July 8th, 2008. On this day I took charge of a small Spanish club Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa, which was promoted to Segunda B1 the season before. I won't bore you with stories how it came to be. To cut the long story short let me just tell you that I got a bit tired of semi-professional English football and I felt I need a change of environment.

Estadio Reino de Leon

Despite being a newcomer in Segunda B1 the club had good infrastructure, with a lovely 13500 all-seating stadium, Reino de Leon, built in 2001. The squad also looked strong, lacking quality only up front. The backroom staff, however, was a total disaster so I decided to build it from the scratch. Using my English connections I managed to convince one of Fabio Capello's co-workers, Massimo Nero, to become my AssMan. Almost immediately after that another Italian, Ivano Bordon, joined as Goalkeeping Coach. Finally, former German international Horst Hrubesch accepted my offer and became 1st Team Coach.

During the intensive pre-season the squad was strengthened by five new players, three of who were strikers. Experienced forward Diego Ribera joined from Mazarron, Jonathan Reguero came from Alaves, and Diong Mendy was previously without a club. On top of that I acquired young Cuban goalkeeper Andres Rodriguez from Ciego de Avila, and an experienced central defender Antonio from free transfer. At the same time I offloaded a couple of players, so by the start of the league football I had a stable squad of 22 players to choose from. The starting line-up I opted for was the following:

Chema, the most experienced player, was chosen as the team captain, and Ivan Otero was the vice-captain.

Thanks mainly to Oscar Rico and Diego Ribera we performed well and lost only once and drew only once in our first eleven games. By the end of the year our form dropped resulting in only 3 wins and 4 draws in last 8 games of 2008. One of the causes could be the injury of the first choice keeper Jose Bermudez. Rodriguez played well, however he rarely kept a clean sheet.

Winter transfer window saw the arrival of three new players. Ecuadorian youth international midfielder Fernando Guerrero joined from Emelec, a hot prospect striker Vaclav Kadlec joined from Sparta Prague, and Ghanian pacey striker Ransford Osei joined from Kessben. The only player to leave the club was Ivan Mateo who was sold to Walsall for €50,000.

After New Year we continued in the same vein as we played before, so we kept on winning with one off draws or defeats. Nevertheless, before the season's final game the title war wasn't decided. We and third placed Bilbao Athletic, who were sitting at the top of the table for most of the season, met on Reino de Leon, whilst the other contender Ponferradina played away with Barakaldo. To be sure of becoming the champions we needed to win, we could also draw, but Ponferradina couldn't win their game. At half time we were at 1-1, whilst Ponferradina was trailing by 1. At this stage we were the champions, but the boys decided to show their spirit and bagged three more thus winning 4-1. Ultimately, Ponferradina only drew 1-1, so it became clear that los Culturalistas won the league. 

But winning Segunda B1 didn't mean automatic promotion. We had to play in 1st Phase Semi Final, and only progressing through the Final meant gaining promotion. The draw wasn't too good as we were to face Castilla with first game at home. The game was probably the most difficult of all we played this season, but we came out as winners with 2-1 being the final score. The second leg was even more difficult, however we managed to go 2-0 just after the half time and it was clear we cannot lose this tie. The final score was 5-2 on aggregate and Leonesa was to play in LIGA adelante for the first time since 1974/75 season!

The 1st Phase Final against Cadiz wasn't that important, so I fielded some of the players that didn't have many chances of playing during regular season. We lost the first game 0-2. But a week later, in front of a full stadium, we drew 2-2.

And so the very first, and very successful, season ended. Despite struggling with finances for most of the season we finally managed to earn more than we spent, mainly thanks to almost sold out three last home games. Footballwise, Bandera was chosen by the fans as the Player of the Year, although in my opinion Oscar Rico deserved it a little bit more. Club's top scorers were Diego Ribera with 11, and Oscar Rico and Reguero with 10 goals respectively. Chema had the most assists – 12, whilst Oscar Rico was awarded MOM 7 times. Otero managed to collect 18 yellow and 1 red card. Two players Oscar Rico and Bandera had the same average rating of 7.15.
 

Appendix 1 - season summary in html file
Appendix 2 - list of fixtures & results

P.S. I know it's kinda short and very general but I wasn't sure during my first season if I would write a career or not. The next part should be much longer and more detailed. Besides, the fun should begin now, in LIGA adelante!