There’s a crystal-clear reason why Celta Vigo finished the second round of matches top of LaLiga, playing beautiful, thrilling football in front of a full, noisy, proud Balaidos stadium.
A reason, too, why Monday’s thrilling 4-3 defeat at Villarreal — in which Dani Parejo‘s winning goal in the 10th minute of injury time sent the home side top of the table above the visitors after three games — won’t change a single thing. Not the ambition, the bravery, the three-man defence. Nor the idea that this little seaside club from Spain’s northwestern fishing territory can actually tilt at winning a trophy and, in the meantime, give all of us glorious, uplifting entertainment.
That reason is Marian Mouriño — a Spaniard educated in Orlando and Miami, veteran of business in Mexico, one of only two female club presidents in LaLiga and something of an eight-month whirlwind at the club she adores and which she’s making pretty inspirational.
On taking over from her 80-year-old father just before the turn of the year, she wasted no time in taking Celta by the scruff of the neck, shaking off…
