Despite finishing 13th in La Liga, six points clear from relegation, Elche CF will be playing in the Segunda División next season. Elche enjoyed a relatively steady season, beating teams they were expected to beat and losing to teams they were expected to lose to. However, ‘Los Franjiverdes’ are mandatorily being relegated to Spain’s second division.
Throughout the season, Elche were suffering from financial headaches. Many players and staff went months without receiving wages. Elche consistently were unable to repay an adequate amount to ‘La Hacienda’, the Spanish treasury. Once the season finished, Elche were given the 28th of May as a deadline to repay debts owed to the tax authorities. If not, they were threatened with relegation and, of course, they were handed the inevitable.
SD Eibar, who finished in the relegation zone, were given a lifeline. As Elche are slipping down a division, Eibar will stay up. Elche have a handful of quality players, but it looks like the board will have to sell these players as they most likely will prefer to play in Europe’s top leagues. Elche’s Brazilian striker, Jonathan, is now one of La Liga’s hottest transfer targets. He has been labelled “The new Diego Costa”, and teams such as Celtic, West Brom, Sevilla and even Atlético Madrid have been interested in the clinical finisher. After Elche’s last game of the season he admitted: “This was my last game with Elche.”
It is reported that only 10 players have committed their futures to the club. Elche’s manager, Fran Escribá, stepped down as manager and has taken up the job at Getafe CF. Key players, players who earned promotion to La Liga in 2013, have been released by the club. Players such as Manu Herrea, Damián Suárez, who scored one of the best goals you’ll see all season vs Rayo Vallecano, and Corominas have been released.
When a team starts to release their best players, it’s not a good sign. Elche will have a tough season ahead of them. They’ll have one target in their sights and that’ll be to return to La Liga. With a minimum transfer budget it won’t be easy to attract quality players to the Manuel Martínez Valero stadium.
