Denoueix revolution gathers pace

By Patrick Hart

Flirting with relegation 
The Primera División club only escaped relegation on the penultimate weekend of last season, the most serious of three flirtations with the drop. Meanwhile, a revolving-door policy towards coaches, which had brought the likes of Javier Clemente and Bernd Krauss to the Anoeta stadium, saw John Toshack replaced last March by caretaker manager Roberto Olabe.

Top of the table
Fans of the Txuri Urdin - the Basque term for Sociedad's blue and white shirts - must therefore be pinching themselves when they see their team top of the league table six games into the new campaign. They were last there 20 years ago, winning the second of two Spanish championships in 1982. And although talk of titles is premature, Sociedad look a different side already.

Endearing qualities
The man behind the transformation is the team's new French coach Raynald Denoueix. "He is admired for his calm, talent, motivation and, above all, modesty - qualities shared by people around here," said Isabel Legarreta, press officer at the Anoeta. Qualities which had become redundant at FC Nantes Atlantique, however, the club where Denoueix spent 33 of his 54 years, the last five as coach.

No other team
In 2001, he led Nantes to the French title; the following January he was out of a job. Not that he was short of offers. Those came in from Saudi Arabia, Fenerbahçe SK and Stade Rennais FC, although Denoueix said: "I was not going to agree to something just to earn two or three times more than I had been. I really thought I would never find another club." In the end, though, it was Sociedad who found him.

The natural choice
Denoueix had been head of youth development at Nantes for 15 years between 1982 and 1997 and, it transpired, was just what the San Sebastián club were looking for. "We wanted to improve the formation of our players and for a year we observed what was going on at other clubs around Europe. Nantes were the best model, so Reynald was the natural choice," Sociedad chairman José Luis Astiazarán said.

'Just how I want to work'
If the move was good for Sociedad, it has also benefited Denoueix. The coach, who admitted to feeling depressed after he left Nantes, said: "When I met them [the Sociedad directors], I couldn't believe it. It is exactly the way I want to work. I would have agreed to what they were proposing even if they had been a fourth-division club."

A new spirit
Part of the plan is a new training complex in the Basque resort of Zubieta, as well as investment in a "new spirit for a club" which according to Olabe, the club's new technical director, "was losing itself due to constant changes to the playing and coaching staff".

Early signs are good
If the future is bright, the present does not look too bad either. Denoueix has inherited the likes of goalkeeper Sander Westerveld, midfield player Javier De Pedro and forward Darko Kovacevic, while Valeri Karpin recently returned to the Anoeta on a free transfer. So far they have won four out of six league games - and done nothing to suggest Denoueix cannot repeat his Nantes alchemy further down the Atlantic coast in San Sebastián.