Who is Xisco Muñoz? – The history of Sheffield Wednesday’s new manager

After a couple of weeks of speculation surrounding the vacant position at Hillsborough following Darren Moore’s departure it was confirmed on Tuesday evening that Munoz had come on board to take the reins.

The 42-year-old from Manacor takes over with immediate effect as he looks to make his mark on the team as soon as possible, though there has been no word as of yet with regards to who will make up his technical team.

We took a look back across the former Watford manager’s career as he looks forward to a new life in Sheffield.

Munoz the player

Born in the Balearic Islands, Munoz came through the youth ranks at RCD Mallorca, however he was limited to games in the B team both there and at Valencia before getting his break in the Segunda Division with Recreativo de Huelva whilst out on loan.

Two more loan spells - one with CD Tenerife and another back with Recreativo - followed before the winger got his chance to show what he could do with the first team at Valencia, playing a role in their double-winning campaign of 2003/04 where they won both LaLiga and the UEFA Cup.

In 2005 he moved on to Real Betis, where he remained until 2009 when he joined Levante - helping them to promotion out of the second tier before spending what would eventually be his final season in LaLiga in 2010/11.

From there he’d make arguably the most important move of his career in terms of the long-term, joining Dinamo Tbilisi in Georgia - securing two league titles, two Georgian cups, and one Georgian Super Cup, winning two Golden Boot awards and a Player of the Season gong along the way.

The Spanish youth international returned to his homeland in 2014 to spend a couple of seasons with Gimnàstic de Tarragona before retiring two years later.

Munoz the manager

Upon his retirement he became Vicente Moreno’s assistant at Gimnastic, but after a short stint as caretaker manager of CF Pobla de Mafumet in 2017 he left Gimnastic in December 2018.

Munoz wasn’t out of work long, though, promptly returning to his old stomping ground in Georgia where he became the assistant manager of Dinamo and helped them to a league title under the tutelage of Zaur Svanadze.

He was back again in 2020 for his first full-time management gig, and had a trophy to his name almost immediately - winning the Erovnuli Liga in December, just months after his arrival. It would be the trophy that got him recognised internationally.

After only 11 games in charge in Tbilisi he became a surprise appointment for Championship outfit, Watford, a team desperate to try and get back to the top-flight but who were sat in fifth place under Vladimir Ivic.

They went on to lost just five games in all competitions under Munoz’s watch, winning promotion with two games two spare as they secured the second promotion spot behind Norwich City.

His time - like so many before him and since - at Vicarage Road didn’t last too long, however, and despite being 15th in the Premier League after seven games he was sacked and replaced by owner, Gino Pozzo. He took charge of 36 games, averaging around 1.8 points per game.

Again he wasn’t out of work for long, joining SD Huesca back in his homeland, but after a 13th place finish in LaLiga 2 he was replaced after 32 matches, ending with an almost identical win to loss ratio of 10 wins, 10 defeats, 12 draws and 36 goals scored to 32 conceded.

His most recent job followed three months after that exit, taking on the role of Cypriot outfit, Anorthosis Famagusta, but a run of five games without victory as 2022 ended and 2023 began he was relieved of his duties three months later reportedly due to events beyond his control.

Munoz’s managerial style

The former winger earned his UEFA Pro Licence in 2021 after a delay caused by Covid-19, meaning that he has been able to add continent’s most elite coaching qualification to his CV, and he also spent time with Manuel Pellegrini at his former club, Real Betis, as part of his continued development.

Over the course of his managerial career so far he’s been most partial to a 4-2-3-1 formation, but his time at Anorthosis suggests that he’s not afraid to mix things up either - using 5-4-1, 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 at various points in Cyprus.

During his first promotion winning season with the Hornets, meanwhile, it was a very strict 4-4-2 throughout, the team being being very possession-based in style, focusing on intricate wide play to hurt teams. That same tactic didn’t work out as well in the top-flight against better teams, but make no mistake - his priority is to attack.

After his departure from Anorthosis he’s not been sat twiddling his thumbs, either, revealing to Sky Sports recently that he’d been working on plans for wherever his next challenge lie.

“We are preparing new training sessions,” he said. “Working on how to improve our processes because, with owners now, you do not have time. If you do not have results at the start, there is no time to improve so you have to communicate ideas quickly.

“When we arrive, we have 10 ideas. Think of them as 10 balls to throw at you. But you only have two hands so maybe you can only catch two. Eventually, you will handle the 10 balls but it takes time so it is better to communicate only one or two simple messages.”