Héctor Cúper resigned this week as coach of La Liga side Racing Santander, after just one victory in his five months at the Cantabrian club. The veteran Argentine is the second La Liga coach to stand down this season (Michael Laudrup beat him to it by resigning from Mallorca in September). Cúper’s come second again, Valencia and Inter fans might be forgiven for thinking with a wry smile.

Racing fans are less likely to find anything at all funny about the situation at their club, which has only one win all season and props up the Primera División table with nine points from thirteen games. They lost 2-1 at Mallorca last Sunday and are now odds-on favourites for relegation.

Things are even worse off the field after a takeover by Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed, who arrived in a blaze of publicity in February, did not go as planned. Syed optimistically suggested he would “lead Racing for many years and carry them to the great heights of European and world football”, replaced unpopular manager Miguel Ángel Portugal with fan favourite Marcelino García Toral and smiled and waved his green club scarf at any camera pointed his way. ‘Míster Alí’ quickly became a mini-celebrity in Spain with TV directors zooming in on his jigs of delight in the directors’ box whenever the team scored. He even talked of building links between Cantabria and India and announced a €3 million donation to a local cultural foundation alongside regional president Miguel Ángel Revilla.

It all looked to good to be true, and it was. Scheduled transfers from Syed’s Swiss banks failed to arrive and players went unpaid. He was accused of defrauding Australian investors of AUS$100 million and his bodyguard got seven months in prison for assaulting a Spanish policeman. Míster Alí has not been seen in Spain this season and his various business dealings are now apparently being investigated by Interpol.

Previous owner and current acting president Francisco Pernía says he is trying to sort out the mess, but it’s a big mess and his own record in charge of the club was not great. In October Racing’s entire board of directors resigned ahead of a shareholders’ meeting scheduled for mid-December. A share issue aimed at helping resolve the ownership of the club was announced just last Monday, amid much skepticism in the Spanish press. The following day Cúper’s resignation was accepted by externally-appointed administrators as Pernía was apparently in Brazil meeting with potential new investors.

63 year old Cúper, who also lists Huracán, Lanús, Mallorca, Betis, Parma, the Georgian national side and Aris Thessaloniki on a lengthy and colourful managerial CV, has also had his own funny financial worries lately. On November 21st - the same day Racing’s players were losing 1-3 at El Sardinero to Málaga - their then coach met with Italian judicial investigators working the ‘Golden Goal’ illegal betting case to discuss connections between Cúper and the D’Alessandro Neapolitan mafia family back in 2006 when the Argentine was in charge at Mallorca. That investigation remains ongoing.

Although Cúper agreed to forego any compensation or future wages on leaving, it is hard to see any bright sides of the situation for the club, who until recently was actually enjoying a relatively successful period in its history. Racing - or El Real Racing Club de Santander as they are officially known- did well in the 1920s under the tutelage of legendary pioneers Fred Pentland and Patrick O’Connell and were a founder-member of La Liga. Their highest ever finish of second came in 1931 with a less remembered English coach called Firth Nottingham in charge. There was then a long spell mostly out of the limelight until promotion back to the Primera División in 1993. Racing have only spent one season out of the top flight since then and achieved Europa League qualification in 2008 in Marcelino’s first spell at the club.

That record looks seriously threatened now. The current playing squad seems ill-equipped to avoid the drop - with 36 year old club legend Pedro Munitis the best known name. Unless Pernía’s trip to Brazil comes up trumps, there’s unlikely to be money for new signings in January. Sporting co-ordinator Juanjo González will likely take caretaker charge for the home game against Villarreal this Saturday, with ex-Real Sociedad coach Martín Lasarte reportedly being sought as a Cúper’s permanent successor. Lasarte would need to be either very brave or very foolish to even consider accepting the job.