![Alejandro Menendez East bengal [header]](https://assets.goal.com/v3/assets/bltcc7a7ffd2fbf71f5/bltb1bfea7330c4b34d/60dba64f2e95e10f21f13c72/fb5725f81df4aaf1b676f6a39cbfe9e2b605ac78.png)
Alejandro Menendez has joined Albacete Balompie as the head coach until the end of this season, the Spanish club announced on Tuesday.
He will be the third coach in this season after Lucas Alcaraz and Aritz López Garai and has a difficult task at hand of avoiding relegation of a team that currently sits last on the table with just 11 points from 17 games.
Their last win came in October when they beat Rayo Vallecano 2-1. In their last five matches, they have drawn once and lost the remaining games. The bottom four teams get relegated at the end of the season and they are currently four points off that mark.
But Menendez does have plenty of time in his hand to turn things around as more than half of the fixtures are yet to be played. This is his first stint as a coach after he left East Bengal following a derby defeat to Mohun Bagan.
After parting ways with the Red and Golds, Menendez said, "I am happy for the progress the club has made during my tenure as the head coach and I wish to see the new leadership to take this progress to the next level. I enjoyed my duration with the club and wish the team and the fans all the best."
The Spanish coach came under a lot of pressure in the new year when the team lost against Churchill Brothers away from home and then against Gokulam Kerala at the Kalyani Stadium. But the Kolkata derby defeat proved to be the last straw.
Menéndez arrives at Carlos Belmonte with a technical assistant, Juanma Barrero. The rest of the coaching staff will remain the same barring assistant coach, who will now be Fran Noguerol. He is the former Albacete captain who has been linked to the club since he hung up his boots in the 2014-15 campaign.