Profiles - Manuel Pablo
MANUEL PABLO GARCIA DIAZ
Squad Number 12/13: 2
Date of Birth: 25 January, 1976
Place of Birth: Arucas, Las Palmas
Nationality: Spain (international from 2000 until now)
Contract: 1998 - 2013
Transfer: 1,3 million Euros (200 mln ptas) (1998)
Career: Deportivo (1998-now), Las Palmas (1996-1998) Buy-out Clause: 96,1 million Euros 15.000 million pesetas)
Height: 176 cm
Weight: 80 kg
Position: Defender (right)
Real Madrid and Italian giants Internazionale and AC Milan have at different times shown a keen interest in signing right defender MANUEL PABLO. But his massive buy-out clause (of more than €96 million) kept one of the world's best right backs at Deportivo as president Lendoiro simply mentioned he was "not for sale". After the awful injury he suffered in 2001, it took him some years to regain his form. But in the season 2007/2008 he much resembled the player he was almost ten years earlier. Being one of Deportivo’s captains nowadays, he remains an important figure at the team after signing a two year extension in the year 2011.
PACKAGE-DEAL WITH 'TURU' FLORES
The Canarian player was only 22-years old when he joined Deportivo in the summer of 1998. He was signed together with Argentinean striker ‘Turu’ Flores but more or less was considered a ‘bonus’ in this package deal. Deportivo already had Spanish international player Armando at the right back spot where also 20-year old Lionel Scaloni could play. But Manuel Pablo would have his opportunities in the season 1998/1999, the first of Javier Irureta at the club.
Manolo made his debut at Primera División on 15 November, 1998 in the 2-2 draw at home against Alavés. Until early March 1999 he participated in four other matches but the curious thing was that none of these matches meant a victory for Depor. This ‘curse’ was changed around when in the next six matches where he participated the team obtained three wins and three draws. Deportivo shared the fourth place with Celta de Vigo and had the Champions League in sight, but remained without a win in the final three matches of the season. Still, the team returned to Europe by qualifying for the UEFA Cup tournament.
That summer of 1999, Armando moved on a free transfer to Real Mallorca and Irureta put his faith in Manuel Pablo. And this confidence was repaid quickly. Deportivo would have a defence consisting of Romero-Donato-Naybet-Manuel Pablo from that season on and on 21 November 1999 conquered the first spot in the Primera División. It’s well-known that Deportivo never gave away this first place on that season 1999/2000 and finished as champions. Manuel Pablo missed just one match and after goalkeeper Songo’o he was Deportivo’s most used player. Deportivo qualified for the Champions League for the first time in its history and Manuel Pablo’s performances were rewarded with a debut for Spain on 16 August, 2000 in Germany. He would form part of the Spanish squad for the next 12 months and play most matches.
The season 2000/2001 saw Deportivo being the only team able to follow Real Madrid in Spain. In Europe, the team survived two group stages and was eliminated by Leeds United in the Quarter Finals. Much of the results were based on Deportivo’s excellent defence. During the season a rumour emerged about AC Milan being interested in signing Manuel Pablo and midfielder Emerson for about €40 million. During that season Manuel Pablo scored his first goal for the team: a rocket during the 0-3 win at Racing de Santander. The only match he missed was one because of suspension. During Deportivo’s 2-1 loss at Zaragoza he insulted the referee and afterwards was suspended by the Spanish FA for one match.
THE INJURY
It was during the summer of 2001 that Manuel Pablo was at his finest moment. Especially Real Madrid offered serious amounts of money as they were not satisfied with their own right defender Michel Salgado. Lendoiro revealed that during a telephone conversation with Madrid’s Jorge Valdano he pointed to Manuel Pablo’s buy-out clause of €90 million and made a ‘gesture’ by lowering the asking price to €55 million. It seems that Real Madrid never made a higher bid than €30 million. Later Lendoiro revealed that Internazionale had made an offer of €42 million while AS Roma and Juventus also were related to the defender. Manuel Pablo himself stayed calm despite the interest and didn’t seem wanting to force a way out, like Flávio Conceição had done one year earlier. “I will wait and see what happens. But I’m very happy in La Coruña as here I became the player I am now. I am very grateful”.
It seemed that the season 2001/2002 would be as the ones before. Deportivo ‘reconquered’ Europe and finished second in the Liga again. Crown on the season was the Copa Del Rey which was won in the Bernabéu stadium against Real Madrid. But the season had started in a very different way, especially for Manuel Pablo. It was 30 September, 2001: Deportivo were 0-1 down against Celta de Vigo in Riazor when both Manuel Pablo and Giovanella went for the ball. It was a harsh, but fair, dual which unfortunately ended which shocking images. Manuel Pablo stared in disbelief to his crushed leg which indicated the end of a promising career. Quickly it rained telegrams, carts, e-mails, phone-calls and visits to the player who received support from all over the world. Goals and wins of Deportivo in the weeks after were dedicated to the player. Molina even entered the pitch against FC Barcelona wearing the number 2 shirt of the defender. Several weeks later Manuel Pablo called the support ‘incredible’.
