Real Madrid’s Juvenil A manager wanted by Panathinaikos

Under-19s manager, Dani Poyatos, has been linked with a move to Greek side Panathinaikos. Both MARCA and AS have reported that the Catalan is wanted by the 20-time Greek champions with local sources reporting Poyatos is on the verge of signing.

If one puts any value into social media, Poyatos also liked a tweet hoping he’d get the opportunity to manage the Athens based club and praising his work at Juvenil A.

Poyatos has been working at Real Madrid since the 2016/17 season having previously worked in the Espanyol youth setup. He won the championship with Juvenil B and replaced Guti as U-19s manager that summer. He led the youth team to the semi-finals of the U-19 Copa del Rey in his first season, losing to eventual winners Villarreal. This season has been cut short due to the coronavirus, however, Juvenil A were declared group champions having lost a single game and scored 83 goals in 23 games.

Poyatos has helped developed the likes of Antonio Blanco, Pablo Rodriguez, Fran Garcia and Miguel Gutierrez. The Catalan is the most experienced manager in the Cantera and is certainly the among the most talented, in these sense he will missed. Nevertheless, having been snubbed for the Castilla job last summer despite being the clear next in line, one can understand why Poyatos might be looking for opportunities elsewhere.

Nothing is confirmed yet so one can only speculate on who might replace Poyatos. Alvaro Arbeloa is currently finishing the first phase of his coaching Pro license and is set to take a coaching role at La Fábrica next season, however, his license would only allow him to manage U-18s and below, which rules him out of the running. One potential move is for current Juvenil B coach, Manu Fernandez, to move up an age group and Arbeloa to replace him.