Bergas Brillianto continues our series looking at Sporting Directors with a leading figure in Spanish football, Villareal’s Miguel Ángel Tena
When I finished this article, Villarreal was sitting in fourth place in La Liga this season. They had collected 17 points from nine matches, winning five times and losing twice. Understandably, their losses came against Real Madrid and Barcelona. Although they had scored 17 goals, they had also conceded the same number. In terms of expected goals (xG), Villarreal had overperformed their xG but had conceded more goals than their expected goals against (xGA), suggesting that they could improve defensively. However, with a long season still ahead, there is plenty of time for them to do so.
Historically, a fourth-place finish would be considered a significant achievement for Villarreal. As a club that only joined the first division of Spanish football in the late 1990s, securing a European competition spot is a remarkable accomplishment. Nevertheless, their recent success, including winning the Europa League and reaching the Champions League semi-finals in the past five years, suggests that fourth to eighth place is now the norm for them.
Despite being a small city with a population of approximately 50,000, Villarreal has established itself as a competitive football club. They aspire to be more than just a small-town team and have consistently challenged for European places in recent years. However, given their limited financial resources compared to the larger clubs in La Liga, Villarreal must be creative in their transfer strategies and coaching appointments. They need a smart leader to guide their football operations and ensure continued success.
Former Youth Team Coach Trying to Make Villarreal Younger
And then there is Miguel Ángel Tena. It is under Tena’s leadership as director of football that Villarreal have achieved what they have in the last five years. Although he only joined the club four months before they won the Europa League, he was already in charge when they defeated Manchester United in the final. Tena himself is no newcomer to Villarreal. Prior to his appointment as director of football, he coached Villarreal C and the U-19 team, showing his intimate knowledge of the club and contributing to his appointment.
This knowledge also helps Tena to identify players in the second or youth teams who can not only help the clubs on the pitch, but also have the potential to be an asset to the club financially. Take these two names, for example. Fillip Jörgensen, now at Chelsea, previously played for Villarreal C and U-19s and was promoted to the first team during Tena’s tenure. Nicolas Jackson, who now plays for the same club as Jörgensen, also started out at U-19 level before breaking into the first team. Tena knew them from the youth team and sold them for huge sums of money.
Tena doesn’t have the luxury of buying the players he wants. And to buy players, it means he needs to sell another. He’s not always try to keep his star players if an offer comes in from another club (especially in the Premier League). Tena has to be brave, because by selling players he ensures that the accounts are kept in the black. He knows when he sells the players, he also needs to be smart in the transfer window. This means he needs to have the skills to find potential players who could bring in a lot of money.
That’s why he hasn’t hesitated to sell the likes of Pervis Estupiñán, Jörgensen, Samuel Chukwueze, and Jackson, all of whom left the club before the age of 25. He also sold the club’s future captain, Pau Torres, when he was at his peak age. In return, he has signed a number of young players who he hopes will be an asset to the club, either for next window or in the future. This summer, for example, he bought three players under the age of 23.
In total, Tena has bought eight U-23 players during his tenure. Two of them, Juan Foyth and Willy Kambwala, were bought from big-name Premier League clubs. If those clubs don’t believe in their talent, Tena and Villarreal try to do something different. But he also looks to the other league. Tena signed Ilias Akhomach from Barca Atletic, Logan Costa from Toulouse and Luiz Junior directly from Portuguese club Famalicao. He tries to find talent wherever it suits the club’s needs.
In general, Tena has tried to make the Villarreal squad younger and younger. The average age of the players he has signed so far (excluding loan signings) is 26.1. Yes, he has signed a few players who are in their prime or past their prime. However, the average age of the players who have left the club during his tenure is higher: 27.9. The likes of Gerónimo Rulli, Vicente Iborra, Alberto Moreno, José Luis Morales, Pepe Reina, and Manu Trigueros have all left despite their importance to the team. In his first season in charge, the average age of the squad was 27.5. This season it has dropped to 27.
Brings Financial Health to Villarreal’s Wage & Transfer
When we look financially, Tena’s transfer window record has been a success for the last five years. In other words, he has brought in more money than he has spent. In the context of transfers, Villarreal’s ledger looks healthy. Yes, there have been some seasons where Villarreal have spent more than €50 million in one season, but in another they have had more than €100 million from sales. This player trading keeps the club healthy and it matters less if you spend €50 million when you are confident in bringing in twice that much from the acquisition in time.
Not only that: crucially, he also makes sure that any transfer he makes does not break the wage structure. Instead, he seems to be trying to reduce it every season. At the time of his appointment, Villarreal had an annual payroll of almost €70 million, according to Capology. Their weekly payroll was more than €1 million. Since then, however, the amount has dwindled and this season they have an annual payroll of just €44 million. At the same time, Tena is keen to ensure that this budgetary strategy doesn’t affect their performance on the pitch. They always want to be competitive.