Some small compensation was that Manuel Pablo, together with Valerón and Diego Tristán, was nominated for UEFA’s Team of the Year 2001. It was his personal dream to still be picked for Spain’s team playing the World Cup 2002, especially as he had become a starting player before his injury. But that dream wouldn’t come true, by far. Only one year later, on 9 September, 2002 he returned to the team of Deportivo during the Copa win at Correalejo (1-2). He made his Liga return on 6 October, 2002 as he was brought by Irureta during the dying minutes of a 0-2 home loss against Racing de Santander. He would play another 90 minutes one month later against Racing de Ferrol in the Copa Del Rey, but it was evident that the pre-2001 player hadn’t returned yet.
In the remaining part of the season, Manuel Pablo was presented several opportunities to gain back his old form and he would play 10 Liga matches that season. The Copa Del Rey was his tournament. He started all matches in the final three rounds of the team which led to the Semi-Finals. His contributions in the matches against Murcia can be considered vital as he prepared Duscher’s goal in the home match (1-0) and scored Depor’s third in a crazy 4-3 loss in the away match, just enough to have Deportivo qualified. Manuel Pablo’s rocket from about thirty meters he dedicated to his mother who had died one year ago. The fact that the squad players felt an enormous joy for his goal was clearly seen in the celebrations. It was not until early April 2003, more than 1,5 years after his injury, that he started his first Liga match against Real Sociedad.
RETURN TO THE SPANISH TEAM
It seemed that Manuel Pablo was regaining his old form and at Málaga he played his 100th match in the Primera División. Even rumours went around that he could be close to a return to the Spanish national team. But it wasn’t only good news that second part of the season. He made two fatal mistakes which may have cost Deportivo the title in the home less against Valencia (1-2). After his second mistake Irureta took him off and brought Scaloni, but Riazor gave him a standing ovation. “It was a bad night”, he admitted. “I never have experienced something similar, but things like this happen”. Manuel Pablo even said that he couldn’t catch sleep that night. It led to praise of coach Irureta who said that “admitting such a mistake in front of the cameras shows what kind of person Manuel Pablo is”.
Manuel Pablo and Deportivo were looking forward to the season 2003/2004. But regaining his position wasn’t as easy as might have been expected. Héctor had been doing very well at the right side while Scaloni also played their on occasions. As a result, these three players more or less ‘rotated’ the right back position. This made Manuel Pablo the seventeenth player of the squad with Liga minutes. Manuel Pablo didn’t play the first Champions League and Liga matches that year but was given a chance against Albacete in Riazor (3-0). It convinced Irureta and Manuel Pablo would play in eight out of the nine matches after it. He suffered a setback though and Irureta wisely decided to take it easy with him for the remaining part of the season. He was, together with Molina, taken off at half-time during the 8-3 loss at Monaco with the scoring being 5-2 at that time.
Things were different several months later when Scaloni’s injury gave Manuel Pablo a starting position in the legendary 4-1 win against AC Milan in the Quarter Finals of the Champions League. In this match he possibly gave his best performance since his injury and he also started both Semi Final matches against FC Porto. The Riazor match against the Portuguese team, led by coach Mourinho, finished quite differently with a 0-1 score and Manuel Pablo receiving three smacks in his face in the first fifteen minutes. One day after that match he declared: “It seemed that they all were after me and even now I feel the pain". Deportivo's doctor, Cesar Cobian, confirmed that stitches were necessary to stop his knee bleeding. In April 2004 he finally made his come-back for Spain during a friendly against Italy (1-1). Especially after Michel Salgado went out injured off the Spain squad preparing the EURO 2004 tournament it was expected that Manuel Pablo would take his place. But instead Capdevila was added to the squad and Puyol was moved to the right side.
The season 2004/2005, the final one of Javier Irureta at the club, was the definite return of Manuel Pablo on a personal level but also the downfall of the team. He started 30 out of 38 Liga matches (he suffered some minor injuries) and became Depor’s fourth player with more Liga minutes. Manuel Pablo was Depor’s captain during a 0-1 victory at Real Madrid. But this victory was one of the few highlights that season. In the Copa there was a quick exit against Elche, in the Champions League not a single goal was scored and on the transfer market rumours remained rumours. Manuel Pablo was quite honest about the subject when he said that “some players are having their final season at the club and they need replacement by younger players. It is normal that a team is reinforced from time to time. That’s life, and the club will have to take this responsibility. It is clear that the squad isn't the one of the previous year. Every mistake is a goal conceded, we can’t achieve great things now. The only solution to this is to keep working and wait to see if this reality changes for us." These results didn’t come and Deportivo finished the season on a disappointing eighth spot and with the departure of Javier Irureta. The Basque coach had some nice words about Manuel Pablo as he included his name when asked about the players who had impressed him most on a personal level during his 7-year stay in La Coruña.
