Football Season Guide

The table will tell you that Celta Vigo finished 13th last season, but that isn’t the whole story, as they entered the final day at serious risk of relegation before earning a fairly fortunate win over a Barcelona side that was already "on the beach". After that lucky escape, Celta Vigo have made changes in the off-season. Gone is Carlos Carvalhal, the coach who took over from Eduardo Coudet after 12 rounds of last season. Although Carvalhal had a bright start, stale tactics and dressing room issues saw Celta Vigo fall towards, but not quite into, the abyss. The club’s management have opted for experience, hiring Rafa Benitez for 2023/24. Reports from training camp have been very positive and they beat Lyon in one of their few warm-up games. There has been quite a lot of turnover in the squad too, including the signing of Jonathan Bamba. A key member of the Lille side that won Ligue 1 in 2020/21, the winger has lost his way a little since then, but will look to bounce back with a new team. The evaluation of Celta Vigo’s transfer window can’t be done, though, until it is known if their brilliant young talent Gabri Veiga is staying or leaving. His future is up in the air and is so important, as he almost single-handedly pulled the team to safety last term. Veiga had to do so because Iago Aspas dropped off in form last year. They were too reliant on him for too long, and his goals/assists production fell from 27 in 2020/21 and 24 in 2021/22, to 16 in 2022/23. If Aspas’ production drops off further and if Veiga departs, Benitez could have quite a task on his hands.