Departing Real Sociedad Sporting Director denies rift with manager Imanol Alguacil | OneFootball

Real Sociedad Sporting Director Roberto Olabe shocked Spanish football this week by announcing that he would be leaving the club next summer, after their most successful era in the 21st century under his tutelage. He has decided ahead of time to give La Real time to look for a successor.

With an excellent setup at Anoeta, many have asked why he is leaving, although there is no doubt that matters have stalled in Donostia-San Sebastian in the last 12 months. However Olabe refused to put his decision down to one particular thing, beyond the feeling that it was time for change.

“It is not something specific, it is a whole. Projects have to be long-term, but people have an expiration date and for projects to stay alive, new people are needed. La Real is a very special project, very cool, but it also has certain imperfections and from time to time there needs to be a change of outlook and a freshness to improve those imperfections. There is nothing that happened from yesterday to today to make this decision. “I feel proud to belong to this club, I love many of the things that happen in this club.”

Amid talk of disagreements between him and manager Imanol Alguacil, something that has persisted for some time, Olabe denied that their relationship was part of his thinking. Albeit, without necessarily dismissing talk of tensions at times with Alguacil.

“I am not the one who can give an answer to the rumours. La Real’s football management has three main areas: professional football, training football and women’s football. Each one has their coach, who is important to get the most out of what the club does and we look at them with the ambition, help and everything that is needed to aid them,” he told Marca.

“My relationship with Imanol? I have never gone to my workplace to make friends or enemies. Imanol and I often don’t think the same thing, but that’s where the richness lies. Thinking the same thing possibly makes us stronger, but with a different opinion we will be better, because we will look for what is behind that different opinion. Imanol and I have a good professional relationship, which does not lead us to have one outside of Zubieta. It may be part of the wear and tear I talked about before. But the reason for my decision is not my relationship with Imanol, nor, as I have told you, do I have anything.”

He would go on to say that he was pleased that Head Scout Erik Bretos would be taking over from him, as he was someone that was from the club, and supported them, as well as praising his work in recent years. Olabe’s announcement came just days after Edu confirmed that he would be leaving the same post at Arsenal, and many have wondered if Olabe’s need for a fresh start might take him to London.