At the end of his first game as coach of Granada, Tony Adams strode on to the pitch and, pointing to the stands at Los Cármenes, told his players to applaud the fans. When they did, the fans booed them. Those that were still there did, anyway. A total of 13,442 came and by then most had gone again. It was late: late on a Sunday night, late in the season and too late to save them. Holy week ended with no resurrection, just another cross to bear. The players headed down the tunnel, eyes down, and turned right towards the home dressing room, signposted in Spanish, English and Chinese; supporters headed for home, resigned to relegation.

They’d started leaving when the third and final goal went in, 15 minutes before the final whistle. At one point, Adams’s opening night was played out to olés; it was just a pity they were for Granada’s opponents, passes met with sarcastic cheers designed to hurt their own. Two goals in three minutes ended Granada’s brief rebellion, a hint of hope extinguished. New coach, same result: for the second successive game, they conceded three here. First to Valencia, now to Celta de Vigo. Celta B, that is: of the 10 outfield players, only one is a first choice. Of Granada’s 10, some fans wouldn’t pick any. Given the choice, their manager wouldn’t pick many either.

When Claudio Beauvue scored, Granada’s fans whistled and then they walked. Some turned to the directors’ box and chanted for the board to resign. “They could at least give us half our money back,” spat one supporter as he left. He had at least put up with it until the end. “Everyone’s hurting,” Adams said, and it hadn’t been a good night. “I’m going to kick the players up the arse,” he had promised. Momentarily there had been a reaction, something to cling on to, but that was a phrase that was always likely to boot him back and be taken down and used in evidence against him, and here, inevitably, it was: “Celta B gave them a kick up the arse,” wrote Ideal.

Inside, Rafael Lamelas described Adams as a man “anchored in an age that has passed its sell-by date, an old, yellowing page, which is what distances English coaches from the front line”. “I’m off for fish and chips,” sneered one columnist, as if there was any chance of that this late – as if there was any chance of anything, in fact, except another moonlit soiree with the minibar. “It didn’t work in English either,” Marca said. AS called it “desolate”. They give out awards for each round of games: gold, frankincense, myrrh and coal. Adams got coal, a kind of Spanish wooden spoon. “He’s not the solution, either,” it read.

Granada Hoy said it was all “for nothing”; it had been “deplorable”, a “disaster”. At the bottom of the page, there’s a smiley face and grumpy face, good news and bad news. The good news? “There’s not long left” – and that can only be good news when you’ve already given up. “Make it end!” the headline ran. Other results went their way, 90th minute goals leading to defeats for Leganés and Sporting Gijónbut it made little difference. With six weeks left Granada are seven points from safety. In all probability, relegation awaits and their manager knows that, even if he can’t say it. What he did say, tracksuit off, showered and suited, was this: “I don’t like losing but it is a difficult situation we are in. It’s really important we don’t throw in the towel.”

Granada have been in the relegation zone for 27 weeks. This has been likely right from the start: they were built this way. Those chants were not new, even if more common than chants is indifference, resignation. When it came to singling out guilty parties, only Sergi Vieta, the director general, was named. They had come prepared: a banner at one end demanded: “Directiva, dimisión!”. Directors, resign! Others were handily translated into Chinese, so the club’s owners could understand. One fan held a message aimed for the players: “We can’t ask you to love the badge, only to justify your salary (you have seven chances left).” Make that six. And while it’s a facile accusation, all too easily applied – “players, mercenaries!” got another outing here – it is understandable.

Tony Adams became more animated as the match wore on, frantically trying to get players to understand his instructions. Photograph: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

Only 12 Granada first teamers actually belong to the club; of 106 players across the first, second and U19 teams, only 44 do. They have a young, transient squad: 13 of their players are loanees: at the end of the season they will be gone. One of them, Manchester United’s Andreas Pereira admitted: “For sure it’s difficult for some players. They definitely think: ‘Oh, what am I doing here. It’s only three months left; I’ll train and that’s it’.” Mostly, though, it’s not that they chose this, it’s that they can’t help it.

“This was easier than we thought against a team that is hit emotionally,” Celta manager Toto Berizzo revealed. “They allowed us to play more than we thought they would. They appear to be a team inhibited by its circumstances, nervous, anxious for a win that resists them. They did create some chances – there was that one for [Ezequiel] Ponce – but everything that goes against them does them a lot of damage.” Adams admitted: “It’s going to be hard to change mentality and confidence in the next five weeks, but I’m going to try. I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve. When you’re in these situations there’s a lot of fear, a lot of blame: human beings try to look after themselves and deflect criticism maybe. But I certainly won’t.”

It was not that simple – or maybe it was more simple? Berizzo was right, but for one thing: it’s not just Sunday night. Paco Jémez was the first manager sacked in La Liga and yet it still managed to be a surprise that he lasted seven weeks; he had been quite literally asking for it from the start, airing his discrepancies with the way the team had been built. Lucas Alcaraz, a club legend, took over, and found a squad that seemed almost scared, with strikingly little personality, that barely talked.

On one level that is not surprising. Not only are they young, disperse, and inexperienced, but they literally don’t speak the same language. This is a new, multi-national squad. “In the beginning, you could see it: we barely knew each other on the pitch and off it, but it is getting better,” Pereira admitted a little while back. “But sometimes we don’t understand each other.” Alcaraz colour-coded everything, using simple videos and instructions, repetitive messages that players could grasp, arrows pointing out basic tasks. Adams, meanwhile, used every gesture under the sun on the touchline, arms everywhere, hopping up and down, glugging down gallons of water.

