Whenever Espanyol has been relegated to the Second Division, it has done so five times in its entire history, it has regained the category the following year. Everyone, players, coaches and fans, is well aware of the experience of three seasons ago, when the team won the championship without much doubt under the baton of Vicente Moreno. Luis García, current technician and main leader of the project, wants to reissue that goal this year, but the differences between the two templates are obvious. That team barely suffered outings with relegation due to the liquidity problems caused by covid and was able to count, among others, on Raúl de Tomás as the main standard bearer. Now the situation is very different. In the first week, the departures of Joselu, the team’s top scorer, Pedrosa or Vilhena were already confirmed. In addition, Braithwaite’s farewell and Sergi Darder’s already confirmed farewell are more than likely, heading to Mallorca in the absence of officiality.
After relegation was consummated, Espanyol took more than two weeks to fire Domingo Catoira and sign his replacement, Fran Garagarza. This caused a delay in sports planning. But since then, the club has not moved in the market either. Espanyol is the only Spanish professional team that has not incorporated anyone. Garagarza prefers to wait for the last days of the market and, failing that, to take on the talent of the house to spend the bullet granted by having Segona’s biggest budget.
In the inaction of the club, Chen Yansheng is not for the job of making bigger investments, it was joined in the pre-season by the conflict over the escape of Martin Braithwaite. The Dane left the rally in Marbella and after two days he returned to look for a quick exit that did not come. The striker remains at the club, but Espanyol has the obligation to seek the best possible agreement for his interests. Situation completely opposite to that of Darder, the main football asset of the club, who yesterday packed his bags to join Mallorca. The Espanyol captain wanted to leave, but with a sale that would help Espanyol strengthen to return to Primera. For this reason, he renounced the assignment provided for in his contract. The vermelón club, the Mallorcan’s only firm bidder, yesterday curulled the peric demands with an offer of eight million fixed plus two variable, below the 15 million of the clause. In defense, Cabrera and César Montes could also leave, in addition to Simo Keddari, whose departure was confirmed yesterday at the Qatari Al-Arabi.
Thus, Luis García works with a very young squad in which Puado, Melamed and Dimata will be the offensive references. Pol Lozano will finally have a chance to vindicate himself, but the rest of the block will be the same as last season.
To achieve the goal of promotion, Espanyol will have Valladolid and Elche, recently relegated, as their strongest rivals. But also Llevant, Eibar, Zaragoza or Tenerife, which were already in the top positions of the classification last year. Beyond the squad, if the Perica fans trust anyone, it is Luis García, whose offensive proposal is the main hope to get out of hell as soon as possible.
