Football Season Guide

Granada CF

In


Carlos Bacca (att) Villarreal; Monchu (mid) Barcelona; Luis Abram (def) Vélez Sarsfield; Ramon Azeez (mid) Cartagena – end of loan; Antoñín (att) Rayo Vallecano – end of loan

Out


Rui Silva (r) (gk) Real Betis; Roberto Soldado (r) (att) Levante; Fede Vico (r) (mid) Released; Domingos Quina (sp) (mid) Watford – end of loan; Jesús Vallejo (sp) (def) Real Madrid – end of loan; Nehuén Pérez (sp) (def) Atletico Madrid – end of loan; Kenedy (r) (mid) Chelsea – end of loan

Granada had another good season last year, following up their spectacular 2019/20 by coming ninth and by reaching the Europa League quarter-finals in 2020/21. At the end of the season, though, their spectacular young coach Diego Martinez left the club and Granada went out and hired Robert Moreno to replace him. Moreno is quite a wild card, especially at this level. He was the assistant to Luis Enrique and briefly became the Spain head coach when Luis Enrique had to step aside for family reasons. Moreno did well there and that earned him a job with Monaco, but he didn’t do well in Ligue 1. It really will, therefore, be interesting to see how Granada do this season. In addition to what looks like a major downgrade in the coaching position, they have lost talents like starting goalkeeper Rui Silva, reliable striker Roberto Soldado, versatile midfielder Fede Vico and creative winger Kenedy. Carlos Bacca and Moncu are two fairly exciting replacements, but not necessarily upgrades. This really could be a tough season for Granada, then. They look weaker in attack and not necessarily any better in defence, which is a concern considering they already conceded the most goals in the division last year with 65. Moreno has quite a job on his hands as Granada embark on this year of transition.

Target


Avoiding relegation. Despite securing two top half finishes over the past two seasons, most Granada fans know that a drop-off should be expected this season. They’ll just hope that they don’t tumble so far down that they end up in the relegation zone.