Elche, bottom of the First Division with 4 points, appointed Pablo Machín as the new coach until the end of the course. Machín, with experience on benches such as Girona or Espanyol, is the third manager this year after Francisco, who led the team in 7 games scoring one point, and Jorge Almirón, who achieved two draws in 5 games. The team’s coach, Alberto Gallego, who scored a point in his only game, and the technical secretary, Sergio Mantecón, also managed the Elche team on an interim basis this season.
Machín, 47, has directed Numancia, Girona, with which he achieved promotion to the First Division, Seville, Espanyol and Deportivo Alavés, in addition to having trained Al-Ain and Al Raed in Saudi Arabia.
The coach was already on Elche’s agenda a year ago, when Fran Escribá was dismissed. The owner of the club, the Argentine Christian Bragarnik, came to have a verbal agreement with the coach that finally broke down, so he opted for the signing of Francisco Rodríguez.
According to the Elche club, with the signing of Machín Elche incorporates “experience, knowledge of the category and commitment to the first team bench with the aim of achieving permanence”.
Elche has also announced that the coach, together with his coaching staff, will already be in charge of the squad next week when Elche returns to work, which currently closes the First Division classification without knowing victory in the first fourteen days of the League.
