Espanyol's sporting director, Fran Garagarza, dismissed youth football coordinator Mikel Azparren yesterday, a decision that comes just over a week after the dismissal of former first team coach Luis García and the incorporation of Luis Miguel Ramis as technical.
In the case of Mikel Azparren, the now former head of the quarry landed at the Catalan entity on May 2, 2023, so he has remained in office for just over six months. Espanyol, in the statement about his dismissal, recalled that the reserve team and the youth team "depend directly on the sports management."
In this sense, the club's objective, the entity insisted, is "to improve the synergies and efficiencies of the structure's professional teams." Espanyol announced that it will explain "in the near future" the formula it will apply for the management of grassroots football, a key element in its sports strategy.
Garagarza, in his presentation last June, advanced that one of his main lines for the quarry was to seek "the approach of grassroots football to professional football." Furthermore, he insisted on his desire to create "a legacy" in the lower categories "regardless of what happens in the first team."
As for Luis García, the dismissal was carried out with the intention of seeking a turning point in the team. The sports director, Fran Garagarza, confessed that the difficulty of sports planning was making decisions before hypothetical scenarios occurred in the future.
Espanyol has never hidden that direct promotion is the imperative objective of this season and that is why it has decided to relieve the Asturian and bet on Ramis. Currently, the team is sixth, three points behind second place, a position that guarantees promotion to the First Division immediately.
