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¡La cantera! – The changing face of one club in Spain

With more emphasis on getting the first team promoted from Segunda B4 in the 2009/2010 season, there wasn’t much time to improve things at the junior levels of the club. At the end of the season, the B team managed a respectable 6th place finish in Primera Andaluza Grupo 4, one of the many provincial leagues that make up the 6th tier of Spanish football.

With the first team having secured promotion to Liga Adelante, the club felt the need to have their B team in a strong position and playing at a higher level. Ideally the B team would need to be playing at a level no more than two tiers beneath the first team, in order to ensure the best young players at the club might make the step up more easily, if required.

At the start of the 2010/2011 season, Granada CF ‘B’ took advantage of their strong ties with Udinese, by bringing in several youth internationals of various nationalities. In addition, they tied up a loan deal with Israeli side Maccabi Haifa, for the loan of Ransford Osei, a player who had not only featured twice for the full Ghana national team, but had also had a spell on loan with Dutch side FC Twente, during Steve McClaren’s first title winning spell in charge.

Although expected to crush all before them in their chase for promotion, the B team finished a very disappointing 7th place and it was clear their strategy of bringing in foreign talent, hadn’t worked.

Mindful of that disappointment, the club decided to take a different stance for the 2011/2012 season, by stating that the players in the B team would be sourced locally. They declared that “at least 90%” of the players would be from Granada province and a busy period of summer activity saw them secure the services of many of the best local players.

The difference has been telling. Heading into the last stretch of the season, the B team lies 9 points clear at the top of Primera Andaluza Grupo 4 and look certainties to gain promotion. This will take them to Tercera División Grupo 9, the same division that currently features the Málaga CF ‘B’ team, Atlético Malagueño. Their next objective will be to emulate the first team, with a consecutive promotion that would take them to the Segunda B4, the Spanish third tier.

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