Villarreal in profile: The Yellow Submarine out to torpedo Manchester United

United fans would find a lot to admire in how their modest opponents have developed over the years, in a city where 20% of the population are season ticket holders

Unai Emery: Seems to have a magical formula in the Europa League. Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz/PA

On the face of it, Villarreal taking on Manchester United is the biggest mismatch in a European final since another Spanish club faced Liverpool 20 years ago.

That was back when games could be settled by sudden death in extra-time, and Alaves duly lost a nine-goal thriller to the most unfortunate of ‘golden goals’ when Delfi Geli put the ball into his own net.

That sort of topsy-turvy encounter seems most unlikely tonight in view of the past encounters between these two clubs — four matches, all goalless — but though Villarreal are the underdogs, just like Alaves, their brief history shows they are not to be underestimated.

Even their nickname — the Yellow Submarine — commemorates a moment that went almost unnoticed outside their home town: Promotion to the third division in 1967. The Beatles were top of the pops right across Europe and the song became the anthem of the team that plays in yellow only because the shop had run out of white shirts when they purchased their first kit.

If all that sounds a bit homely, just consider that Villarreal’s first appearance in the top flight was in 1998, and their trophy haul amounts to two Intertoto Cups in 2004 and 2005.

With a population of just 50,000, Villarreal would become the smallest city ever to claim a big European prize should they overturn the odds.

But that very modest record is deceptive. Between 2004 and 2009, they became a real force in La Liga under the direction of Manuel Pellegrini. In the Champions League, they topped their group while United finished fourth, and then went on to defeat Rangers and Inter Milan before just narrowly losing out to Arsenal in the 2006 semi-final.

Pellegrini went on to Real Madrid, before finally winning the league with Manchester City, and that looked like being the end of Villarreal’s heroics.

Up like a rocket, and then down like a stick. They still reached the Europa League semi-finals but then in 2012 were drawn against City, Bayern Munich, and Napoli in the Champions League, and that group of death seemed to finish them off.

Relegation could have been a disaster, but although the submarine went down, it resurfaced the following season and the club has continued to stay competitive despite flirting with relegation two years ago.

Reaching a European final is a historic achievement for the club, particularly in a season when the financial crisis in Spanish football has plumbed new depths and the Big Three are struggling.

A lot of credit for this success goes to Unai Emery, who seems to have a magical formula in the Europa League, having now reached yet another final; a fourth win would put him out on his own as a manager, ahead of Giovanni Trapattoni. But the club’s resilience is primarily due to very sensible management at board level.

The club has one of the best academies in Europe, providing players to all the Spanish youth teams, including stars such as Sergio Asenjo and Santi Cazorla.

Villarreal have always focused on building from their own resources, with an intelligent approach to transfers: Last summer, for example, they made a modest €25.5m from sales, but spent an even more modest €11.5m, bringing in Arsenal old boy Francis Coquelin and a second goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli.

In players such as the two strikers Gerard Moreno and Paco Alcacer they have genuine local talent, even if some of it started out at Valencia. They combine experience at the back with Raul Albiol (who also began his career with Valencia) with their genuine homegrown star Pau Torres, who is a transfer target for most of Europe’s leading clubs, United among them.

That Valencia connection is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the way Villarreal have been transformed because the brains behind the operation, the billionaire businessman Fernando Roig, is part of a family that used to own their great local rivals —his brother Francisco was president of Valencia in the 1990s.

Rivalry between the two brothers prompted Fernando to invest in the smaller club and proceed with modernisation and the development of facilities, but there were also sound business reasons. While Valencia, like other leading European clubs, has passed into foreign ownership, in the person of Singapore businessman Peter Lim, Villarreal prides itself on its local presence.

A city once known, like Valencia, for its agriculture, especially its excellent oranges, is now better known as a centre of the ceramics industry, notably the Pamesa group, Europe’s largest tile manufacturer, which is owned by Fernando Roig, and is naturally the main sponsor of the football club.

It’s a tribute to Fernando’s business sense that the club ranks alongside the ceramics business for sound finances. One ranking of European football finances last year placed Villarreal 12th out of 128 clubs. Not surprisingly Roig is a major critic of the way Spanish football operates, and utterly opposed to projects such as the European Super League, recently describing Real Madrid boss Florentino Perez as “an egoist, again an egoist and once more an egoist”.

So inevitably tonight’s final has the added twist of David against Goliath. United fans would undoubtedly find a lot to admire in how their modest opponents have developed over the years, and this match is a reward for serious commitment to the grassroots.

Villarreal players are of course a major part of the local community and 20% of the city’s population are season ticket holders.

It would be asking a lot for Villarreal to win their first final, but the main thing is that they have got there.