For a brief period earlier this season, Ashington supporters found an unfamiliar, slightly more exotic name on their Northern League teamsheets. Victor Manquillo caught the eye with a goal on his debut last month; an audacious, beautifully-judged chip from distance two minutes after coming on as a substitute in a 3-0 FA Vase win over Easington Colliery.
That afternoon, just down the road, his brother Javier was about to board a flight to Wales, where he would help Newcastle United keep a clean sheet in a 1-0 win at Swansea the following afternoon. Just as they did at the Bernabéu and the Vicente Calderón, the twins’ careers now run parallel to each other in the north east.
“I started with my brother at Real Madrid. Because of circumstances, one of us was going to stay and the other was going to go, but we both decided to move to Atlético,” explains Javier, United’s fourth signing of the 2017 summer transfer window.
“Ever since I was a child, I played football with my brother. When that happened, I wanted to keep on playing football with my brother, so that’s why we changed.”
Naturally, when the 23-year-old took Rafa Benítez’s call in July, Victor followed him to these parts. “This is the first year he has been here in England. He thought it was a good opportunity for him. He has been playing for Ashington. He’s had the misfortune of having a knee injury, so he’s had to go back to Spain to have an operation. As soon as he recovers he’ll be back playing for Ashington.
“Having family around is always very helpful, because it means that in the not-so-good moments you have someone there that supports you, and also, crucially, you have someone there to share your good moments with. It’s great, it’s very helpful.”
For Javier, St. James’ Park is the fifth stop of a journey that has already taken in much in the way of extremes. After a grounding at Real, he moved across the city with his brother to Atléti, his emergence at senior level coinciding with the arrival of Diego Simeone.
Los Rojiblancos is his club. He was part of the first team squad that broke the Real-Barcelona duopoly in 2014, winning La Liga. He played in the Champions League that season, as a 19-year-old.
“It was a childhood dream. I cherish everything I experienced during those times. It was the dream of a child becoming reality,” he explains.
“What Diego Simeone achieved was in uniting everyone and focussing people. It was a unique experience. There was a very compact dressing room with a sense of togetherness, and that’s why we ended up winning the league, because someone managed to create that atmosphere. He brought all those people together into a dressing room that was very tight.
“I have excellent memories. I’ve always been an Atlético fan, and I have a lot to thank them for. I am where I am because of Atlético Madrid, and they gave me my chance.”
Manquillo’s gratitude to the club he follows comes across clearly, though a meagre total of 17 appearances in six years on the books is perhaps indicative of the quality at Simeone’s disposal.
And so the loans began; the first, a two-year temporary deal at Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool, who were beginning their rebuild after losing the league title to Manchester City and Luis Suárez to Barcelona.
“I was a very young player, and that was my first experience abroad. I have very good memories – beautiful memories – and Anfield will always be a very special stadium,” Manquillo recalls.
“The atmosphere is what makes all the difference – it is unique. I think that’s what attracts a lot of players to the Premier League. This is my third year in the Premier League now, and I really enjoy playing in this kind of atmosphere.”
But after one year on Merseyside, where he again played in the Champions League, the loan deal was terminated early. “It was a positive experience. It allowed me to get to know the league, to become familiar with it,” he insists. “In the end it was a good move, because I ended up going out to Marseille after that where I played a lot of games. It was a learning curve, experience, and very useful for me.”
He spent 2015/16 at the Stade Vélodrome, becoming a regular. “It’s a big club, one of the biggest in France, with massive support,” says Manquillo. “I have beautiful memories.”
Then the Madrid-born player headed back to the Spanish capital once more. Forty-three games for Marseille was proof of consistency displayed for the first time, but on his return to Atléti he was dispatched once more, this time into a relegation battle at Sunderland.
“I like to keep a positive outlook on every experience. At the end of the day, they’re all experiences which help you to grow,” he says. The situation he and his colleagues found themselves in at the Stadium of Light cannot be sugar-coated, but he feels he began to find his feet towards the end of his time there. “At Sunderland, I wanted to play football, to consolidate myself as a Premier League player, and towards the end of my loan spell there I began to find that continuity that I was looking for.”
For three years, Manquillo has been on the move each summer, stuck in a cycle, making progress at one club before starting from scratch at another. A three-year deal at Newcastle, he hopes, will allow him to truly settle and flourish.
“That’s why I’m here, why I wanted to sign this three-year contract. I need that stability, I need to find a home, and a place where I can settle in and develop,” he explains.
“Starting at a new club every year was a bit crazy, because wherever you go, you start from zero. It’s really important for me to find that stability. It was a crucial aspect of my decision.
“You might finish a season really strongly, playing, consolidated in the team and the starting XI, but when you go to another club you have to make up a lot of ground. You have to get to know your city, your colleagues, your manager. In a sense, it’s as if all that progress you made, fighting your way into the team, is lost.
“Every time you join a new club you want to show them what you are about, show them what you can give, what type of player you are, and find your place in the starting XI. When you keep changing clubs every year, it can become a very tiresome process.”
It helped, too, that there was an existing familiarity with the city. Even on a gloomy afternoon, with the sky a strange, almost apocalyptic yellowy hue as the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia scattered the autumn leaves around the Quayside, the area is clearly a big draw for Manquillo.
So, too, is the manager. “I thought that when Rafa called me, ‘this is my opportunity to keep improving’. With him, players keep improving in every aspect. It was a great chance for me to progress.
“I already knew the city, and that Rafa was going to be a great influence in my career. I’m more familiar with the language now, so I understand everything that is required of me. It was the perfect option for me to keep growing in my career.
“Every player wants to reach their maximum, their absolute peak, and they want be coached by the best managers because that’s what’s going to take you there, to be the best you can be.
“Little by little, I’ve settled in. It’s been really easy from the beginning because I’ve been treated really, really well here by everyone at the club. I’m really grateful for that.
“I already had a home in the area, and it makes things so much easier. It means you don’t have to keep searching for a house, you can keep settling in much quicker, and I’m really happy in this area.”
Part of a growing Spanish contingent at United, Manquillo has wasted little time in bedding in. He did not cross paths with Jesús Gámez too often at Atlético, but Joselu and Mikel Merino are also new additions, while Ayoze Pérez is now an established figure at the club. “When you get to a new club and your compatriots are there, they’re always the first ones to try and help you. It makes the process of adaptation so much quicker and so much easier.”
On the pitch, his versatility – a quality some feel can make a player less of a fixture and more of a stop-gap – is something that has aided him in his early days at United. “If you can play on the left and right, it helps you,” he says. “I enjoy both.”
The former Spanish Under-21 defender, a former teammate of Gerard Deulofeu, Marco Asensio and Denis Suárez at international level, is now beginning to find his feet. He has played the full 90 minutes in each of his six Premier League outings so far, slotting in at both right and left back. There’ll be more to come, he says, as continues to make a home on Tyneside.
“We’re playing well as a team. I know that I will improve, as the team will as well, but we’re on a nice path. I think we are finding the right way of doing things,” he says.
“I’m becoming familiar with what the team requires from me in my position, and I’m getting used to my teammates. I’m sure that I’m going to keep improving, and meet those expectations that the club and the team have of me.”
