The veteran manager is back on the job market after a lopsided loss to Pachuca on Friday put the club rock bottom of the league
Five weeks.
That’s how long it took for Liga MX to have its first coaching change of the tournament, with Puebla bidding farewell to Jose Luis Sanchez Sola, better known as “El Chelis” on Saturday.
The change comes after a blowout loss at home Friday night with Pachuca topping La Franja, 4-0. It’s the third loss of the season for Puebla with a draw against Chivas the only point of the season. The club currently has a -9 goal difference.
“It is informed that Jose Luis Sanchez Sola is no longer the manager of Club Puebla,” a club statement read. “We thank Sanchez Sola for the love and world he has shown toward the institution and we with him the best in his future projects.”
Liga MX is notorious for coaching changes, with more than half the teams in the league switching managers last tournament. Chelis himself took over during the previous campaign for his fourth stint as Puebla boss. The move by the directors hardly comes as a surprise, with the coach saying that while he hadn’t received an ultimatum of beating Pachuca or losing his job, he was aware of speculation the weekend game could be his last.
“This is my worst stretch as a manager, the worst situation I’ve lived through,” the manager said after Friday’s match. “This club is really great, extremely great.”
“It came out in the week that they were going to fire me, that somebody in the front office had said that,” he continued. “Nobody told me anything.
“At no time will I blame anybody for anything. If this fatal news comes to pass, I’m not going to say anything either. I have to be grateful. They’d be right to think about it.”
The 60-year-old recently has worked as a TV pundit and before taking over Puebla coached the Las Vegas Lights in the USL Championship.
Puebla plans to announce its next manager shortly, ahead of the team’s next league game, a trip to the Estadio Azteca to face Cruz Azul. It currently sits last in the 19-team Liga MX, though a Veracruz loss Sunday would put the Tiburones Rojos back on bottom.
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