Gregorio Manzano wants his Atletico Madrid players to embrace his affinity for the Copa del Rey ahead of their fourth-round tie at Albacete.
Atletico travel to face third-tier club Albacete at Estadio Carlos Belmonte on Thursday, in a competition somewhat marginalised by the demands of league and European football.
Manzano views the Spanish Cup rather differently it is the only major honour he has lifted in a 28-year career as a coach.
The 55-year-old guided Mallorca to Copa del Rey success in 2002/03, and wants his Atletico players to give their all in this season s tournament.
Personally I have great memories of this competition and this is a title that Atletico has been looking to win for a while now, so we are motivated to get as far as we can, Manzano said.
Apart from the final that I was able to get to with a previous team, I ve been eliminated in two semi-finals and got very close to reaching two finals.
This year this is a very important competition for us and for me.
This is a very beautiful competition, it s very short and intense and I hope that my players think the same way as I do and they also want to get to the final and win it.
Surprisingly, Real Madrid and Barcelona suffered a collective drought in the Copa del Rey, with neither team winning the competition between 1999 and 2008.
They have since claimed the trophy once each in the past three years, leaving Manzano concerned their La Liga dominance will soon devalue the cup.
Well even last year we saw that if they (Barcelona and Real Madrid) are matched up on either sides of the tournament then they got to the final and monopolised this competition as well, he said.
It would be nice and interesting that at least in the cup they don t have the same monopoly because that would give it some more prestige.
Not that by them getting to the final there s not prestige to this competition, but it would be great to see other teams get to the final of such an important and historic tournament.
If at the end Real Madrid and Barcelona are the ones that get to the final then it is true that this can become quite boring.