A DIFFICULT TIME UNDER CAPARRÓS
It hadn’t been Manuel Pablo’s best season though despite he had returned to the starting line-up. Many claimed that Héctor’s difficult relationship with Irureta was a cause of Manuel Pablo playing most minutes with Scaloni mainly being used in midfield. With the arrival of new coach Caparrós there were rumours about new signings for the right side, but in the end all Héctor, Scaloni and Manuel Pablo started the season 2005/2006. Overall, there weren’t many signings those years and Caparrós aimed at getting the most out of the players who had been around for a while. These especially included Sergio, Duscher, Manuel Pablo, Diego Tristán and Víctor Sánchez who hadn’t displayed their best form in the years before. As before, Héctor was considered second choice by Caparrós too and so Manuel Pablo didn’t have much rivalry at the right side. As a consequence, he missed just seven Liga matches and became Deportivo’s sixth player in terms of Liga minutes. His only setback was a muscle injury which kept him sidelined in November 2005. But as soon as he was recovered from this, and although Héctor had replaced him very well, the Canarian player immediately returned to the team when he was declared fit again.
Overall, the 2005/2006 season was quite mediocre to Deportivo including Manuel Pablo. The team was fourth on 7 January 2006 after having beaten Bilbao at San Mamés although the displays hadn’t been that spectacular. The team was effective and every player knew what to do, and ‘luck’ seemed to be with Caparrós’ men. Disputed penalty and card decisions were many times in the favour of the Galicians although the squad still contained enough qualities to finish (in theory) among the first six this season. It would be a different story though. From the four matches after the Bilbao win just one point was obtained and playmaker Valerón suffered an important injury which would sideline him for almost two years. It had been precisely Manuel Pablo who given the decisive pass when Valerón scored the first goal in the Mallorca match (2-2). But the injury of Valerón overshadowed this and within a month the hopes of returning to the Champions League had faded away while qualification for the UEFA Cup now also would be a difficult task. Deportivo stumbled to the end of the season and missed playing the Copa Del Rey final after an unnecessary exit against Espanyol.
When April 2006 came to its end and there were five matches left, Manuel Pablo still believed in qualifying for the UEFA Cup: “We are still full of illusion and we keep on fighting for an European spot. They key will be to maintain some regularity and to achieve two or three consecutive victories”. The result was that Deportivo won just one out of their seven final matches of the season and even missed out on Intertoto football. There was one remarkable match in those weeks for Manuel Pablo: at Cádiz (1-1) he replaced Héctor after twenty minutes, caused an indirect free-kick at seven meters of Deportivo’s goal (a much disputed decision) which led to Cádiz’ equalizer and later was sent-off for receiving two yellow cards (his second was for protesting).
Manuel Pablo’s consistent performances, but never spectacular, meant that after five years since his injury he hadn’t returned to be the player he was. He was a good squad player at Deportivo, a team finishing mid-table in Spain, and that was about it. He did his defensive work quite well but always had many troubles with the more technical types. He kept on assisting the team when attacking, but his decisive passes were scarce. As every summer there were speculations about many players leaving but that rumours didn’t include the Canarian defender (30 years of age). In fact, in June he didn’t believe in a reconstruction of the squad: "Here the people always talk about changes at the end of the season. But at the end of the day we are always the same ones, only two or three players leave. The only thing that matters is what you have in your contract”. But the signing of players like Arbeloa and Barragán meant that after two consecutive seasons having a starting place, Manuel Pablo would have to fight again for a place in the team.
The preparations for the season 2006/2007 weren’t exactly smooth as players like ‘Toro’ Acuña, Lionel Scaloni and Diego Tristán were forced out of the club. Manuel Pablo, as captain, expressed his concerns in the media about their treatment and early August even said that the squad was “totally confused” after a training session was postponed, apparently because of a huge row between Caparrós and Scaloni. The transition had as a consequence that there were just a few players left who had worked for several years with Irureta: Manuel Pablo, Capdevila, Jorge Andrade, Sergio, Duscher and Valerón. When the season started, youngsters Barragán and Arbeloa had been placed above Manuel Pablo in the ranking for right defender. Barragán started the first eight Liga matches and Arbeloa wouldn’t miss a single Liga match when in January 2007 he was sold to Liverpool. Manuel Pablo only made his debut on 15 October 2006 during the break of the match at Irureta’s Betis Sevilla (1-1) when Barragán had a lot of troubles. Manuel Pablo played the two Copa matches against Racing de Santander when he was marvelous in the first-leg but caused a penalty in the return match. The lack of playing more matches led to speculation in the media about Betis being after him, something which ‘flattered’ the defender.