La Liga and stabilised them in the top flight.

Cervera had a huge job on his hands with the club cast adrift in the relegation zone but slowly over time he got them organised. Unfortunately for Tete and their suffering fans the damage had been done long before Cervera took over and despite threatening to pull off a great escape with the side unbeaten in their last eight matches, the gap was just too big.

With relegation confirmed last weekend ahead of their game against Racing Ferrol you might expect a funeral atmosphere and the fanbase to be in revolt but things are good in Santa Cruz. Garrido someone who put the clubs existence at threat is out, Cervera has signed a new deal confirming he will stay for the fight in the third tier and former player and respected Sporting Director Felipe Miñambres has taken a role on the board from July. Miñambres has overseen impressive spells at Rayo, Celta and Levante and his vision will be key to their future.

Fans feel optimism and a sense of change at Tenerife even if the third tier is notorious to get out of and can become a real quagmire for big sides such as Tete.Both clubs have suffered painful seasons and the one positive for Tenerife has been they’ve at least been able to plan, for Las Palmas Segunda brings a new opportunity and the chance to clinch promotion number eight to La Liga.

The Canary Islands are known for their joy and jokey manner and both Tenerife and Las Palmas will hope that after the pain and despair of this season the joy will soon return.