Cádiz cast off their anti-hero in yellow specs for uncertain future in La Liga

Álvaro Cervera had the look. He also had the T-shirts, the slogan and even the sign, a symbol all of his own. Not for him a bat beamed across the sky but a pair of stylised yellow specs, like some sort of short-sighted superman. Which he kind of was and always will be now, even for those who accepted it was time to let go: a cult figure in Cádiz, city of carnival and comedy. This great counter-cultural anti-hero who changed them and let them change him too, if maybe not quite enough in the end. ‘Mr Glasses’, Salvi Sánchez called him.

Salvi knew what he had done, they all did. Born in the province, across the bay in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Salvi had been at Cádiz when Cervera turned up as an unknown and unlikely coach in April 2016 and he was still there when he left last week, sacked after six years and bidding farewell to appreciative applause. Back then, Cádiz were in the Second Division B, Spain’s 80-team, regionalised, third-to-seventh division, and on the edge of the abyss; by the time he had gone, they had been promoted twice and were a top-flight team, having returned at last in 2020.

Así se despide un hombre que es historia viva del #CadizCF.Se despide Álvaro Cervera, con todo el cariño gaditano.Tremendo@ElGolazoDeGol pic.twitter.com/FKn0bCqIY6

Cervera always insisted he wouldn’t be remembered like Mágico González, the forward they were as fond of for sleeping in and sitting on the beach strumming his guitar as for scoring goals. In a place with a reputation for silliness and fun, where the football team supposedly fit that ideal too and fans pride themselves on being a little different, blowing kisses rather than hurling insults at opponents, he was unapologetically practical, a defensive coach who celebrated