Real Sociedad fires Sergio Francisco and appoints Jon Ansotegi as interim | Soccer | Sporty

Sergio Francisco is already part of Real Sociedad history. The entity chaired by Jokin Aperribay formalized the dismissal of the Irun coach, who only lasted seven months in office. The poor sporting results, but above all the feeling of not having been able to find the right path since he took charge of the team, have taken away the coach who arrived to replace Imanol Alguacil. Sergio Francisco led Real Sociedad in 18 matches (16 in the League and two in the Cup) with a poor record of six wins, four draws and eight defeats, the last this Friday against Girona (1-2). His place, on an interim basis, will be occupied by Jon Ansotegi, until now coach of the blue and white reserve team. Meanwhile, the club is testing the market to hire a new coach.

As soon as Ortiz Arias whistled the end of the match on Friday at Anoeta, Jokin Aperribay abruptly left the area and met the football director, Erik Bretos, in the anteroom. Immediately afterwards, and as usual, the royalist president went down to the locker room. Both met later to discuss the crisis the first team is going through, aggravated by the painful defeat against Girona. That’s when they decided to fire Sergio Francisco.

The Irundarra coach was already on the edge during the October break, after the defeat against Rayo Vallecano, and even the good streak that began immediately after, against Celta in Balaídos, did not allow to eliminate the doubts that existed at the head of the entity. The bad image shown against Alavés in Vitoria and the setback this Friday led to a death sentence from which Sergio Francisco could not recover.

You would have to go back in time to see the last time Real Sociedad fired a coach. It was also in December, but in 2018. On December 26, the blue and white team announced the dismissal of Asier Garitano, who had arrived the previous summer from Leganés. The coach of Gipuzkoa, like what happened to Sergio Francisco, left the San Sebastián club without being able to complete the first round of the Lla iga. In place of Garitano, Imanol Alguacil arrived.

Jokin Aperribay will name in the coming hours the tenth blue and white coach under his mandate. It started in December 2008, 17 years ago, with Juan Manuel Lillo. That of Tolosarra is the first name in a list that also includes Martín Lasarte, Philippe Montanier, Jagoba Arrasate, David Moyes, Eusebio Sacristán, Imanol Alguacil, Asier Garitano and, finally, a Sergio Francisco who has just been fired.