Angulo: “We are prepared and excited about an ambitious challenge”

Miguel Ángel Angulo’s career has been closely linked with Valencia CF for 25 years. Starting out in the youth system, he made his way up through the ranks, with a loan spell at Villarreal CF his only time away.

A veteran of 12 seasons as a first team player, winning 8 trophies in the process, the 43 year old has spent recent years developing his skills as a coach. For 2021/22, he takes over the reins at VCF Mestalla.

It's very exciting and we face this new stage proud of having done a great job within the VCF Academy in recent years. We're proud to have helped a lot of kids progress in their trajectory. This has been reflected in the fact that, year after year, we've kept working with the same humility and respect,” he told VCF Media after his appointment as coach.

“Now we have the opportunity to continue growing, with an ambitious challenge of helping the players to grow. My idea is to grow as a coach. I wanted to take things gradually, and I started out with the Infantil sides, then the Cadete teams, then the Juvenil. I spent more than a year with the latter, because it's an age that requires more time,” Angulo explained.

“I've been waiting for this step up. I wanted it to come naturally, when I believed that I was ready to go forward. The moment has arrived, and I'm very grateful for the confidence that has been placed in me within the club.

They have trusted in me and valued my work as a coach over these past few years. I'm very grateful for this support, and I'm going to try to get results through hard work. I want the second team to be in their rightful place.”

The Valencia CF legend has a new role at the club, but is not unfamiliar with the players available to him, having coached a large number of them when in charge of the Juvenil side.

“The aim is to earn promotion, getting into the positions that allow us to go up. I think that's the mentality that we shall try to transmit during the season,” he says of the intended approach.

“I'm a coach who likes my teams to be very competitive, above all. This comes from hard work, humility and respect. I approach every game looking to win, and don't play conservatively. I have had some very clear ideas from the start, which are to always go for the game. It's an advantage, because there are many players who know how I work.”

He will help them through both his coaching skills and his own experience of what it is like to play for VCF Mestalla, well aware of what is required to make the final move to the senior squad.

“I've been a VCF Mestalla player and taken that step up to the first team. I also had a loan spell with a Segunda División team and came back to the club. That says a lot about how difficult it is for any player to get into the Primera División with Valencia CF. It's highly demanding, and the players at VCF Mestalla need to be prepared, which requires a lot of work, responsibility and consistency. There is a lot of sacrifice involved.”