Salvador ARTIGAS

After a rather successful playing career, the Spaniard Salvador Artigas began his career in football management at Stade Rennais, for whom he had been an excellent player between 1943 and 1949. Indeed, he would return to Rennes as Player/Manager in 1952, and even made the odd appearance on the pitch as a player. In his first season as Manager, the Catalan native would impose his style on the team, opting for a more defensive system, with lots of commitment. However, despite a decent 1952/1953 season, Stade Rennais University Club would progressively slide down the First Division table, and ended up getting relegated to the Second Division, after being soundly-beaten in the play-offs by Strasbourg. He would be, nevertheless, kept on by the club, but failed to achieve promotion back to the top flight over the subsequent two seasons (finishing 6th in 1953/1954 and 3rd in 1954/1955, missing out in the promotion play-off against Lille). He would then decide to return to his native Spain to manage Real Sociedad for a number of seasons, before returning to France in 1960. It would be his spell managing Girondins de Bordeaux where his career as manager would finally take off. During his seven seasons at the club, he would increase the stature of the club, gaining promotion back to the First Division, two years after taking on the role, and then giving his club European football for the first time, with numerous finishes on the podium in the league (twice finishing runners-up in the top flight, which earned him the nickname "the Poulidor of Football"* Having more than cut his teeth in French football as a manager, and known as a disciple of the WM-formation favoured by the Arsenal Manager of the day, Herbert Chapman, his team were seen as "boring", as they were too defensive for the taste of others, so he returned to Spain to take on the role of Manager at FC Barcelona, with whom he would achieve his first title, the Spanish Cup, defeating rivals Real Madrid in the final. In 1969, he would even occupy the Spanish National Team Manager's role for four internationals. Subsequently, he would coach other Spanish sides, such as Elche, Valencia, Atletico Bilbao and FC Sevilla until his retirement in 1973, with different degrees of success. *reference to the French cyclist, Raymond Poulidor, who was the eternal runner-up in the Tour de France