Only Barcelona have a better home record. At El Sadar, redeveloped without losing any of its essence and voted Europe’s best stadium, their manager says anything is possible — and that’s not chance. El Sadar has always been different, perhaps the nearest thing there is to a Stoke, that stereotypical “hard place” to go. Fans are fiercely loyal and noisy, backing their team, stands tight to the pitch, flags everywhere, drums thudding, palms clapping. It is not chance that the redevelopment involved maintaining and building on their identity, keeping the stands close to the pitch and oh-so steep that they introduced railed seating. Which is to say, standing areas.
This time, they had some special extra help, too. In Osasuna’s first cup game, they played tiny Fuentes from the Aragonese regional league, group III. In December, one of Fuente’s players, Luismi, tragically died in a traffic accident; Osasuna invited his family and the entire team to El Sadar for the quarterfinal, paying homage to him on the pitch before the game and dedicating the victory to his team after it. It was a gesture that says much about the club, the people. And in the end, it is always about the people.
The connection there is deep, which helps, and Garcia and Moncayola are not alone. About 30% of the total minutes played by Osasuna players this season have been played by canteranos, academy products from Tajonar, which has a long tradition of productivity and where the work done now is exceptional, even better than before. (If you look at Athletic and Real Sociedad, you’ll see how many more players from home they could have.) Their B team is pushing for promotion into Spain’s second tier, just a division away.
There is an identity there, and it is very clear and very much about place, even for those who are not from Navarra. There is a reason Chimy talks about Osasuna DNA. “If we don’t suffer, it’s not us,” he says. “But we know what it is to play with 12 men.” There’s a culture there, an idea, and it is not just picked up along the way.
Instead, it is precisely because Jagoba Arrasate, a former teacher still theoretically on leave, has built a team that fits, that is theirs. It is because he was backed, because they believed in him, his idea, his identity. This was deeper than defeats, which always come. Arrasate brought Osasuna up from the first division, and his success has been astonishing, but it hasn’t always been easy. A 13-game run without a win left him on edge, or at least it would have done elsewhere.
“Maybe [fans are cruel], but I can tell you that Osasuna’s fans are the opposite,” Arrasate told ESPN. “We went 13 games without winning. A run like that is synonymous with a manager getting sacked, but all I felt from the fans and the club was support. It was as if they felt that the previous two years had been worth something, had built something; they weren’t going to give up because of a bad run. Osasuna’s fans are different.”
