When a team sits at the bottom of the table, six points adrift of safety with only four matches remaining, and has managed just eight wins all season, it is a clear sign that things have gone wrong.
A telling statistic is that none of the three managers who have taken charge at the Reino de León this campaign have been able to steer the club in the right direction.
Raúl Llona was the architect of promotion, bringing Cultural Leonesa back to professional football after seven years. However, from the start, he lacked the backing of sporting director José Manzanera. He only kept his job at the beginning of the season because the ownership wanted to reward him for the promotion. Llona lasted just six games, collecting four points—a draw against CD Leganés (0-0) and a win away at current league leaders Racing de Santander (2-4). Out of 18 possible points, he managed only 22%.
José Ángel “Cuco” Ziganda lasted the longest, overseeing 21 matches. During his tenure, the team recorded six wins, ten defeats, and five draws, earning 23 points from a possible 63 (36%). He was sacked after a 1-1 draw at CD Leganés in Butarque. Notably, Ziganda was also not Manzanera’s first choice after Llona’s dismissal; the Valencia-born director had wanted Guillermo Fernández Romo, who is now at Racing de Ferrol in Primera Federación.
Rubén de la Barrera, who had previously guided Cultural Leonesa to promotion in the 2016–17 season, was brought back to spark a revival. While the team’s performance has improved, it has not been enough to escape the relegation zone. In 11 games under De la Barrera, they have won only once (1-0 against Real Valladolid) and drawn three times, picking up just six points from a possible 33—a mere 18%.
With these records, Cultural Leonesa sit on 33 points, rock bottom and six points from safety. Remarkably, survival this season seems more attainable than usual, as the relegation threshold is lower. The Lions face a tough but not impossible task. If they can win all four remaining matches—against Albacete, Eibar, Burgos, and Real Sociedad B—they might still have a chance. However, even reaching 45 points could result in relegation.