Official: Almería sack Guti

Sheikh Turki Al-Sheikh had lost confidence in him, but an agreement had yet to be made to settle his contract. That moment came on Friday evening, and Almería thus announced it. Guti is no longer the manager.

"José María Gutiérrez is no longer our manager after reaching a mutual agreement with the club. Thank you very much, José María, for all your efforts and for your dedication to our colours. We wish you all the success possible in your career", the club said in a statement.

The bad results since the return to football, which have left them 5 points from the automatic promotion spots after the slip up against Alcorcón (0-1), has weakened the owner's patience, who thinks that because of the great economic effort made on the squad, they should earn automatic promotion to La Liga.

Situated in 3rd place with 7 matches left, Almería at least have a very good chance of making the playoffs as they are 7 points above Rayo who are 7th.

After the cancellation of training on Friday evening, various sources take it as a given that B team manager, Nandinho, will oversee Sunday's clash against Mirandés.

However, ahead of ending the season, current sporting director, Mário Silva, is being spoken about as Al-Sheikh's big candidate to try and get the automatic promotion fight back on track.