“Striker Specialist”
Tena is a good buyer and a good seller. He even has a positional speciality: he’s really good at finding and selling strikers. Boulaye Dia, Alexander Sørloth and Ben Brereton Díaz are strikers that Tena bought and then sold at a profit. Dia, for example, was bought from Stade Reims for €12 million and then sold to Salernitana for €14.4 million. Dia didn’t have a good spell at Villarreal, but a loan to Salernitana convinced the club to spend the money. The profit on the sale of Sørloth is even greater. Tena bought him for just €10 million from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2023 and sold the Norwegian star to Atletico Madrid for €32 million a year later.
Bereton Díaz was another good deal for Tena. He picked up the Chilean striker for free and when things didn’t work out at Villarreal, Tena sold him to Southampton for €8.3 million this summer. Nicolas Jackson can also be seen as a shrewd move by Tena. Yes, he’s been in the Villarreal youth system longer than Tena has been director of football, but it was Tena who sold the striker when Chelsea offered €37 million for him. This money went on Sørloth, who was himself then sold on for a profit.
With Sørloth and Bereton Díaz having left the club, Tena bought another striker this summer. Well, yes, it is difficult to replace the likes of Sørloth, who scored 23 league goals at 12.3 xG. But so far, Villarreal don’t look like they’re struggling to score goals. They have scored 12 goals at 9.3 xG so far. Ayoze Perez, the vastly experienced new striker bought by Tena for just €4 million, has already scored six goals from only 2.44xG. Thierno Barry, who joined for €14 million from FC Basel, is still struggling and has only scored two goals this season. But it is still too early to tell. With 0.56 xG per 90 minutes from 3.38 shots, he has the potential to be the next talent to reap rewards for Villarreal.
Open Arms For “Deadwood”
Villarreal haven’t always been able to rely on young players. Especially when they are playing in Europe. Tena knows he needs experienced players too. That’s why he has been willing to give a chance to players who don’t have a place at the big clubs. No matter how old the player is, no matter how poor the player’s performance in the previous season, Tena is open to giving them a chance at Villarreal if the price is right. Nicolas Pepe, once Arsenal’s record signing, failed to live up to his potential in North London and is now at Villarreal. Juan Bernat, now 31 and struggling for game time at PSG, has been loaned by Tena this season.
Tena also opened the door for Eric Bailly, a former player known to many for his time at Manchester United, at the age of 29, after he didn’t get enough minutes in England and had a so-so season in France with Marseille. Tena also signed Pepe Reina at the age of 39, trusting him to be an integral part of the team after selling Rulli to Ajax. And when Serge Aurier was left without a club after his spell at Tottenham Hotspur ended, it was Tena who gave him a chance. Tena knows they have experience, aside from their skills, that could help Villarreal on and off the pitch.
When some players don’t get enough opportunities to play for the senior side, Tena offers them a loan. Giovani Lo Celso is the best example of this. Tena loaned him on two occasions as the player was struggling to get game time at Spurs. Lo Celso went on to have two good seasons at Villarreal, where he did well for the club, before returning to Spurs last season. Milan’s Matteo Gabbia is another example. The centre-back spent half of last season on loan at the south part of Spain, making seven appearances for Villarreal. Gabbia then returned to Milan and has been a key player this season.
The Challenge: Finding Emery’s Replacement
Tena may not have appointed Unai Emery, but it was during his time at the club that the coach left. Tena was faced with the task of finding a replacement for one of the most successful managers in the club’s history. And it was no easy task. Tena opted for former Barcelona coach Quique Setién. Playing up-front, high-intensity football, Villarreal looked promising under Setién when they won six straight games between November 2022 and January 2023, including the match against Real Madrid. However, there were ups and downs until Setien was sacked following poor results at the start of the 2023/24 season, although he did manage to guide Villarreal to a fifth-place finish.
Setién’s appointment may not turn out the way Tena had hoped. But the appointment of the next coach was even worse. After Setién, Tena chose Pacheta as his new coach. It was a bit of a gamble from the start, as Pacheta didn’t have a track record of managing a club of Villarreal’s calibre. Real Valladolid, SD Huesca and Elche were the last three clubs Pacheta had managed. And the results speak for themselves. Pacheta lasted just 12 games in charge of Villarreal, winning just two of eight league games. Tena made a mistake, this time a big one.
Another story you might not find in our Transfer Gurus series, but Tena chose himself as interim coach after sacking Pacheta. It was only one game (pictured above), but it seemed that Tena understood that his team had the potential and talent to be more competitive. The only thing missing was a good coach. He then asked Marcelino Garcia Toral to return for a second spell. The 59-year-old was in charge of Villarreal from 2013 to 2016. He is the coach with the highest points per game ahead of Unai Emery (2020-2022) and behind Manuel Pellegrini (2004-2009).
Moreover, in the journey that brought him back to the Estadio de la Cerámica, Marcelino added Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España trophies to his CV with Valencia and Athletic from Bilbao. And with a compact defence and an aggressive attacking style that favours the 4-4-2, it sounds like Marcelino’s brand of football might suit Villarrea better. And it looks that way. Last season, Villarreal only lost twice between the end of January and the end of the season, finishing eighth. This season, they have so far achieved the result I wrote in the opening paragraphs, and if things continue like this until the end of the season, we will have to praise Tena’s work once again.
Header image copyright IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire / Irina R. Hipolito