They had to: on Sunday night Granada, a Spanish club with a Chinese owner and an English manager, had a Mexican goalkeeper; the back four was Portuguese, Icelandic, French, and Uruguayan; in midfield they had a Slovenian, a Nigerian, a Ghanaian and a Brazilian (with a Belgian passport); and up front were a Ukrainian and an Argentinian. Eleven different nationalities, and no Spaniards. Soon, they will add two more players – Kieran Richardson and Nigel Reo-Coker – taking it to 18 nationalities in their first team squad, as on top of those 12 (soon to be 13), there are four Spaniards, a Cameroonian, Greek, Israeli, Mali, Moroccan and Colombian.



Not that it takes much to understand whistles and boos. Not for the players, or for Adams, who bounded in remarkably chirpy afterwards, beaming grin and booming laugh, which may not have helped the fans’ mood but which he can’t contain. He’s seen the videos and liked them. He’d enjoyed this, despite everything, but he knew they hadn’t. Knew, too, the reality before him. It was late when he left, grabbing a swift sandwich from the man dashing past the dressing room door with a tray of them and departing just before midnight. His side had been beaten, but that grin wasn’t going away. This was always a long shot; then there’s the long term. And crisis may bring opportunity. He is not just a coach, after all.

Adams’s job as coach was to get a reaction, one last throw of the dice to stay up, but beyond that his job is to rebuild the club at every level for the Chinese company that bought Granada in the summer. The sporting director has already been sacked and others will follow: fans chanted “Vieta go now!” and he probably will too. Signings have started, a sporting director will arrive soon, and a coach shouldn’t be far behind. There will be a clear out and they will start again – in segunda. Everyone knows that now; they long since became resigned to it. On Sunday night, that last lingering hope was snuffed out. For this season, at least.

“I’m not scared,” Adams said. “This is a long-term project and we’ll get it right. At the moment, it’s very painful for everybody but it’s important for the leader – me – to drive everyone on and make sure they don’t throw in the towel. I don’t expect fans to be happy: I’m not, the owner’s not. My message to them is: we’re fighting, stay with it. It’s painful but there’s a bright future. You might not be able to see it at the moment but I’m an honest man, I’ve never lied in my life, and I’m telling you the truth: we’re going to build a football club here, it’s just going to take a bit of time.”

Talking points

• “Isco drove us crazy at times,” Sporting Gijón’s Vesga admitted. He drove pretty much everyone crazy pretty much all the time, producing a ludicrously good performance as Real Madrid came from behind to beat Sporting 3-2 at the Molinón. “Genius, Genius” ran the front cover of Marca, calling it a “divine Saturday”. AS led on him too, but then that’s not exactly unusual. Isco scored twice, the first gorgeous, the second – to the surprise of absolutely no one at all – coming in the 90th minute. As usual, Madrid opened the door and then slammed it shut again, just in time. Twice they trailed, twice they equalised, and then Isco won it with a low, late shot from the edge of the area. That’s 19 points they’ve picked up from losing positions.

• Real Sociedad had more possession than Barcelona, but Luis Enrique’s team hung on to win 3-2. Or they would have done except that “hang on” implies something proactive, and they weren’t particularly, Leo Messi apart. The next four days will define their season: Juventus then Madrid. All over? Or all back on again? “Yes, we can”, the Camp Nou chanted.

Lionel Messi scored twice for Barcelona at Camp Nou. Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Images

• “It’s a mystery,” Thomas Partey said. It was party time at the Calderón, Kids Day at Atletico Madrid, and (sorry about this) it was Partey time too – basically because he insisted that it was. Atlético’s sort of second string were beating Osasuna 3-0 when they got a late penalty. Yannick Carrasco was on a hat-trick so he took it, but missed. Two minutes later, they got another penalty. Again, the Calderón, tongues wedged firmly in their cheeks, chanted for Alessio Cerci to take it on the day that he was making his first league appearance for Atletico since 2014. Cerci probably didn’t much appreciate the mirth or the way that he is becoming a comedy character for the fans but he did want it and so did all of his team-mates want him to have it. One by one they came to say give it to him, but Thomas wasn’t having it. So up he stepped, and Sirigu saved this one too.



• It was the second time this season that two different Atlético players have missed penalties in the same match – last time at least they had the excuse that Diego Alves stood before them – and the 8th they have missed all season, from 13. Six different players have missed them: Griezmann (one scored from four), Gameiro (2/3), Torres (1/2), Gabi (0/1), Carrasco (0/1) and Thomas (0/1). Only Saúl has a 100% record. Not that it matters much: they have missed penalties in six games this season, and won five of them, drawing the other.

• “I think the Spanish league is the best league in the world … but don’t tell the English,” Tony Adams said. Oh. Ooops, sorry about that.

• “We had no passion … and it’s Easter,” the Málaga manager, Míchel, lamented.

• “Ambition led us to lose,” the Leganés manager, Asier Garitano, said after Leo Baptistao scored an amazing last-minute winner for Espanyol at Butarque. There’s a lesson there, somewhere, and it’s a pretty depressing one.

Results: Athletic 5–1 Las Palmas, Deportivo 2–0 Málaga, Sporting 2–3 Real Madrid, Atlético 3–0 Osasuna, Barcelona 3–2 Real Sociedad, Leganés 0–1 Espanyol, Valencia 0–0 Sevilla, Betis 2 -0 Eibar, Granada 0–3 Celta. Tonight: Alavés-Villarreal.